Who does the Connecticut Education Association (CEA) think they’re fooling?

Last week, the CEA held a press conference urging the state Commissioner of Education to “immediately convene” the state’s new Mastery Examination Committee, claiming there’s “no time to lose.”

During the press conference CEA President Shelia Cohen made a telling remark. She said, “All indications are that this test” – meaning the new Common Core-aligned Smarter Balanced (SBAC) test – “is not a valid indicator of student knowledge and skills.”

How exactly does CEA leadership know the yet-to-be release results of this test are invalid?

They’re using an online opinion survey conducted by Wesleyan University Psychology Professor and notorious standardized testing-opponent Steven Stemler to “prove” that the tests are invalid.

Not that any of this should surprise you.

According to the Connecticut Mirror, the CEA spent nearly $500,000 on ad campaigns – the second most that any lobbying organization spent on media buys this year. Most of the money was spent pushing for the elimination of standardized tests.

It’s pretty clear union leaders made their minds up on the validity of SBAC long before this survey was taken – they likely decided that the minute they decided to no longer support the teacher evaluation system they helped develop.

Their claims that the test results are “invalid” before the results are even released is just another attempt to eliminate standardized testing before their members can be held accountable for the results.

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