Last month there were stories that standardized test scores in elementary schools in Washington D.C. skyrocketed.
Now, normally you’d say Hooray but it turns out that at least three teachers have cheated.
This is bad news for the children in that they’re being taught by teachers who can’t even get away with cheating. How do we expect these kids to be able to cheat at their jobs or in college if their teachers keep getting caught cheating.
FoxDC reports:
Three elementary school teachers are now accused or suspected of cheating.
At issue is the 2010 DC Comprehensive Assessment System or CAS Test.
Three classrooms (out of 3,800 across the city) just had test results thrown out because of alleged cheating.
“At one [classroom], there was clear evidence of cheating and the teacher admitted it,” says D.C. State Superintendent of Education Hosanna Mahaley. “In the other two, there was a suspicion of cheating. But because we take test security so seriously, we decided to invalidate those test scores as well.”
She would not name the three schools involved, but sources tell FOX 5 they are C.W. Harris, Leckie and Noyes Elementary Schools.
One teacher has been dismissed. The other two are being disciplined.
“There’s a lot of pressure,” Mahaley says. “And I believe that most teachers want to do the right thing and sometimes just in the interest of trying to be helpful to children, a teacher may do something that may not be appropriate.”
Their union president says teachers are under a great deal of pressure when it comes to testing.
“Unfortunately, some individuals will consider an option of cheating,” says Washington Teachers Union President Nathan Saunders. “Not only is the teacher evaluation based on it to a large degree, but there’s also compensation. If the grades go up, then you’ll get an additional compensation.”
But Saunders says he does not condone cheating by teachers for any reason, let alone hefty bonuses that were being offered to teachers bringing up their classroom test scores.
In March, FOX 5 told you about reports of abnormally high numbers of erasure marks on standardized tests in the city. Wrong answers changed to correct ones, resulting in test score improvements much greater than what would be expected.
I love how they say that the teachers are doing it for the children. Ha. If it were for the children they actually would’ve taught them how to get good grades. But that’s a lot easier* than actually teaching them.
And why is one fired and the other two are “disclipined?” This is a disgrace and there’s no way I believe that only three teachers cheated. Let’s face it, three teachers were so bad at it that they got caught. Disgusting.
May 21, 2011 at 4:53 pm
I don't deny that would they did was despicable. Nonetheless, it shows how poor our education system is where standardized are now seen as adequate measurements of learning. Furthermore, with cries for merit pay to be instituted it is not surprising that some of this stuff is going on. I see that part of the problem is that there appears to be a whole attitude of "if the kids ain't learning then its the teachers fault!" The character of the students and the fact that we have a culture that does not value learning is also to blame. Honestly if the problems in education continue I think we can expect to see more of these underhanded actions.
May 21, 2011 at 5:39 pm
Circling with a red pen. But that's a lot harder than actually teaching them. I know what you are trying to say, but cheating would be the harder thing to do given the way you constructed this sentence.
That said, I agree, this is horrid and DC schools decided they preferred to be mediocre or abysmal when they frog marched Michelle Rhee out because she fired people.
May 21, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Don't get me started on standardised testing like this. I know how to take a test – I can take a multiple choice or essay test on just about any topic and do fairly well just because I know how to take tests and not because I actually know the topic. Conversely, my sister gets test anxiety and doesn't always perform well on tests no matter how well she knows the material. Standardised tests are not necessarily a good way of determining what a child knows or doesn't. Unfortunately, the emphasis in some places is on the testing, with teachers' bonuses and kids' grades tied to it. This leads to teachers teaching to the test (sometimes enforced by administration) instead of giving a more balanced curriculum and to students freaking out about this one test instead of truly learning. Just my opinion and limited experience from teaching in FL.
May 21, 2011 at 6:48 pm
I know this may not fit the script of some partisans out their BUT: I believe that the vast majority of teachers are honest hard-working citizens who are frustratingly held accountable for variables outside of their control (i.e. disruptive student behavior, disrespectful student behavior, poor student attendance, poor work-habits and poor study habits, etc…). I think it's time for us to stop looking the gift-horse in the mouth and maybe start supporting teachers by demanding a little more societal accountability for the ways of our permissive society. Teachers can not and NEVER WILL be able to fix the symptoms of a permissively sick society. As convenient and politically satisfying as it may be, we really need to resist the temptation to teacher-bash and work harder to change the ills of our society. When society changes, we'll begin to see that manifeted in education as well. In the meantime, I don't believe the teaching profession has more cheaters than our political professions and Wall Street banking professions.
May 21, 2011 at 7:18 pm
I was a teacher. Every teacher that is good, is degraded by those that are poor. The poor ones hide behind the good ones. But this is about teachers cheating and changing answers on a standardized test to make themselves look good; not a critique of all public schools or a dissertation on what's wrong.
May 21, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Sherry, thanks for the correction.
May 21, 2011 at 7:32 pm
False. The good teachers are not degraded by poor teachers. The good teachers are degraded by teacher-bashers, politicians looking for a scapegoat for their poor policies and ineffective leadership peppered with partisans who have an axe to grinde with public education. It's a societal problem, not a teacher-cheating problem. Take the handful of "cheating teachers" and you still have a societal problem. We're focusing on the wrong segment of society. "Cheating teachers" are not the primary problem with society and education;excessive permissivenes is.
