Dear Commons Community,

We have commented  on this blog on the shortcomings of the testing program administered by the NYC Department of Education.   Some of the practices perpetrated by the NYC DOE as well as the previous administration of the New York State Department of Education  have been nothing short of travesties for the children and the parents of our fair city.  Today, the NY Times reported that the NYC DOE will implement new auditing procedures designed to reduce the amount of cheating, fudging and otherwise adjusting test scores and graduation rates designed to make the public schools look “good”.  Test scoring is surely a problem in the individual schools.  The morass of definitions and procedures related to high school graduation rates, dropouts, transfers, credit recovery programs, etc.  is as much a problem at the NYC DOE central administration as it is in the schools themselves.

Tony