Just when it seemed that the administration of our school system was just so bad, it got worse.
Now, on top of other revelations, it seems there is strong evidence that some people charged with supervising high school Regents exams have cheated.
Thanks to evidence uncovered by the State Comptroller’s office, it appears there’s been hanky-panky committed in grading some high school exams for more than three years. The New York Times reports there were more than 64 incidents of possible problems on Regents tests -- and one such investigation led to the resignation of an assistant principal.
After the comptroller’s audit, the State Board of Regents voted to zero in on cheating involving erasures on standardized tests. That such action was necessary is beyond belief. The Regents are supposed to supervise the education system to ensure that it operates effectively and honestly. That there are supervisors, whether teachers or principals, who may have cheated is incredible. If the system is so inherently rotten, how can the Regents be entrusted to reform it?
One wonders whether an independent commission needs to be appointed to investigate the entire education system. If you can’t trust the legislators and the politicians to keep the system honest, whom can we trust? Maybe we need to teach the top people in the educational system about ethics.
We could have a required course called Honesty in Educational Testing 101. And, if they passed the test, they would be allowed to continue in high positions.
Otherwise, to put it simply, they would be erased.
As one tv actor-comedian used to say: “You can’t make this stuff up!’
