Those in charge of performance testing at the state Education Department aren’t the only ones cooking books.
As The New York Times reports, administrators at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles have bumped every student’s grade-point average by a full 0.333 on a four-point scale, to make grads more appealing to potential employers.
Closer to home, mischief may be afoot with entry standards for the city’s public-school gifted-and-talented program.
Testifying before the City Council last week, Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg revealed that the city Department of Education is searching for a new G&T admissions test, which he hopes will achieve more racial diversity in the program.
The number of black and Hispanic kindergartners entering the program took a dive last year after the department introduced actual standards for admission. Plenty of councilmembers would love to see the test watered down to achieve some perfect racial “balance.”
To be sure, DOE has been working overtime to walk back Sternberg’s comments. A spokesman defended the current test, arguing that it would be inappropriate to manipulate the gifted-and-talented program. Which is good to hear — but hardly indicative of where things are heading.
On the other hand, exposing gifted youngsters to junk testing might well give them a leg up on law school.