Exam Czar Calls It Quits

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

ROBERT TOBIAS, who holds the none-too- relaxing job of overseeing standardized testing in the city's 1,100 schools, will resign this month after 33 years in the system. Mr. Tobias, who analyzes the test scores of the city's 1.1 million schoolchildren and tries to explain fluctuations from year to year, told Schools Chancellor HAROLD O. LEVY that he was leaving for personal reasons. Mr. Levy has appointed LORI MEI, Mr. Tobias's deputy, acting testing director while he conducts a search for a permanent replacement. It was Mr. Tobias who essentially discovered the scoring error by a national testing company that mistakenly sent thousands of city students to summer school in 1999.  
 Abby Goodnough

Too Many Teachers, for a Change

As the Board of Education is lamenting a shortage of qualified teachers, one of New York City's hardest-to-staff districts, an area in East New York of poor black and Hispanic families has found itself in the odd position of having hired 60 to 70 more teachers than it needs. "In my own mind, I think he may have been a victim of his own success," ANTHONY SHORRIS, a deputy chancellor, said of VICTOR R. RODRIGUEZ, the superintendent of District 19. As a so-called breakthrough district, which awards bonuses to teachers and principals who raise test scores, District 19 was encouraged to hire second-career and foreign teachers, Mr. Shorris said, and many came. The excess teachers, Mr. Shorris said, will be put into substitute pools or offered other jobs in the system; none will be laid off.
 Anemona Hartocollis