Cheating our children: Suspicious school test scores across the nation
Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution
Suspicious test scores in roughly 200 school districts resemble those that entangled Atlanta in the biggest cheating scandal in American history, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows.
The newspaper analyzed test results for 69,000 public schools and found high concentrations of suspect math or reading scores in school systems from coast to coast. The findings represent an unprecedented examination of the integrity of school testing.
The analysis doesn’t prove cheating. But it reveals that test scores in hundreds of cities followed a pattern that, in Atlanta, indicated cheating in multiple schools.
A tainted and largely unpoliced universe of untrustworthy test results underlies bold changes in education policy, the findings show. The tougher teacher evaluations many states are rolling out, for instance, place more weight than ever on tests.
Read more: http://www.ajc.com/news/cheating-our-children-suspicious-1397022.html
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bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)It has to be expected that this will happen. I don't condone it, but that's about as far as I am willing to go.
uberblonde
(1,220 posts)It's not just teachers' jobs. It's that the funding, as inadequate as it already is in the poorest districts, will be cut even more if the tests don't show improvements. I suspect in some schools, they're just trying to hold onto what little they have.
PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)when $$ becomes an issue and not teaching. viola.
course these are the same systems that we rely on for voting. Go figure...
First time I'd heard of Diebold was when I was rather young filling in an oval. 
(hence we can no longer complain about Putin coming to power via Cheating because Bush did it too..)
socialindependocrat
(1,372 posts)It seems that the only thing a majority of people in the world agree on is that
lying is the way to get what you want.
The best cheats can't be given a medal because they never get caught!
And others set things up so if they do get caught, they are protected by another layer of cheating liers - like the banks, insurance companies and politicians.
My parenbt difinately did me a diservice by teaching me to be honest.
Now I have to buy a bunck of books to learn how to cheat, steal and lie!
I'm too old for this shit!
avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)and now the kids are catching on.
Surprise, surprise.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)Lie, cheat and steal your way to success are the trickle down values that have now corrupted our entire culture.
If you meet a rich person, be very, very carful. They may try to steal what little you have left.
bhikkhu
(10,789 posts)...then you might find that students, teachers, administration, and parents will unite behind any effort to keep it open.
All this was predicted years ago - the school closures were built into NCLB, with a fairly fascistic condescending non-concern for what loosing a school does to already beaten-down communities.
Sancho
(9,203 posts)the more high-stakes the scores, the more cheating occurs. In many cases it's not the teachers, but sophisticated planning from the central office.
mbperrin
(7,672 posts)Students cannot be promoted or graduated without good test scores, regardless of all other factors, classroom performance and so on.
Teachers have part of the PDAS evaluation dependent on school scores, hence their future employment.
Districts lose state funding without good scores.
So EVERYONE stands to lose something really valuable (graduation, pay, funding) if those scores aren't good!
Yeah, no pressure, and what a shock that students or teachers or districts would be tempted to cheat!!
Trillo
(9,154 posts)Kids are not there have their minds examined for any possible corporate profit opportunity.
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)... w. RTTP.
Did he see? Did he NOT see?
I don't know which scenario speaks worse for him.
As you said... everyone ( else?) saw it coming.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)>>>Ravitch points to the Race to the Top program as another way that teachers have felt under attack. “The Obama administration’s Race to the Top program intensified the demonizing of teachers, because it encouraged states to evaluate teachers in relation to student scores. There are many reasons why students do well or poorly on tests, and teachers felt they were being unfairly blamed when students got low scores, while the crucial role of families and the students themselves was overlooked,” wrote Ravitch.
Finally, she points to the despair teachers felt in August when we read about the outrageous report in the Los Angeles Times in which this paper rated 6,000 teachers in Los Angeles as either effective or ineffective using the Value Added Model and students’ test scores. As you recall, the publishing of these ratings online led to the apparent suicide of one of these teachers who was rated ineffective, in spite of his consistently good evaluations. But as Ravitch points out, “Testing experts warn that such ratings are likely to be both inaccurate and unstable, but the Times stood by its analysis.”
Now, teachers are facing the latest and most demoralizing attack of all, the plan to abolish our right to due process, our seniority, and, in some states, the loss of collective bargaining rights. Ironically, Ravitch points out, “Actually, the states with the highest performance on national tests are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, and New Hampshire, where teachers belong to unions that bargain collectively for their members.”>>>
http://www.teacher-world.com/teacher-blog/?tag=race-to-the-top
And in this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002370785
valerief
(53,235 posts)
YvonneCa
(10,117 posts)...on education. His goals are good...but the solutions being implemented to reach them are flawed. I think he has an incomplete picture of public education...generalizing bad solutions to all educational settings.
