Put an end to the State Education Department’s fake test-score performance.

The State Education Department and the Board of Regents are once again making efforts to render the new year’s reading and math assessments useless.

Releasing “preliminary” test results in late August and “verified” results in November only serves to mask the poor performance of public schools, especially in serving minority students.

Despite the rapid scoring capabilities of machines for multiple-choice tests taken by students in grades 3-8 in the spring, the State Education Department only released preliminary data last week to districts, and not to parents.

While the State Education Department claims this is to inform instructional decisions and individualized learning plans for the upcoming school year, it is too late for practical use as the new term begins in just under 10 days.

Previously released in June, the data is now delayed to as late as December under the current Regents’ regime, rendering it ineffective for student placements and curriculum assessment.

If the Regents and SED wanted the data to be useful for the new school year, they should have maintained the June release date.

This year, the State Education Department continues to downplay the lack of achievement by allowing districts to release preliminary reading and math scores that can be spun before the new term starts, with final assessments likely to show more dismal results.

Preliminary results for Grades 3-8 show proficiency rates of 46% in English (a 2-percentage-point drop from last year) and 52% in math (no change from 2023).

The initial releases do not include data for English Language Learners, leaving the public unaware of the performance of “asylum seeker” kids in NYC’s public schools. Charter school results are also not separated, presumably to avoid making regular public schools look bad.

The Success Academy network, one of the best charters, achieved proficiency rates of 82% in English and 95% in math. Perhaps other public schools should consider emulating Success’ curriculum and instructional practices?

Despite this, the state educrats despise Success and charters in general, preferring to let other kids struggle rather than acknowledge successful practices.

SED and the Regents do not have the best interests of children, parents, or taxpayers in mind, as evidenced by the testing smokescreens they create.

If Gov. Hochul and legislative leaders cared, they would mandate SED to release final state assessment data no later than June 1.

It is important to rein in the anti-kid educrats before they render standardized testing completely irrelevant, as it appears to be their ultimate goal.