Those sneaky students in the back of the classroom aren’t the only cheaters.
Teachers and school leaders are getting in on the scams by boosting test scores not through better instruction, but by erasing wrong answers, replacing them with the right ones and hoodwinking parents in the process.
Nowhere was the corruption more widespread than in Atlanta, where a recent probe found that 44 schools and 178 teachers and principals had been falsifying student test scores for the past decade. Suspected cheating also is under review in the District, and the Department of Education’s inspector general is assisting with the investigation.
In Pennsylvania, reports that surfaced this week show suspected cheating in at least three dozen school districts. State Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis on Thursday ordered those districts to investigate the suspicious scores and report back within 30 days. He also asked a data company to analyze 2010 scores, according to the Associated Press.
Similar charges of cheating have been discovered in Baltimore, Houston and elsewhere.
Although the details differ, education specialists think each scandal has a common denominator.
Under No Child Left Behind guidelines, schools can be labeled “failing” if student test scores don’t meet state benchmarks. Poor results are embarrassing for teachers and often cost principals, superintendents and school board members their jobs.
More here
Teachers and school leaders are getting in on the scams by boosting test scores not through better instruction, but by erasing wrong answers, replacing them with the right ones and hoodwinking parents in the process.
Nowhere was the corruption more widespread than in Atlanta, where a recent probe found that 44 schools and 178 teachers and principals had been falsifying student test scores for the past decade. Suspected cheating also is under review in the District, and the Department of Education’s inspector general is assisting with the investigation.
In Pennsylvania, reports that surfaced this week show suspected cheating in at least three dozen school districts. State Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis on Thursday ordered those districts to investigate the suspicious scores and report back within 30 days. He also asked a data company to analyze 2010 scores, according to the Associated Press.
Similar charges of cheating have been discovered in Baltimore, Houston and elsewhere.
Although the details differ, education specialists think each scandal has a common denominator.
Under No Child Left Behind guidelines, schools can be labeled “failing” if student test scores don’t meet state benchmarks. Poor results are embarrassing for teachers and often cost principals, superintendents and school board members their jobs.
More here
4 comments:
The last paragraph of the post says it all. I am certainly not condoning cheating, but NCLB has created an atmosphere is which administrators and teachers feel commpelled to cheat. There definitely is so much at stake, including federal dollars,jobs, etc. It was only a matter of time before school personnel would try to beat the system. Too bad, but that's what it is. Now with teachers receiving evaluations based in part on the scores of their students on the tests, it's very tempting to cheat. (I am a retired teacher but left before the stakes became so high. I would hope that I never would have resorted to cheating). It is quite easy, though, to cheat. All you need is an eraser!
i'll say it again; this is only the tip of the iceberg. when are we going to wake-up? i own a business and i've observed the "quality" of students entering the work force for years. not good. many of them don't present themselves well; can't write a paragraph; have very poor math and language skills and certainly don't know how to talk on the phone and interact with the public. very sad commentary on our youth. i realize there are good students but they are less and less prepared for the workforce.
it isn't just the parents. many of our younger teachers aren't prepared to teach and more and more they don't present themselves to be professional.
i don't know where all this is going; but we are reaping what was sown and it's not good for our society and our future.
UNIONS !
UNIONS !
July 16, 2011 9:40 AM
IDIOTS!!
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