I continue to hope (I know, I know 
) he will eventually get the whole picture and do this right.
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts).... Paul Newman in Nobody's Fool.)
>>>>I continue to hope (I know, I know ) he will eventually get the whole picture and do this right.>>>>>
YvonneCa
(10,117 posts)...educators are debating this, at least in the social media. The debate educates those who are unaware about how things really work (or don't work) in public schools.
Sadly, I have to include Arne Duncan and the President in that group... 
enki23
(7,795 posts).
CanonRay
(16,156 posts)Now the schools themselves are cheating. Wadda country.
Igel
(37,516 posts)That's what my mother used to say.
When Reagan was elected I couldn't help myself. "So, Ma, that's quite some change. From Carter to Reagan. Do you still think 'change is good'?"
She didn't talk to me for a week.
Unfortunately, all goods things come to an end and that trick only worked once.
valerief
(53,235 posts)YvonneCa
(10,117 posts)... 
kwassa
(23,340 posts)They were caught red-handed.
(and yes, I am completely opposed to this high-stakes and fairly pointless testing, as well).
socialindependocrat
(1,372 posts)At work we used to call it "best practices"
You would find out who was doing an exceptional job and try to figure out
what they were doing in order to get such a good outcome. Then you
publish the findings to give the others ideas on how to improve.
It's a shame that our leaders are so unable to see the negative consequences.
They seem to have a lot of control issues and they're in denial about the
results of their proposals.
I think we need a new way to identify "intelligence" in our leaders.
The same goes for our congress, too!
chervilant
(8,267 posts)I hope to encourage a macro-level understanding of what is happening and what WILL happen if the corporatists succeed in 'privatizing' our system of public education.
First of all, those of us who are voicing concerns about Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, and their ilk have consistently identified these people's take on 'what's wrong with public education' as misleading and simplistic. Asserting that 'bad teachers' and 'villainous unions' are the reasons why education is failing our children ignores the complex and interrelated economic and sociocultural problems that have plagued public education for the past fifty-plus years.
Second, those of us who are voicing concerns about Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, and their ilk have consistently questioned these people's truthiness, given such examples of deceit as Rhee asserting that it's almost impossible to fire bad teachers, but within minutes bragging that she has fired over a thousand teachers. Furthermore, both Arne and Michelle have misrepresented 'tenure' as a lifetime guarantee of a teaching position, and those of us who are voicing concerns have pointed out this misrepresentation before.
Third, those of us who are voicing concerns about Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee and their ilk have cautioned that charter schools are cherry-picking their students to insure that they can generate impressive statistics to support their contention that charter schools are better than public schools at educating our youth. Furthermore, most charter schools serve a particular population or create programs to appeal to specific groups, such as the charters that promise to teach creationism. Charter schools tend to promote inequality, particularly when they predominantly serve the needs of wealthier communities while disallowing attendance by special needs students, or low-income students.
Our nation has routinely underfunded and disrespected public education, a reality that is manifestly apparent when one considers the fact that fully 40% of our adult population is functionally illiterate. Over the past four decades, this nation's teachers have struggled to educate our children in the face of underfunding, bad administrators, overcrowded classrooms, and disintegrating school buildings (and this list could go on and on--bad food, no physical education, no art, no music, etc--ad nauseum). Are there bad teachers? Yes. Are bad teachers THE reason our schools are failing? NO!
I haven't even touched on public education's elephant in our collective living room: POVERTY. For many of our children, school represents the one environment within which they will get fed, nurtured, and encouraged. Sadly, children who live in poverty comprise an ever increasing percentage of the children who will not graduate from high school (by design?).
I've asserted on DU many times that I will continue to pursue a teaching position. However, I am going forward fully aware of the obstacles I'll likely face. Bottom line: our children are worth whatever crap they fling at us, and I'll continue to tough it out until--like so many other amazing teachers--I burn out or fall victim to their hedonism.
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)Enrique
(27,461 posts)if the consequence of a low test score is a loss of funding for the school, maybe the cheating benefits the children.
Turbineguy
(40,028 posts)my Daughter fell victim to "no child left behind" because it didn't occur to me to hire a graduate student to do her work.
underpants
(196,352 posts)oh that's right they did analysis of the 2000 election and found that Gore won......no more analysis followed
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Cheating will be well ingrained by the time they become adults. When they say anyone can become President they really mean it. Anyone being who they pick by cheating of course.