Aug 04 2011
What’s Behind the Rampant School Cheating?
Eighty nine public schools in the state of Pennsylvania have been flagged for suspiciously high student test scores, leading authorities to believe tampering occurred in the administration of the tests. Ten years after the passage of the Bush-era “No Child Left Behind” Act, Pennsylvania joins dozens of states where schools have been found to engage in “cheating.” Among the evidence that investigators look for, is the suspicious erasing of answers on test papers. It is suspected that teachers provide students with answers in order to boost test results. Schools in Maryland, Michigan, Texas, and, the District of Columbia among others have even confessed to the cheating. A highly controversial case was found in Atlanta, Georgia. Last August, 178 teachers and principals – almost half the Atlanta school district – were accused of cheating. Here in Los Angeles, two Charter schools run by Crescendo have been shut down because students were shown answers to standardized tests by teaching staff. What’s fueling this rampant cheating? Critics of testing point to the high-pressure environment where test scores are used as a measure for schools to obtain funds, and teachers to keep their jobs. Programs such as “No Child Left Behind” and President Obama’s “Race to the Top” emphasize test scores at the expense of true learning. Additionally, billionaire investors interested in reforming public education, like Bill Gates and Eli Broad strongly emphasize student achievement in their philanthropy.
GUEST: Dale Mezaccapa, contributing editor of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, an independent online and print publication, and worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer for over 20 years, immediate past president of the Education Writers Association
Read Confessions of a Cheating Teacher here: http://www.thenotebook.org/blog/113913/confession-cheating-teacher
One Response to “What’s Behind the Rampant School Cheating?”
PLEASE note that in the case of the Crescendo Schools — NO STUDENTS were shown test answers. The Director of the schools and the principals held faculty meetings during which the tests were given to the teachers. Teachers were DIRECTED to review the tests. Upon the completion of the meetings, teachers called the Los Angeles Unified School District to report the cheating. It is because of the teachers reporting what the administrators did that the schools were shur down. AT NO TIME did students see the answers or the tests.