Many who failed had received good scores on the College Board's SAT II physics test, educators said.
The major objectives of the investigation were to (a) document the testing accommodations educators actually use when assessing students with performance assessment tasks, and (b) examine the effect that accommodations have on test results.
The challenge they face is now far thornier than simply raising overall test scores, educators say.
Tracy Packiam Alloway researches working memory at the University of North Florida and has developed the world's first standardised working memory tests for educators.
Demonstrate a Desire to Grow Aside from grades and test scores, educators are most interested in students who are looking to grow personally and professionally, because that is ultimately what the college experience is all about.
Thus, if popular misconceptions are not included as answer choices in test items, educators can easily be misled into believing that students have mastered a particular concept, because students have chosen the correct answer.
In her letter, Fariña urged principals to resist the temptation to seek better test scores through excessive test prep: "As educators, most of us know that the best preparation for the test is a rich, thoughtful, engaging curriculum that awakens curiosity in students, inspires them to ask questions, helps them explore complex problems, and encourages them to imagine possibilities," she wrote.
And high-stakes testing analytics punish educators instead of helping teachers respond to the instructional needs of their students.
Schools in Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California, among others, have since uncovered security breaches or testing irregularities by educators and are now seeking to implement preventative measures against teacher cheating.
Speaking at a news conference along with other panel members at New York Civil Liberties Union headquarters, Diane Ravitch, an education professor at NYU and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that "high-stakes testing -- and educators know this -- is bad for children, bad for teachers, bad for schools.
