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ALBANY — New York's drive to have all students pass five challenging exams before leaving high school is at a critical moment. Flawed tests have fueled an anti-testing movement. Education leaders backpedaled on imposing higher passing scores. And concern has continued to grow around one troublesome figure — the graduation rate.Some studies have shown the rate has declined in recent years. Others have said the rate is overestimated, and states have not been given clear guidelines on how to calculate it. Most important, the much-debated figure is worrying state officials trying to follow new federal regulations that require every student...

The nation's first case of mad cow disease has led to urgent calls for more and better tests to screen animals at the slaughterhouse door. But the universe of testing for this elusive disease is murky. The extent and nature of testing varies from country to country. The tests are not foolproof, and there are many to choose from in a heated international competition. The leading test manufacturers are Bio-Rad based in France, Prionics AG in Switzerland and U.S. Abbott Laboratories, which recently acquired rights to a test developed in Ireland. But in addition, at least 54 other companies are...

Maryland students scored poorly on the new high school competency examinations again last year, and officials said they expect no improvement until passing the tests is required for graduation.About half of 65,000 students failed the 2003 algebra and biology tests, about the same rate as 2002. Four in 10 failed government, and six in 10 failed English, including a large majority of poor and minority students and those with disabilities. The results were posted without notice on the state Education Department's Web site Christmas week, just as students and teachers were headed home for the holidays. But Gary Heath, the...

<p>Worcester school officials placed a principal and teacher on paid administrative leave amid the first state investigation into a case of schoolwide cheating on the MCAS exam. Test scores at the elementary school where the two longtime educators worked increased dramatically in 2003 after previous poor performances.</p>

County students compete for spots at regional contest North Elementray fifth-grader Stephanie Hao (top) concentrates on a written math test during Elementary Math Field Day Wednesday morning in the WVU Mountainlair ballrooms. Hao placed third out of 20 fifth-graders and will compete in the regional Math Field Day competition in Bridgeport on March 6, 2004. Suncrest Middle sixth-grade teacher Sarah Corder (above, left) answers a question for Alliance Christian Schools sixth-grader Zach Evans during Elementary Math Field Day Wednesday morning. Ron Rittenhouse/The Dominion Post Photos BY JENNIFER SCOTT-HEASLIP The Dominion Post Nearly 200 students had a field day with numbers...

CLEARWATER, Fla. - (KRT) - Terri Schiavo has little chance of recovering, and if future medical tests don't show otherwise, she should be allowed to die, her court-appointed guardian recommended in his report to Gov. Jeb Bush. Jay Wolfson, a University of South Florida professor and lawyer, reached that conclusion after spending much of the past month with the severely brain-damaged woman. He also reviewed 30,000 pages of court and medical records from the long legal battle between her husband and her parents in what has become an international debate over right-to-die issues. But after reading the report released Tuesday,...

At an October meeting of the Arizona School Board Association, Graham County Schools Superintendent Phyllis Bryce called for testing homeschoolers every two years. According to the Eastern Arizona Courier, "a rumble of assent rose from the crowd of ASBA members" when Superintendent Bryce said, "We feel like there should be some accountability" for homeschoolers. While no specific legislative proposals have yet appeared, Arizona homeschoolers should be prepared for possible challenges when the legislature convenes in January.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The test results are in, and they confirmed what many in baseball suspected: Some players were taking more than vitamins. Now, Major League Baseball will begin penalizing players for steroid use after learning that more than 5 percent of this year's tests came back positive. Rumors regarding steroids had run high recently as bulked-up sluggers set all sorts of home run records. Stars such as Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa denied taking the drugs. But former MVPs Jose Canseco and Ken Caminiti admitted they had done it before their careers ended. ``Hopefully, this will, over time,...

Some day soon, teams of Case High School sophomores could be sitting in a Racine movie theater and thanking President Bush.In an attempt to boost the number of students taking the state's standardized test this week, Case High School will be handing out movie passes to every 10th-grader who completes the battery of exams.It's just one of many efforts, which include a TV giveaway at another school, to improve student performance and participation on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations, or WKCEs.In many Wisconsin schools, the testing began for fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders last week and will continue until Nov....

