[Presbyterian Reporter]

I looked at the results for my own community and there are two high schools with very suspect results. One school went from a "D" grade to an "A" grade. That is statistically impossible without teachers cheating.

Check the results in your own community.

[struggle]

Same thing happened to a high school in Port Royal, MS. Went from a ‘1’ (lowest) to a ‘5’ (highest) in one year with a new principal.

[from occupied ga]

Schools scramble to stop cheating scandals

Note the inadvertent honesty in the headline - stop the scandals, not the cheating.

[YHAOS]

. . . closing the barn door . . .

[wrench]

Prison time, forfeiture of test score based bonuses, and loss of all retirement benefits will make this sort of behavior stop instantly.

While I hate the phrase “for the children”, this crime really does penalize the kids the most. A student really only has one chance to learn, and that window isn’t but a few years long. If the “educators” are spending their time in the lounge altering test sheets, the kids are being short changed on their instruction.

Get rid of all the wiz-bang electronic toys and go back to the 3 “R”s.

[reaganaut]

Education specialists say the scandals are largely driven by the high stakes attached to the tests. After the implementation of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, schools can be labeled as “failing” if test scores don’t improve, leading some teachers and administrators to take matters into their own hands.

- - - - - - - - -

I’m surprised the WT gave the ‘its Bush’s fault’ line.

To the *cough* educators - here is a concept: TRY ACTUALLY TEACHING!!!!!

[shoff]

Where did you find this information I would like to check local but I can’t find it.

[reaganaut]

How do we check the scores?

[A_perfect_lady]

I wish I could make Freepers understand how bad these tests are, how disconnected they are from the kids we teach and the curriculum that is imposed upon us. The people who make these tests and the people who impose our curriculum are not the same people, folks. We get this curriculum wherein we are instructed... ORDERED... to have the kids read Maya Angelou, bell hooks, Gary Soto, Amy Tan... contemporary writers from a politically correct roster who tend to write fairly simply, in short sentences...

Then the kids get the state tests with excerpts from Call of the Wild and Anne of Green Gables. You can just imagine these kids' reactions. They have no idea what the heck they are looking at.

As a teacher, my options are: don't teach the curriculum (and get into trouble), help them with the test (and get into trouble), or let them fail (and get into trouble.) It's miserable.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

DONATE

Sponsoring FReepers are contributing $10 Each time a New Monthly Donor signs up!
Get more bang for your buck!
Please Sign up Now!

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Now that we have federalized the education system throughout the country there are no good solutions.

Trust the local schools to do the right thing and they will cheat.

Bring in the feds and it costs more money and prevents the local schools from making their own decisions.

We should get rid of this 'No Child Left Behind' nonsense, get rid of the Dept of Education, and return the control of schools back to the states and localities.

Over time kids from bad schools will by-and-large not get into the best universities or get employment with the best companies.

Let the market decide who gets to make a living and who gets to go on welfare.