Insider to the testing industry, Todd Farley, writes about how the testing companies control the numbers to get the results they want.
“And we know, from my book, that the testing companies fudge numbers all the time, whether reliability numbers (to show the industry is doing a more “standardized” job than it really is); validity numbers (to show the industry is doing a more accurate job than it really is); or score distribution numbers (when test scoring companies work to ensure student results match the predictions of their own psychometricians).”
…For the last 10 years in this country, we’ve regularly seen standardized tests results that can’t be believed and standardized testing companies that can’t be trusted. Still, the United States seems to be heading towards taking the decisions about American education out of the hands of American educators and instead placing that sacred trust in the welcoming arms of an industry run entirely without oversight and populated completely with for-profit companies chasing billions of dollars in business. In fact, even though the testing industry has proven consistently incompetent over the last ten years, we seem to be moving towards expanding our emphasis on it. To me that comes across as naïve, although a less forgiving person might think that entrusting public education to a bunch of bumbling, for-profit companies falls more towards the unethical/immoral/mercenary end of the spectrum.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-farley/standardized-testing-a-de_b_846044.html
Still don’t believe it? Read this article from several years ago. NY got caught cheating on the standardized test scores.
“What this amounts to is a fraud,” said Diane Ravitch, an education historian who has been one of the most vocal critics of both the state exams and Mr. Klein. “This is a documentation of persistent dumbing down by the State Education Department and lying to the public.”