Source: economist.com Posted By: Jason B...4195 days ago
HERE’S a multiple-choice question: if the federal government penalises states where pupils do badly in school, but lets the states themselves set the pass mark, will the states a) make the tests harder; or b) dumb them down?
Historically, the answer has been b). The National Centre for Educational Statistics (NCES), a federal body, looked at how the states’ definitions of “proficiency†at maths and reading compared with its own rigorous one. For grade 4 reading in 2009, not one state held its....