Pols’ big boasts don’t match the tiny increases

Ho-hum. Nothing of overall significance was revealed in the test score data the state Education Department released Tuesday. Scores remained largely static — though officials got bragging rights for tiny gains.

Testing optouts remained at about one in five students, an important group of resisters likely skewing results downward. And downstate charters do well, while their upstate peers lag. The annual release of state third-through-eighth-grade scores now has the feel of ritual. Prior to the announcement, the results have already been massaged and messaged by the Education Department, like oracles delivering conclusions from cryptic entrails.

This year is no different. Overall scores inched up statewide for the city Education Department, in city charters and across racial and ethnic groups tracked under federal law.

But the slight, largely uniform gains should tip the public to something amiss, or at least questionable, in what edu-politicians are spinning. This was the second year of administering a basically unchanged test. With repetition, scores were bound to increase. Teachers and students get used to consistency and teaching to the test becomes easier.

For charters, whose brand often depends on “slam the exam” success, admission and enrollment disparities surely account for some of their higher scores. Even within the sector, parents would do well to ask how individual charters fared and why. This is no less true for district school parents. Ask about the specific school, specific grades and, of course, how your child did in math and reading and what instructional strategies are recommended for improvement.

At the end of the day, after the oracles have spoken, it is up to parents and students to interpret the results for themselves.