Statistical Fiction

Cheers to the editorial board at The Record for criticizing the State Board of Education for failing to abandon the Special Review Assessment (SRA).

The SRA was designed as an alternative graduation test for students who were disabled or simply "froze" during the standard High School Proficiency Assessment. Long-term blog readers know that the HSPA is a test designed at an 8th grade skill level and a requirement for high school graduation.

As The Record points out, the SRA has become a crutch for poor-performing schools used to boost their graduation rates. It has more to do with politics than education.

Twelve percent of the state's high school graduates now get by via the SRA. In the Abbott districts, the state's most impoverished, about a third use the alternative route.

The numbers in some urban schools are simply astounding: Three high schools in Paterson owe the majority of their graduations to the SRA. But the problem is by no means confined to the big cities. Fourteen Bergen County high schools have given the SRA to more than 10 percent of their students. The highest proportions are at Bogota High School (26.5 percent), Englewood's Dwight Morrow High School (19.7 percent), Garfield High School (18.2 percent) and Teaneck Senior High School (15.5 percent)....

If a quarter or a half of a high school's students have not learned enough to meet graduation requirements, the first step toward solving the problem is acknowledging it. Turning instead to a statistical fiction serves no public interest, least of all the students'.

Ditto. The state's 31 so-called Abbott districts spend the same as the state's wealthiest districts on a per-pupil basis, and the majority of funding coming from state taxpayers versus local taxes. Taxpayers and students in these districts deserve much better.

For an excellent rundown of the SRA's failings, check out New Jersey Excellent Education for Everyone's testimony before the Board of Ed.

Following the testimony, the Board voted to make minor changes to the SRA, but keep the program operational. State Board of Education President Ronald Butcher, promised, "We're going to really watch this closely."

About time.