America's biggest teacher and principal cheating scandal unfolds in Atlanta

[pauldun170]

America's biggest teacher and principal cheating scandal unfolds in Atlanta
At least 178 teachers and principals in Atlanta Public Schools cheated to raise student scores on high-stakes standardized tests, according to a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Award-winning gains by Atlanta students were based on widespread cheating by 178 named teachers and principals, said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday. His office released a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that names 178 teachers and principals – 82 of whom confessed – in what's likely the biggest cheating scandal in US history.

This appears to be the largest of dozens of major cheating scandals, unearthed across the country. The allegations point an ongoing problem for US education, which has developed an ever-increasing dependence on standardized tests.

The report on the Atlanta Public Schools, released Tuesday, indicates a "widespread" conspiracy by teachers, principals and administrators to fix answers on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT), punish whistle-blowers, and hide improprieties.

It "confirms our worst fears," says Mayor Kasim Reed. "There is no doubt that systemic cheating occurred on a widespread basis in the school system." The news is “absolutely devastating," said Brenda Muhammad, chairwoman of the Atlanta school board. "It’s our children. You just don’t cheat children.”

RECOMMENDED: Education reform: eight school chiefs to watch in 2011

On its face, the investigation tarnishes the 12-year tenure of Superintendent Beverly Hall, who was named US Superintendent of the Year in 2009 largely because of the school system's reported gains – especially in inner-city schools. She has not been directly implicated, but investigators said she likely knew, or should have known, what was going on. In her farewell address to teachers in June, Hall for the first time acknowledged wrongdoing in the district, but blamed other administrators.

The Atlanta cheating scandal also offers the first most comprehensive view yet into a growing number of teacher-cheating allegations across the US, reports of which reached a rate of two to three a week in June, says Robert Schaeffer, a spokesman for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, which advocates against high-stakes testing.

It's also a tacit indictment, critics say, of politicians putting all bets for improving education onto high-stakes tests that punish and reward students, teachers, and principals for test scores.

"When test scores are all that matter, some educators feel pressured to get the scores they need by hook or by crook," says Mr. Schaeffer. "The higher the stakes, the greater the incentive to manipulate, to cheat."
Cheating in Atlanta Public Schools

The 55,000-student Atlanta public school system rose in national prominence during the 2000s, as test scores steadily rose and the district received notice and funding from the Broad Foundation and the Gates Foundation. But behind that rise, the state found, were teachers and principals in 44 schools erasing and changing test answers.

One of the most troubling aspects of the Atlanta cheating scandal, says the report, is that the district repeatedly refused to properly investigate or take responsibility for the cheating. Moreover, the central office told some principals not to cooperate with investigators. In one case, an administrator instructed employees to tell investigators to "go to hell." When teachers tried to alert authorities, they were labeled "disgruntled." One principal opened an ethics investigation against a whistle-blower.

Investigations by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) and state investigators found a pattern consistent with other cheating scandals: a spike in test scores in one critical grade would be followed by an equally dramatic drop the next year. A USA Today investigation in March found that erasure data in six states and the District of Columbia showed these "abnormal patterns," according to testing expert Thomas Haladyna at Arizona State University.

The Atlanta testing allegations led to the first major law enforcement investigation of teacher cheating. Scandals in other states have typically been investigated by state officials. In response to recent teacher cheating allegations in Baltimore, Michael Sarbanes, the district's community engagement director, told District Management Journal, an industry publication for school administrators, that manipulating a test is "inherent in human nature, [although] we think people who do that are outliers."
The high stakes for teachers

Ten states now use test scores as the main criterion in teacher evaluations. Other states reward high-scoring teachers with up to $25,000 bonuses – while low scores could result in principals losing their jobs or entire schools closing. Even as the number of scandals grows, experts say it remains fairly easy for teachers and principals to get away with ethical lapses.

"I think the broadest issue in the [Atlanta scandal] raises is why many school districts and states continue to have high-stakes testing without rigorous auditing or security procedures," says Brian Jacob, director of the Center on Local, State and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan. "In some sense, this is one of the least worrisome problems in public education, because it's fairly easy to fix. The more difficult and troubling behavior would be teaching to the test, which we think of as a lesser form of test manipulation, but which is much harder to detect, and could warp the education process in ways that we wouldn't like."

In response to cheating scandals, some states and school districts have instituted tougher test-auditing standards, employing software that analyzes erasure rates and patterns. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is reforming NCLB to reduce pressure on teachers and principals. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in June that NCLB “is creating a slow-motion train wreck for children, parents, and teachers.” On the other hand, an Obama administration proposal – to pay bonuses to teachers who improve test scores in their classes – may shift the stakes without lowering them.

