Albert Einstein once said "  Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." In a few weeks our students will take the New York State Assessments in English Language Arts and  Mathematics. This assessments will be used to grade students on a 1 through 4 scale to identify students who need Academic Intervention Services and to grade teachers, administrators and schools as part of the annual appraisal process.
  In 1999 New York State began testing students in elementary and middle schools to see if our students and teachers were meeting the standards set by the State Education Department. I was a principal at that point and noticed that the first year or two the scores were low with many children and schools not meeting the standards. After a few years the scores got higher and the State Education Department and politicians took credit for the rise in scores stating that they pushed for this to hold teachers accountable. I am not sure if this is truly the case or if the tests became a bit easier and the scoring scale changed.
  I am interested to see what happens this year and in the coming years as the tests are supposedly much harder than they have been in previous years.  I wonder if we will see the same thing as we did in the first few years as scores were low than gradually rose to show that due to the work of our State Education Department and politicians that it is due to their efforts in holding teachers and administrators accountable. Time will tell!