Posted on 09/25/2014 5:18:06 PM PDT by george76
Prosecutors are using a law originally enacted to go after mobsters to accuse former principals, teachers, and administrators of trying to boost their bonuses by conspiring to artificially raise kids' test scores. While only 12 ex-educators are on trial in Atlanta, dozens of teachers and administrators were initially charged and many have since pleaded guilty in exchange for their cooperation.
The dozen on trial could get up to 20 years in prison, and they might never have been prosecuted if it weren't for a pair of ambitious reporters at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC).
Back in 2008, Heather Vogell, now a reporter for ProPublica, noticed unusual gains at some schools on a standardized test called the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). As she explained to the Huffington Post, the gains seemed unbelievable even to the naked eye.
...
the state of Georgia conducted its own investigation, which in 2011 uncovered cheating at 44 schools that involved at least 178 educators.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
make them walk the plank
Presumably not a candidate for Freeper of the Year award, but even a broken (analog) clock is right twice a day, and this was the kind of investigative journalism that the First Amendment was designed to support.
The system was set up where the teachers, principals, and administrators were all evaluated based on student scores on standardized tests.
Personal performance, retention, raises, and bonuses were all based on those scores.
It did not take long for the teachers, principals, and administrators to determine that it was much easier to manipulate the test scores than to actually teach the students.
The real losers were the pawns in the game, the students.
Isn’t it strange that as soon as race enters into people committing crimes it’s labeled a witch hunt.
These teachers didn’t do it for the children, they did it for money.
they did it for money...
principals, teachers, and administrators boost their bonuses by conspiring to artificially raise kids’ test scores.
I seriously doubt it. Not quite the royalty class like the Kennedys, or other high Government officials -- but Union teachers are pretty much untouchable in today's society (laws for thee and not for me)...
Government union employees involved in RICO crimes.
Wow, who didn’t see this coming?/sarcasm//
Eject the politicians and the unions out of education, and most of the corruption will vanish overnight.
Potentially, there is very rash assumption implicit in that statement.
That whatever oversight is substituted will in fact deal with the deadwood and with the documented incompetents.
I'll see it when I believe it!
“I’ll see it when I believe it!”
err...I’m not certain how I, or any rational person, should or could reply to that comment....
“The real losers were the pawns in the game, the students.”
Don’t forget the taxpayers.
Yep, imagine that. The oldest reason in the book.
Decertify the union as it was involved.
Ban every teacher, administrator and principal identified from working in schools for life.
Make it impossible for this type of cheating to occur again.
All pensions and retirement are forfeited.
They are never allowed to teach at any level including college, public or private, again.
Dang!
There goes NBC’s plan to make a heart warming, made for TV film. Focusing on an elementary school and its administrators.
Forced to conspire, cheat and drum answers into the skulls of generational, functionally illiterate children. To fight an oppressive society!!!
Doesn’t hurt to acknowledge honor, where it exists, on the other side.
The other rash assumption is that even if the current school board politicians were removed, that the electorate involved wouldn’t vote in one just as bad. Remember that just east of here Cynthia McKinney was replaced by Hank “Guam tipping” Johnson.
This demonstrates the validity of arguments against teacher bonuses. They reward teachers who cheat. Another issue is that who's enrolled in a class for the tests can (and is) used to make some teachers look good and others to look bad.
The best way to improve performance is to have excellent even handed discipline and to have as few transfers as possible for teachers, administrators and students. Stability, high behavioral expectations, and broad curriculum requirements being met would work just fine.
The real losers were the pawns in the game, the students”””
Thew students were the secondary losers.
The real losers were the taxpayers, who paid for this criminal behavior & then thought they were getting a usable product at the end of the education pipeline which was employable.
The whole purpose for Georgia's CRCT exams was to comply with the No Child Left Behind act.
Federal funding under the LNCB act requires that states that receive federal funding under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 must provide annual standardized testing to all students.
Certain grades must show Adequate Yearly Progress. This means that, no matter how well your fifth graders scored last year, this year's fifth graders must score better. If 99.5 of your fifth graders passed last year, then 99.6% or more must pass this year. At some point, it's impossible to continue to meet AYP. If you ever have a class that hits 100% for your school, you're doomed to failure; you can never show improvement. I certainly don't mean that's why AYP is not always met, but you see the problem.
Schools that miss AYP goals for two years are labeled 'in need of improvement' by the federal government and must prepare a two-year action plan. Can you imagine the impact on a school to receive that federal label and the pain to deal with a two-year federal action plan?
Three years and the school has to provide free tutoring and supplemental education.
Four years, and the federal government declares that 'corrective action' must be taken, which may mean replacement of the whole staff or introduction of a new curriculum.
Five years and plans to restructure the whole school are put into place, and after six years the school is closed, or a private company is hired to run it, etc.
Now, take my wife's school. In the last four years, her class size has increased from 19 to 27. Her number of ESOL students has increased from 0 to 8. Three of her students this year started the school year unable to speak english. One speaks Arabic, one speaks Chinese (Mandarin or what, I don't know), and one speaks an African dialect for which the school district does not have a translator. Another students is a mainstreamed special education student. Two students were recommended to be held back in the first grade last years, but the parents demanded promotion to the second grade. The parent, parents, or guardian of five of her students do not speak English. A large part of the problem is that the school's district was gerrymandered so that the children of a newly elected school board member could send his kids to schools of his choice.
My wife comes home in tears. She's never had a teaching experience like this. I've seen the homework and I'm stunned. These kids can't spell their own names and don't know that 2+1=3.
Does the federal government really expect that this year's class will outscore last year's class? Or that last year's class would outscore the previous year's?
It's not an excuse, but it's the reason that teachers, principals, and administrators are evaluated on student scores based on standardized tests - the federal government bases federal funds on standardized test results.
What was done in the Atlanta Public School System was outrageous. Even more outrageous is that the Deal Report indicated that many non APS schools had wrong-to-right erasure scores a couple of standard deviations from the norm, but were not investigated. After that, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution did an in-depth story with an interactive map showing the cities across the country where suspicious test results occurred in 15% or 10% of the schools in a school district.
It's never been just Atlanta. In fact, those administrators fired from Atlanta were promptly hired by other school districts across the country.
The entire system reeks.
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