"The [Atlanta] teachers, principals and administrators wanted to prove that the faith of the Broad and Gates Foundations and the Chamber of Commerce in the district was not misplaced and that APS could rewrite the script of urban education in America and provide a happy, or at least a happier, ending for its students," writes the AJC's education columnist, Maureen Downey.

"And that’s what ought to alarm us," adds Ms. Downey, "that these professionals ultimately felt their students could not even pass basic competency tests, despite targeted school improvement plans, proven reforms, and state-of-the-art teacher training."

http://news.yahoo.com/americas-biggest-teacher-principal-cheating-scandal-unfolds-atlanta-213734183.html

[Avatard]

As if we don't short-change kids enough on education...let's lie about what little we do provide....

:(

[Trip]

No Teacher's Salary Left Behind...

[KSGregman]

Damn good thing those teachers are unionized to protect them from...wait....what?!

[OneSickPsycho]

Damn good thing those teachers are unionized to protect them from...wait....what?!

Apoc rides in on his teamsters horse with his 'unions rock' t-shirt in 3... 2... 1...

[Kaneman]

Goddamn. This story is blowing my mind. I wonder how common this really is across America. I can tell you that my son's school is a fucking joke, that half his classmates can't even speak English much less read it, and that his school gets constant Exemplary ratings from the state education board.....

[Dave]

Goddamn. This story is blowing my mind. I wonder how common this really is across America. I can tell you that my son's school is a fucking joke, that half his classmates can't even speak English much less read it, and that his school gets constant Exemplary ratings from the state education board.....

Public schools need to get nixed. Sick and tired of having about 30% of my income stolen every year to pay for some dickhead's slobbering bastard children's mediocre "education".

[Particle Man]

Public schools need to get nixed. Sick and tired of having about 30% of my income stolen every year to pay for some dickhead's slobbering bastard children's mediocre "education".

Gotta look at the other side of the coin too: many look at our public schools as baby sitters instead of educators.

Kid getting into fights on the weekend? Must be the school's fault...

Kid buying/selling crack on the side? Must be the school's fault...

[Kaneman]

Gotta look at the other side of the coin too: many look at our public schools as baby sitters instead of educators.

Kid getting into fights on the weekend? Must be the school's fault...

Kid buying/selling crack on the side? Must be the school's fault...

If these "educators" as you call them have possession of the children for the majority of daylight hours aren't they somewhat responsible for raising them as well?

You can't expect a decent school system to overcome shitty parenting....but can you expect good parenting to overcome a shitty school system?

[OneSickPsycho]

Gotta look at the other side of the coin too: many look at our public schools as baby sitters instead of educators.

Kid getting into fights on the weekend? Must be the school's fault...

Kid buying/selling crack on the side? Must be the school's fault...

I've known a few teachers and administrators... that's their biggest issue that they have to deal with... stupid parents.

[Particle Man]

I've known a few teachers and administrators... that's their biggest issue that they have to deal with... stupid parents.

I taught High School - that's one of the reasons I left.

[Avatard]

I've known a few teachers and administrators... that's their biggest issue that they have to deal with... stupid parents.

It's a shame, right? And to think, they could have been educated as kids...

It's the circle of life, Simba. The dumbness downward spiral of doom.

[OneSickPsycho]

It's a shame, right? And to think, they could have been educated as kids...

It's the circle of life, Simba. The dumbness downward spiral of doom.

http://goofygifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/funny-verticals-lion-king-baww.gif

[fujimoh]

When you tie pay and money to test scores, they will either dumb down the test, or cheat. Why should we expect anything else from unionized, government employ...er...public servants?

[pauldun170]

When you tie pay and money to test scores, they will either dumb down the test, or cheat. Why should we expect anything else from unionized, government employ...er...public servants?

If you tie pay and money to stock prices they will either embark on destructive short term endeavours to pump up the stock price or mislead the investors outright.

If you tie pay and money to units produced, they will either take shortcuts in the manufacturing process or they will use simpler less robust components.

If you tie pay and money to tickets issued, they will abuse the system and issue unwarranted tickets with the hope that most people will not fight it.

If you tie predictable human behaviours with every little pet peeve you have with today's society you can have pointless posts like mine.


The issue in Atlanta is not that they are unionised. The issue is that they are southerners from Atlanta. Dealing with kids from Atlanta.

By definition they put 85% effort into anything they do (if it is not directly tied to their own household. If they are working for someone else...gat damn they take forever to do everything. Working for themselves...they are alight).

I know this as fact because I heard it on the some radio show....or maybe it was on the TV.


As you know...I'm just kidding.

