"Leonie provides the historical context that was absent from reporting on this year's scores. Diane Ravitch says:"What you will learn from her post is that there is almost always a political slant in reporting scores, especially these days, when so many politicians want to claim credit for rising scores. If officials want the scores to look good, they will magnify gains. Or they can change the passing mark to create artificial gains. Or they can convert raw scores to higher scores. When they first get started, they want the scores as low as possible so they can claim gains afterwards. First, the public learned that the test scores were up. Next, Commissioner Elia's statement that accompanied the release said that this year's scores were not comparable to previous years' scores. But then, they saw Commissioner Elia and the media celebrating the test score gains ." HUH? Read and learn..."
At nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com
