If the teachers had been doing their job in the first place, properly evaluating their students, helping those who were behind catch up, and teaching them the material they should have been teaching them, there would have been no shortcomings.
As for the teachers cheating, it's just another step down the same road: they didn't do their job and expected to get bonuses for failure. They didn't even have the sand to stand up and say "We have a problem here."--as they all should have, but instead turned on those teachers who did.
I have seen similar failures in local schools where students having difficulty with material are shoved in a study hall with no help and told to do a stack of papers.
If they could have, they would not ask for help. Then those same students are encouraged to drop out of school, (improving the overall test scores for the school).
I wonder if there is a 'profit motive' in it for the local teachers as well.
The last years of my teaching career were under Ted Kennedy’s brain child, No Child Left Behind. Like so many liberal ideas it sounded good, but it could never succeed in the real world. It basically tried to repeal the bell-shaped curve.
Instead of recognizing that half of everything (including precious children) have to be below average, it insisted that after a passage of time (I think 14 years) 100% of students would be functioning at or above grade level. Every year after passage of NCLB the percentage crept closer to the 100% goal. So if 2007’s goal was 70%, it meant that 70% of your school’s students had to score at or above grade level on the test or your school and district failed. Two or three years of failing and penalties started to kick in. And remember, the percentage required to pass kept getting higher every year.
But wait, it gets even better. Every identifiable sub group at your school (blacks, Latino, Pacific Islanders, limited English, free/reduced lunch, special Ed students, handicapped, etc. etc.) had to also pass at that same 70% rate. If one sub group failed to make its goal, the school was marked as deficient.
Right about the time Obama took office, the passing grades for NCLB were getting so high that no school could be expected to get a passing grade. So the Dept of Ed started issuing waivers to states that agreed to Obama’s Race to the Top, which is where Common Core raises its ugly head.
The practical results of NCLB were several. Schools and districts became obsessed with passing “The Test”. (Each state set its own standard. States that set high standards got screwed first on NCLB). As time passed, standards were lowered. Reading and math became the only subjects that were really important, since they were the subjects being tested. And most of the schools’ efforts were devoted to bring up the low scores, so programs for gifted kids were abandoned. And the pressure to cheat was there, especially on administrators, since under NCLB, their jobs were at risk if a school failed several years in a row.
Instead of standing on their hind legs and telling the powers-that-be that NCLB’s goal of 100% success was absurd, the Atlanta group decided that honor and honesty could be set aside, to get awards and praises and to hell with what they were teaching their students. I hope they all do time.