Wednesday - July 06, 2011

Teaching The Wrong Lesson

State inquiry into Atlanta test scores finds widespread cheating
by Philissa Cramer

Reporter Maura Walz’s journey from Gotham Schools to Georgia placed her in the South just in time to cover the education scandal of the century— or at least the summer.

Atlanta’s steadily increasing state test scores were, at least in part, driven by cheating, according to investigators appointed by former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue. Today, Perdue’s successor, Nathan Deal, released the results of the two-year investigation.

Investigators looked at more than half of Atlanta’s 100 public schools and found evidence of cheating in the vast majority of them. They found that more than a third of the city’s principals had knowledge of or input into cheating at their schools; thousands of students had been denied extra help after being given scores they didn’t deserve; and “a culture of fear, intimidation, and retaliation” inhibited whistle-blowing.

State officials say criminal charges are likely to follow for some of the 180 teachers, principals, and district officials named in the report.

America’s biggest teacher and principal cheating scandal unfolds in Atlanta

At least 178 teachers and principals in Atlanta Public Schools cheated to raise student scores on high-stakes standardized tests, according to a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Award-winning gains by Atlanta students were based on widespread cheating by 178 named teachers and principals, said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday. His office released a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that names 178 teachers and principals – 82 of whom confessed – in what’s likely the biggest cheating scandal in US history.

This appears to be the largest of dozens of major cheating scandals, unearthed across the country. The allegations point an ongoing problem for US education, which has developed an ever-increasing dependence on standardized tests.

The report on the Atlanta Public Schools, released Tuesday, indicates a “widespread” conspiracy by teachers, principals and administrators to fix answers on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT), punish whistle-blowers, and hide improprieties.

It “confirms our worst fears,” says Mayor Kasim Reed. “There is no doubt that systemic cheating occurred on a widespread basis in the school system.” The news is “absolutely devastating,” said Brenda Muhammad, chairwoman of the Atlanta school board. “It’s our children. You just don’t cheat children.”

On its face, the investigation tarnishes the 12-year tenure of Superintendent Beverly Hall, who was named US Superintendent of the Year in 2009 largely because of the school system’s reported gains – especially in inner-city schools. She has not been directly implicated, but investigators said she likely knew, or should have known, what was going on. In her farewell address to teachers in June, Hall for the first time acknowledged wrongdoing in the district, but blamed other administrators.

The Atlanta cheating scandal also offers the first most comprehensive view yet into a growing number of teacher-cheating allegations across the US, reports of which reached a rate of two to three a week in June, says Robert Schaeffer, a spokesman for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, which advocates against high-stakes testing.

It’s also a tacit indictment, critics say, of politicians putting all bets for improving education onto high-stakes tests that punish and reward students, teachers, and principals for test scores.

The 55,000-student Atlanta public school system rose in national prominence during the 2000s, as test scores steadily rose and the district received notice and funding from the Broad Foundation and the Gates Foundation. But behind that rise, the state found, were teachers and principals in 44 schools erasing and changing test answers.

I seem to recall a whole lot of attitude about “teaching to the test” when Bush unveiled his “No Child Left Behind” program. It looks like the teachers - union employees all, I guarantee - took the easy way out. Lots of boo-hoo that the federal government wasn’t drowning the schools in free funding (which isn’t their job, nor is it within their proper power to do so). Looks like the lazy lefty loons found an easy way out. At least until they got caught. Why put in any extra effort to actually do your job properly when you can just go in later and fudge the grades? Besides, look at all the free money the government is willing to dish out as bonuses when the scores go up?

I hope this is just the tip of the iceberg. I hope that there is a HUGE public furor. I hope that investigations go on in every school district in the country, and that cheating teachers and administrators are fired and prosecuted.  And when it turns out that the vast majority of that cheating happened in “inner city schools” - a code phrase we all understand - and was done by left leaning school employees of any shade, that people will make the connection. These children were ripped off. The taxpayers were ripped off. We need a purge, nationwide. Let’s start with the unions and the curriculum and go from there.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/06/2011 at 09:04 AM   
Filed Under: • Education •  
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