Prometheus 6

That or everyone's standards will be dragged down to the "least comedy nominator."

All students, no matter where they live, should have to show proficiency in certain skills and knowledge. The reason no such test exists has more to with politics than with education.

Cheating on Tests
Geography should not determine standards of learning.
Thursday, February 15, 2007; A26

EDUCATORS who are successful in turning around troubled schools say the first step is collecting reliable data. A true measure of performance is the only way to identify problems and map improvement. Yet, five years into the No Child Left Behind Act and its mandate for accountability, too many states are still gaming the system by administering weak tests. They boast about high scores, but their claims are as phony as the performance of their students.

Ending this fraud is among the reforms being pushed by a blue-ribbon commission on No Child Left Behind. The group, led by former health and human services secretary Tommy G. Thompson (R) and former Georgia governor Roy E. Barnes (D), points out that setting intentionally low test standards allows students to post better results and lets states escape sanctions under the law. It also makes comparing the performance of students between states impossible and presents a misleading picture of how well schools and their students are doing. This hypocrisy has become an annual event in which states post the results of achievement tests that in many cases differ widely from the results of benchmark tests given by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.