Analysis: Racial gap persists on Ohio state tests

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The gap between black and white students' scores on Ohio's standardized exams persists even when economic advantages are considered, according to a data analysis by The Columbus Dispatch.

The scores of black students from affluent families and highly rated schools still lag far behind those of their white peers, the review published Sunday (http://bit.ly/18LGMVk ) found.

The newspaper analyzed data from more than two dozen state tests given last year to kindergarten through high school students. It found the average passage rate was 64 percent among black students, and 87...

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Wash. declines to analyze tests for cheating signs

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington has good measures in place to prevent cheating on school tests, but it fails to conduct the types of post-test analysis that other states routinely use to detect cheating, The Seattle Times reported Sunday.

The state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction doesn't look for erasure patterns on student answer sheets that suggest someone changed wrong answers to right ones — as dozens of teachers and principals in Atlanta are accused of doing. Nor does it look for improbably high gains in a school's scores or look for other suspicious results, such as a class full of students with identical answers.

Instead, The Times wrote (http://is.gd/yi78AE ), Washington relies on whistle-blowers to report wrongdoing and on school districts to police themselves — an approach national testing experts describe as inadequate, especially as many states start using test scores to...

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RI town OKs breathalyzer tests for students

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. (AP) — The school committee in one Rhode Island town has approved a policy permitting officials to administer blood-alcohol tests to random students at school dances...

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