Shame on schools Chancellor David Banks for playing along with the State Education Department’s test-score con by calling the results “extremely encouraging.”

Fine: City students “improved” in this year’s state math and reading exams for grades 3-8, with a big jump in how many tested proficient in math and a smaller one in English.

But mainly, perhaps only, because the fix was in.

The reason Banks could brag, “Under the first year of this administration, we’re seeing more of our students on grade level and meeting the state’s learning standards” is that the test scoring got dumbed down.

The state Board of Regents and its SED minions announced months ago that they had lowered expectations to account for pandemic-related learning loss — that is, to hide what kids didn’t learn because of prolonged school closings and the farce of “remote learning.”

Learning loss that the disastrous scores in 2022 showed was a huge.

So “proficiency” now mean less than it did in the “before” comparison. If scores hadn’t jumped, it’d mean students were falling even further behind.

We get that a beleaguered public servant wants to take credit where he can, but in playing along with this game Banks is only helping to deceive students and parents about how prepared these kids are for future challenges.

Lowered expectations only set students up for failure down the line.

Bogus happy news makes it easier on the adults in the system, as it reduces expectations for them, too.

The Regents and SED are now entirely about serving those adults’ interests, not the kids’.

We thought better of Banks.