<p>Only one-quarter of students tested in a fitness exam met the state's standards, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell announced Thursday.</p> <p>Students in grades five, seven and nine were tested using the "Fitnessgram," an assessment formula that measures students' aerobic capacity, body composition, muscular strength, endurance and flexibility.</p>

'Caring' cheaters Posted: October 31, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com If you still think there is hope for the nation's government school system, revelations about a number of New York teachers made public this week should change your mind for good. The news is quite appropriate for Halloween – because it's scary. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Associated Press uncovered records showing that 21 New York teachers between 1999 and 2002 cheated "on behalf of their students" when administering standardized tests – tests that were designed to demonstrate student progress in critical areas of learning. According to the report,...

Rosa Park Parents Blame Testing, Not School By MATTHEW ARTZ (10-31-03) Berkeley school district officials are preparing for discussions on an administrative overhaul for Rosa Parks Elementary School, after standardized test scores released last week showed that student performance declined. “It behooves us to start looking,” said Carla Bason, BUSD’s manager of state and federal programs. No administrative shakeup is imminent. Most parents taking their children to school this week said it was the standardized testing system, not the school, that was really failing the students. Results of the latest rounds of tests mandated under President Bush’s No Child...

Whereas over 80% of Americans support external, high-stakes, standardized testing as the best method for determining what students are learning; discovering their academic deficiencies, so that they may be remedied; and in deciding whether to promote students from grade to grade; you’d never know it, to listen to the socialist, establishment media or the progressives and constructivists who have taken over university departments of teacher education and the nation’s public schools. One such progressive is Kevin Kumashiro. Kumashiro, who is the “director of the Center for Anti-Oppressive Education, a resource center for educators, leaders, students and advocates base in California,”...

AUBURN - A gym teacher's tests of fourth- through sixth-graders' body fat at Webster Intermediate School have triggered complaints by parents who say some children were upset and embarrassed by the results."It didn't give any explanation," said Jane Clavet of the slip of paper her sixth-grader received. "It just gave a number. You're fat or your not," she told the Sun Journal of Lewiston.The furor began about two weeks ago when gym teacher Mary Jo Hodgkin measured students' body mass index, or body fat compared to height and weight, using new laser equipment that the school system had purchased...

Source: American Psychological Association Date: 2003-10-20 Renorming IQ Tests Due To Flynn Effect May Have Unintended Consequences WASHINGTON -- The steady rising of IQ scores over the last century – known as the Flynn effect – causes IQ tests norms to become obsolete over time. To counter this effect, IQ tests are "renormed" (made harder) every 15-20 years by resetting the mean score to 100 to account for the previous gains in IQ scores. But according to new research, such renorming may have unintended consequences, particularly in the area of special education placements for children with borderline or mild mental...

The superintendent of a Massachusetts school district who failed a required English literacy test three times and put two dozen teachers on unpaid leave for failing a similar exam has passed on his fourth try. Wilfredo Laboy, a native of Puerto Rico who moved to the United States when he was a child, faced the threat of losing his $156,560-a-year job if he didn't pass the Communication and Literacy Skills Test by December. The Lawrence Eagle Tribune reports Laboy got his latest test results last night but would not discuss them publicly. Lawrence, Mass., Mayor Michael Sullivan told the paper...

<p>If kids in New York high schools are cheering Wednesday's decision to lower the passing grade for state Regents tests, it's no mystery why.</p> <p>They're kids!</p> <p>State Education Commissioner Richard Mills, who recommended the change, and the state Board of Regents, which OK'd it, have no such excuse.</p>

On Saturday, when 600,000 high school students open their SAT test booklets, one question they won't find is: Why are they required to complete this key college admissions exam within three hours? The correct answer: Because the tests always have been strictly timed. Yet the College Board, which administers the test, concedes the time limit isn't intended to measure how students perform under deadline. Rather the restriction merely serves a logistical purpose. Providing more time would complicate efforts to book rooms and protect against cheating. Because the College Board is wedded to a stopwatch system, it places unnecessary time pressures...

Ignore, please. I'm just bored so I thought I would try to figure this out. Wait a minute if this works, any of yall want to talk about Baptist stuff?

New York State's education commissioner, Richard P. Mills, said Wednesday that the state would loosen the demanding testing requirements it has imposed for high school graduation in recent years, including the standards used to judge math proficiency. Mr. Mills's announcement followed the release earlier in the day of a report on the debacle of the Math A Regents exam in June. The report, by a panel appointed by the Regents and Mr. Mills, said the state's effort to establish rigorous math standards was deeply flawed and needed to be overhauled. The panel found that the state had given math teachers...