Guard integrity of school tests in New York State

For better or worse, standardized tests are more important than ever in our schools. Yet New York does a terrible job at policing the integrity of the testing system.

A scathing new report from Henry M. Greenberg, an attorney appointed by the Board of Regents to work without pay, found that the Department of Education office in charge of combating cheating by both teachers and students lacks procedures, trained personnel or even the right culture for doing its job. Responsibility for testing integrity is divided among too many people. Cheating reports -- and there are scant few -- are submitted by fax, a technology one step up from carrier pigeon.

Allegations are tracked on paper, and while the state does maintain a database, it's incomplete and unreliable. Antiquated rules require school principals -- and only school principals -- to report fraud, when that should be the responsibility of all school personnel. Educators who participate in cheating, and tragically, there are some, rarely face serious discipline. Cheating cases go unresolved for years. Techniques such as analyzing erasures or the use of statistical analysis can uncover the problem, but these are underutilized. Greenberg's dispiriting list goes on and on.

The state administers 5.5 million tests annually and, starting in June, will base teacher evaluations partly on the results. That makes it all the more important to have a strong mechanism in place to deter and detect cheating.

New York's testing system may well be sound. But who really knows? Testing scandals have erupted in Chicago, Atlanta and the District of Columbia, so caution is warranted. While nobody particularly likes tests, they exist for good reason. Education is vitally important, and New York spends more on it per pupil than any other state. It's crucial that New Yorkers have some idea whether the system we support at such great expense is preparing the educated citizens we'll need for society to thrive.

Fortunately, the state Education Department is moving fast to adopt the special investigator's recommendations, which were approved on Monday by the Regents. The department now says it is forming a new "test security unit" with trained personnel, coherent policies and procedures, and new rules requiring any school employee to report a security breach.

The recommendations adopted by the Regents also call for the use of 21st century technology, including online incident reporting, a complete database that provides useful reports, and "data forensics" to detect testing irregularities. Old cases will supposedly be resolved, and penalties toughened. In another good sign, the department named an experienced prosecutor, Tina Sciocchetti, as the state's new executive director of test security and educator integrity.

These are all worthy steps. But the Education Department's efforts bear close watching -- particularly with respect to test fraud by adults, the kind that flourished in Atlanta and elsewhere. If tests are so important, New York has to do a better job of keeping them honest.