How not to run an assessment program

An interesting article from New York shows how a state can corrupt a testing program to create an image of school success that does not exist.

Don’t snicker too much at New York, though. Educator attempts to fool the public have not been confined to that state. Kentucky’s “good ole” CATS assessment was pretty inflated, too.

CATS told us our schools were making great progress while more stable and credible assessments like the ACT and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, properly analyzed for huge student demographic differences that exist in the different states, showed Kentucky’s progress was actually rather slow and not at all exemplary.

I hope the people redesigning Kentucky’s assessment don’t set it up to get "CATS-flated" over time, as well.