The Daily Howler has an interesting series of posts reporting about standardized test shenanigans in a Virginia school district (in Alexandria, VA). Here’s what he found:

It seems that Christmas came early for Maury Elementary of Alexandria, Virginia last year. In the spring of 2005, only 5 of Maury’s 19 third-graders passed the state’s “Reading/Language Arts” test, a passing rate of 27 percent. (Statewide, 77 percent of third-graders passed. We’ll call this test “reading” from this point on.) But yes, Virginia—there is a Santa Claus! Thanks to bizarre statistical manipulations, the state ended up reporting that 17 of Maury’s 19 third-graders had passed—and Maury was soon at the top of the Washington Post’s front page, hailed as “a study in pride, progress” (full links below). How did five out of 19 become seventeen? How did an abysmal passing rate become a source of community “pride?” Simple—according to Alexandria testing director Monte Dawson, an undisclosed number of Maury fourth-graders also were given the third-grade test. When 12 fourth-graders passed the third-grade test, they were added to the third-grade total. We know, we know, it sounds impossible—but no, we’re really not making this up. Indeed, Dawson sent us a lengthy excerpt, apparently from a technical manual, which outlined the absurd procedure. What do you do when a school’s passing rate exceeds 100? The excerpt even explained that!

Holy crap. Is there anything more blatantly dishonest than this process? The original reporter of the story that got Somerby’s attention responded and explained the details, but this still seems extraordinarily wrong. Having students retest should save the students from being held back or facing any penalty, but it shouldn’t absolve the school of responsibility for not teaching their third graders while they’re in the third grade.

This is, of course, part of George Bush’s America, where laws have great names and no teeth. No Child Left Behind is a hollow law that claims to solve a problem it actually doesn’t address. It’s a bad law, and it’s unfortunate that states are resorting to this sort of silliness to pass. If you’re in Virginia, you should call the Dept. of Ed and the Governor’s office and complain about this. If you’re going to complain about the law and the cost of it, you should at least take the test in good faith.

I feel obliged to point out that VA’s governor is a Democrat. This is a pretty sad that it hasn’t been corrected even after VA has a second Democratic governor. This policy was passed by a Republican administration in 2001 after the federal government passed NCLB.

(via Atrios)