More thoughts on Testing

In the "News in Brief" section of the Ed Week edition from March 16, 2011 three small articles caught my eye.  "Test-Score Reviews Uncover Improbable Gains in 6 States", "Baltimore Adds Monitoring After Test-Cheating Scandal", and "Charter Schools Founder Fired" are all different articles having to do with cheating or fudging the results of standardized state tests.  It is perhaps not surprising when one considers how much money is at stake for states, schools, and teachers.  Pressure is mounting to meet federal benchmarks, and teacher pay is already linked to test results in some states.  The L.A. Charter school organization called Crescendo fired its founder for telling principals and teachers to break the seal on state standardized tests and use the questions to better prep their students!  In Baltimore, school officials are having to hire 157 monitors to make sure there is no hanky-panky during state testing, after cheating problems last year.  The additional monitors will cost in the neighborhood of $320,000!   One of the issues I have yet to read about, but did hear Diane Ravitch raise in an interview on NPR, is related to the cost of testing.  Ever since the advent of NCLB, the profits of the Educational Testing Service have ballooned.  Testing has become a multi-million dollar industry.  These folks are getting rich by telling schools, teachers, and students that they are failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress.  How many librarians, music teachers, coaches, and classroom teachers could keep their jobs if this money was dedicated to learning instead of testing?