NY Times Shocked, Shocked Over BloomKlein Claims on Reading Scores

Yes, let's give the NY Times the Captain Louis Award. You just had to hold your sides laughing at the front page story NY Times article on testing (Oct. 11). "Warning Signs Ignored" is the title and the NY Times was the leading ignorer. No one is really responsible you know. It sort of just happened. All on its own. Regent head Meryl Tisch? Former State Ed Comm Dickie Boy Allen? All innocent bystanders. The best quote: From Test Prep Queen Kathy (Who Me?) Cashin.

As a superintendent in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, Kathleen Cashin had seen several schools improve throughout the early part of the decade. But when she saw the sudden jump, she said, she was shocked.
“I said to my intimate circle of staff, this cannot be possible,” Ms. Cashin recalled. “I knew how much effort and how much planning any little improvement would take, and not all of these schools had done any of it.”
But Ms. Cashin, who retired in February, held her tongue at the time. Asked why she did not take up her concerns with Mr. Klein or his deputies, she said, “I didn’t have their ear.” 

Excuse me while I take a minute............$##&*())()*))___
That felt better. I actually knew teachers at PS 193k when Cashin was principal (oh, boy) before heading Dist. 23 (in the status quo days), then Region 5, before Klein chose her as one of the 4 super superintendents, using her rising test scores at each post to rise further herself (there were even rumors she would replace Klein). And she didn't have anyone's ear. How sad. Actually, she is sort of a real educator (that's another story) who was shunted aside for the business model (Laura Rodriguez, one of  the other 4 Super Supes, won the brass ring and is now the DOE token educator in charge of something or other.)

Well, I'll go no further because Leonie Haimson savages the Times for years of non reporting on the testing fiasco. You can read it over at the NYC Parent blog too but I am printing it here too. I sent over a comment to the listserve that is was too little and much too late for the UFT, but I'll leave that for the next posting.

Too little and much too late, the Times finally reports on the state test score scandal

In yesterday’s front page story, entitled "On NY School Tests, Warning Signs Ignored," the NY Times recounted the history of the state test score inflation that left its own deficient reporting conveniently off the hook.

Anyone who was paying attention knew at least as far back as 2007 that there was rampant test score inflation, primarily through articles by Erin Einhorn and other reporters at the Daily News. These articles, which themselves relied on analysis from testing experts like Fred Smith, revealed that the test score inflation started as early as 2002, with questions and scoring becoming easier over time.

See this 2007 article on our blog by Steve Koss, relating the ingenious experiment done by Einhorn in which she gave the 2002 and 2005 math tests to the same bunch of children, with the results showing that the 2005 exam was much easier, a fact also reflected in the changing "P" values of the questions over time. Or this follow-up Einhorn article, where leading testing experts called for an independent audit, which of course did not occur until three years later.

Today’s NY Times article omits any mention of the Daily News’ earlier exposes – which brought attention to this issue to the wider public – and instead recounts as meaningful that a few individuals who supposedly had doubts about the apparent rise in test scores, like Pedro Noguera and Kathleen Cashin, didn’t directly mention them to Klein– as though he might otherwise not have noticed the evidence that was splashed all over the Daily News!

The article also lets Regent Merryl Tisch off the hook, claiming that “We came in here saying we have to stop lying to our kids,” without mentioning that throughout this period, she was Deputy Chancellor of the Regents, and yet did and said nothing.

(See my critique at the time of their August 2009 article, NY Times falls in line with the Bloomberg PR spin control; and the response from Times editor, Ian Trontz: The NY Times response, and my reply.)

Read Leonie's entire piece by clickingon this link (she has updated it.)

Too little and much too late, the Times finally reports on the state test score scandal