According to David Berliner, a respected education scholar at Arizona State University and a co-author of a new book, Collateral Damage, that documents the cheating trend. The other solution is to make the state tests easier, a phenomenon known among educators as "the race to the bottom."
In 2005, 89% of fourth-graders in Mississippi were rated proficient in reading--the highest percentage in the nation. But when Mississippi youngsters sat for the rigorous NAEP--the closest thing to a national gold standard--they landed at the bottom: just 18% of fourth-graders made the grade in reading