Illinois schools cheat to raise test scores

It's usually easier to give the impression of success than to actually achieve it. The latest example comes from Illinois, where high schools are using slight of hand to inflate their test scores. The scam works like this: the state test is given each year to high school juniors, so the high schools simply reclassify low-end juniors as "sophomores." Now they don't have to take the test. Poof! Look at those rising test scores. See what a good job we've done!

The low-end "sophomores" retain their status until the next year, when they emerge as seniors, never having been called juniors, hence never having had to take the test.