In a summer when the Rochester school district should be celebrating higher test scores, a shadow has been cast.
After reports from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle exposed social studies test preps for students that, at the least, can be considered questionable, that shadow's looks like it could be coming from the tip of an iceberg.
Rochester's school board, led by Malik Evans, Tom Brennan and Van White moved district officials to respond accordingly, after they learned 7th and 8th grade students were studying for their end of the year social studies exam by seeing the questions exactly as they appeared on the test they took.
"The problem with that response is that even the scrambling of questions and answers doesn't ensure that our children are anything but good memorizers," White said. "I want reassurances going forward that everyone views these tests, high-stakes or low-stakes, as being honest."
Some board members expressed concern that the district's initial apparent indifference to the matter suggested that similar forms of test preparation are ubiquitous.
"My concern is whether this is more widespread and what it says about the cultural malaise that the district suffers from," said Brennan.
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