Some people say the tests were easier, and that explains it. The state says no, it works very hard to ensure that state tests are of similar difficulty each year.
Mayor Bloomberg, of course, takes credit for this. However, it's incontrovertible that if the improvements were statewide, his "reforms" had no effect whatsoever. Extra test prep was everywhere. If the mayor's "reforms" were working, the city would have outpaced the state.
"Clearly, if it's happening all across the state, it isn't report cards and ARIS and an accountability system and bonuses for principals," said Sol Stern of the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute."There ought to be an investigation of the whole testing regiment."
Despite this, Mayor Bloomberg is expected to use this development as evidence that mayoral control should be continued. It's deliciously ironic, in an environment so reliant on math scores, that logic plays no part whatsoever in the mayor's calculations.
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