What happened to the fourth grade test booklets in the Niagara Wheatfield Central School District in New York?
Gone with the wind.
http://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/completed-state-math-tests-blown-away-by-the-wind/1172055747
Thanks to teacher Chris Cerrone
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If it weren’t for the security issue of kids’ personal information being on those answer sheets, I’d say that was the best possible thing that could happen to those tests.
Love how they tell the one mom that they’re going to “score’ the test booklet, which the kids were specifically told wouldn’t be scored. I don’t know what modern tests are like, but when I was a kid I rarely wrote in the booklet, so there would be nothing to “score”.
LikeLike
What I found most humorous was this line
School district officials notified the New York State Education Department to what Superintendent Dan Ljiljanic called a “test misadministration”.
I thought that applied to every test they gave.
LikeLike
The obvious solution by the district will be computer-based test in a secured location. Welcome to the 21st century school… or is it prison?
LikeLike
I’d bet that most computer tests are actually less secure than the paper ones.
Computer security is not an easy task and unless security has been designed into hardware and software from the start by someone who is an expert in the field, a system is ripe for exploitation.
Of course, when there is a breach with the computer system it will be much less obvious than papers flying down the road and could even go completely undetected.
LikeLike
Agree with your point, and most one-click test administration portals are not really secure. Still there is something really creepy about test papers blowing around, migrating wherever the wind blows.
LikeLike
Not only that, but the computer tests often take MUCH longer to take. In my state, they have to drag and drop a bunch of pieces, or highlight passages, and the tools are tricky to use.
Testing that used to take three to four days in total now takes each student eight to nine days, and, because there aren’t enough computers, the testing takes eight to nine weeks, which takes up our library (and other labs) for the entirety of fourth term.
LikeLike
That SCREEN has BRAINWASHED sooooooooo MANY. It’s sick and scary.
LikeLike
Too bad they didn’t blow away before the kids had to take them!
LikeLike
I am amazed by NYS lack of sophistication in test security. Almost as shocked as I was at Deasy’s lack of sophistication in iPad distribution.
When I was Testing Coordinator, Tests were kept in a locked room while prepared for shipment to a central collection point. The cartons were sealed before they left that room.
How were the tests allowed to fly free? Were the cartons dropped, picked up by the wind, and thrown about? What about the paper bands holding papers together? Was it a hurricane force wind?
LikeLike