May 21, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Public education is a social contract. There are 3 parties in this contract: teachers, parents, and students. Each party has roles and responsibilities. Unfortunately, my experience has been that there is little or no accountability for the last 2 parties; ESPECIALLY in poorly performing schools. Teachers are called on to pick up the slack of the other 2 groups. Now, pile on merit pay, or threaten teachers with a loss of income based almost entirely on standardized test scores (tests which vary greatly in content and rigor from state to state) and you get a a handful of principals committing suicide, more than a handful of teachers cheating, and society screaming all the louder that public education is broken. Huh-uh. Society is broken. The contract is broken. What's happening in our public schools is only a symptom, or perhaps a reflection of this brokenness. Here endeth the rant.
May 22, 2011 at 4:04 am
The People, bless 'em, get exactly what they vote for — when they bother to vote at all. Birth certificates? Let everyone show his (the pronoun is gender-neutral) voter registration.
— Mack Hall
May 22, 2011 at 2:47 pm
I AM the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember to keep holy the Lord's day.
Honor thy father and thy mother that thou shalt be long-lived upon the face of the earth.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.
Thou shalt not covet they neighbor's goods.
Permissive society? Who gave anyone the right or freedom to violate all that is kept HOLY by our founding principles? The sovereign authority of our Supreme Court, our government, is not, never has been, and never will be given the power to subvert human nature. The laws of God, Who is our Creator, has created man in His Image. Sadly, Stephen Hawkins, who says that he is created by the laws of gravity is a law of gravity unto himself, but not a sovereign person created by the Person of God. Wild demons have been let loose upon the face of the earth to consume human flesh. The law of God, our Creator; the law of man, unto us, must be restored. Please remove from our face the lies of the devil. Please remove from our face the lies, falsehoods and errors of the atheist. Removing our Creator from our midst has annihilated any semblance of sanity and law and order. God did not create me to be subject to tyranny. America is not established to inflict evil of every sort on the sovereign citizens who constitute this nation. Give us back our founding freedoms and tell the atheist there is a better way, Only TRUTH has FREEDOM. The atheist comes before the throne of God and says that he created himself: SPONTANEOUS CREATION. There can be only ONE SUPREME SOVEREIGN BEING, as two preempt one another. So, the atheist gets preempted and these American citizens got stuck with the fool.
It is Sunday.
May 22, 2011 at 2:52 pm
of necessity there can be ony ONE SUPREME SOVEREIGN BEING. Who needs two? Why, the atheist, almighty God and himself. Show me one atheist who did not die and I will show you a liar.
May 22, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Allahu Akbar!
May 23, 2011 at 12:42 am
Allah is a name of God, Who has no begotten Son to love and to love Him and no love between them. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the daughter of the Most High God and spouse of the Holy Spirit. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of the begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, and our Mother. Allah must be very sad, having no daughter to love Him, no son to love Him, no Holy Spirit of Love.
May 23, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Would you rather a teacher be caught cheating or that a cheater be caught teaching? I would rather have this bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
May 23, 2011 at 2:27 pm
Testing reveals way too much information that ought to be kept personal and it causes stress which causes young men and women to drink alcohol to relieve that stress which causes inhibitions to fall which causes young men and women to think that fornication will be really helpful to relieve stress which means that some young women will get pregnant which means that some of those young women will have an abortion and so I think the connection between testing and abortion is scientifically established which means that if you are Pro-Life you must be anti-testing.
May 23, 2011 at 2:51 pm
There are NO bad teachers, only people who try to make them look bad. They all care about children or they wouldn't be doing that job. (IT is NOT the summer break. It really isn't always two months long, there is all kinds of training that comes up, not to mention all the extra hours grading and writing lesson plans. I'll bet none of you have to come home from your day jobs and then do MORE work at night!)
It is ridiculous that teachers are forced to give tests that hold all students to the same standard. How can we do that? All students are different! So each student should be held to a different standard! All teachers are different too. They should all be paid the same, but not held to the same teaching standard. What if they have more thug punk kids in their class? Is that their fault? They shouldn't be punished. The students are the problem here – and their parents.
We should just ask the students if they think they learned enough for what they want to do in life. A yes or no test. That's it.
You should all be grateful we have people willing to put up with these kids!
May 23, 2011 at 4:39 pm
@Mary Devoe:
While I've no problem with the content of your post, do think that it would be possible for you to actually respond to the teacher cheating thing – directly?
Do you really need to quote us the entire 10 Commandments and discuss atheism and Stephen Hawking? It comes across as kind of odd. Like if I said to you "pass the salt, Mary" and in reply you quoted me the Beatitudes. Nice and all, but off topic in a way, no?
You want people to read what you write, yes? Suspect that few read that post. Or are you just praying to yourself through your keyboard? Not picking on you. Surely there is another way, though, to express your point?
May 23, 2011 at 10:31 pm
There really are no bad students because they were raised by parents who really didn't know what they were doing because the government does not make them pass a test before they fornicate or charge the marriage debt on a stolen Credit Card or whatever and so they rear children( No homosexual marriage jokes, please) who are nearly as dumb as Bush (just not delectably electable as he was) and so the most logical thing to do is to grow government like a goiter receiving a steroid drip and make parents cough-up some cash for an MPS (Marriage Permission Slip) issued by USMB (United States Marriage Bureau)and then we'd all be happier and Teachers could be paid to retire earlier as long as they agreed to forcibly volunteer to go to Nicaragua and volunteer to make pants for the Campesinos and such.
May 24, 2011 at 8:07 pm
"Grow government like a goiter." Ha! This whole thread is so funny. I do love the Catholic interwebs.
A good cheater at least shows some sign of intelligence…
May 24, 2011 at 9:36 pm
And the way some choose to direct attention away from valid comments is annoying. Just admit you're a teacher-hater if you are or make a coherent argument. Otherwise please do not waste our time.