Common Core: Watch Out for Government Cheating on Test Results

The books have been warning us for decades with titles that usually start with something like “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” with subtitles such as “Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists” (Joel Best), “The Manipulation of Public Opinion in America” (Michael Wheeler), or “How Numbers Confuse Public Issues” (Joel Best).

     Sometimes, authors are even more direct, such as Darrell Huff’s How to Lie with Statistics or David Richey’s Counting Our Way to Oblivion.

        Now Thomas Lifson reports on a New York Post article (“NY ‘fixed’ Common Core tests—and scores surged“) which reveals that “State officials touted increases in scores on tough Common Core exams this year but failed to reveal that they had lowered the number of right answers needed to pass half the exams.”

      Lifson says that “Educrats are a tricky bunch. Their latest ploy, Common Core, has run into unexpected resistance, perhaps because parents are skeptical of fine-sounding slogans and names. But no matter, just bury ‘em with ginned up statistics.”

      Parents, and those in the public who actually read, tend to be cowed by statistics and never take the time to check things out.  Come election time, many candidates know all about how numbers can hoodwink.  People listening to debates often dread the campaign hype that surrounds the “economy” and “boosting jobs” because statistics can be taken out of context and manipulated.

      Yet the managerial elite from both parties believe in their heart of hearts that our obsession with statistics (begun when Napoleon needed to figure out what to do with all the people he’d conquered) still offers the control that puts expertise beyond the understanding of most of the electorate.

      As Lifson, argues, “If you don’t get the results you need to assuage the public, just change the metrics!”