New York State Will Allow Teachers to Discuss Standardized Tests (a Little Bit)

Orders to remain silent are commonplace for grand juries, for those involved in sensitive negotiations and for anyone privy to trade secrets. Lately, those orders have also been applied to many of New York’s teachers.

Teachers who score the third through eighth grade standardized state exams have been required in recent years to sign confidentiality agreements barring them from discussing test questions, answers or other materials. As part of a sprawling bill approved at the end of the legislative session last week, legislators took a step toward loosening the restriction. But as was the fashion in Albany this session, that step was quite small.

Under the new law, teachers and administrators will be free to discuss certain test questions, but only those that have been publicly released by the state.