Test scores measure results. So, it's obviously critical that the scores be accurate if educators and parents are to assess how public school students are performing. Last week, the testers failed the children of California.
The new school accountability system, proposed by the governor and approved in special session by the Legislature, depends on measurable results for judging the performance of students, teachers and schools. That intensifies concerns about the accuracy of this year's scores on the required Stanford 9 test and the validity of certain math questions.
The flawed test results overshadow a glimmer of good news: a slight rise in overall reading and math scores, with the most significant progress in the primary grades where class sizes have been reduced.
Until Harcourt Educational Measurement, the publisher of the Stanford 9 test, gets its results for California absolutely right, Gov. Gray Davis, the Legislature, the State Board of Education, educators, parents and taxpayers who underwrite the cost of testing the state's students, must keep up the pressure, including withholding a $2.3-million performance bond, 10% of Harcourt's fee. Harcourt, its June 30 deadline shattered, now promises accurate results by July 15. State experts should at least seek possession of the scores a few days earlier to make sure they are right before they are finally released.