Everyone knows this is what happens when you put obese women in the same room as a black man with a suit. Shit is gonna get corrupted QUICK SON!!!

Wait...thats not right...its not racial.
Its all the liberal northerners who moved down there. Northerners and their fucking spreadsheets.


SERIOUSLY....this is why you don't let women run things. Anywhere you have women running the show like schools and hospitals its all fucked up...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbK9eybE35E





Honestly....I think its just a sad situation where you have a lot of asshole kids, lazy parents and people (many of which have had their spirit broken dealing with kids coming into the school) worrying about their jobs being taken away.
Because of little assholes whose parents put no emphasis on education run around the schools dragging everyone else down, educators who are forced by lawyers and parents too adopt all these stupid policies and procedures to cover their ass are


I forgot my point.

I had none really.

Atlanta sucks.
NYC schools suck.

Out district doesn't suck though. We have a lot of good districts where we are. Parents are still a pain in the ass but their is a bigger emphasis on education here (meaning do well and get you ass to college)

Not as much as that "Just kill time until I get picked up by the NFL\NBA\get a record deal\I'm just going to join the service anyway after school\Imma gonna get on that TV show" that seems to ...just kidding. I'm never went to school down their so I dont know what its like.


What Atlanta needs is more Asian people (not CHINESE chinese people they suck...you gotta find some nice Koreans\Japanese\Indian people), gays and Jewish people. That is going to be the only way to turn things around down there.


That's all I can think of for now....anyone have anything else to add?


In all seriousness...this post has effectively ended all political aspirations I may have.
Pretty sure its going to come back to screw me in any employment moves I make.


Fuck you all

Where is my fucking Google + invites and how come you guys aren't my facebook friends?

assholes.

[Kaneman]

I'm probably the only one that thinks our public schools suck on purpose huh?

[shmike]

I'm probably the only one that thinks our public schools suck on purpose huh?

Please expound...

[OneSickPsycho]

Please expound...

Wait... don't respond yet...

[OneSickPsycho]

http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/files/1/1/5/8/0/tinfoil_hat.jpg

Ok... Ready.

[Kaneman]

http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/files/1/1/5/8/0/tinfoil_hat.jpg

Ok... Ready.

Nicely played.

Simply put, a well educated, intelligent and thoughtful society would not allow the big brotherish type government control that we have now and are moving ever more deeply into. Public school is there to dumb-down the populace, ensure allegiance, stifle independent rational thought and make sure there is always a large percentage of the population that is easily manipulated, gullible and fat.

The Underground History of American Education by John Gatto is a pretty good read on this subject. But you don't have to read a book to see what's going on, just have a kid who's in public school look at the bullshit they're taught and how little education of substance they get.

Here's an article I pulled up while looking for the name of that book that reports on the actual current state of education, and not so much the conspiracy theory that Government and Big Business has a very vested interest in making sure your kids are dumb little servants.

Dumbing Down Our Schools

By Ruth Mitchell
Tuesday, April 27, 2004; Page A21

In a high school science class, students are learning the metric system to measure parts of a diagram. In a high school English class, students are coloring shields that represent a Greek god or goddess. A 10th-grade biology class is cutting out labels to be glued on paper in the correct order of photosynthesis.

If you visited these classes and didn't look at the sign over the door of the school, you might think you were in an elementary school, or a middle school at best. But such classes are not atypical in large urban high schools, where, except for the Advanced Placement (AP) and honors classes, much of the classroom work is below grade level.

On one trip to a Midwestern city, I found one out of eight assignments at grade level in two high schools. A colleague popped in on about 40 English classes in the course of a day at a West Coast high school and found one -- just one -- class where real learning was going on.

This is the dirty secret in the wars over teacher quality: the low level of academic work at all levels in far too many schools. The consequences of low-level work are seen in poor test results: Students given only work that is below their grade level cannot pass standardized tests about material they have never seen.

I'm not alone in trying to focus attention on the low level of teaching. A West Coast group called DataWorks has been analyzing the work given to students since the late 1990s. In one California elementary school, DataWorks found that 2 percent of the work in the fifth grade was on grade. That's not a misprint: 98 percent of the work that students were doing was at the level of the fourth, third, second and even first grades. In South Carolina, DataWorks looked at work assigned in 14 high schools and found that most of the 12th-grade work was just below 10th grade level.

The public is largely unaware of the problem. Those who follow education, write editorials and commentaries and make policy were themselves successful students who were in the highest tracks at their high schools, and their children are also successful students enjoying the best and most experienced teachers, because they're in the AP and International Baccalaureate (IB) classes. Legislators and policymakers tend to come from a social class in which people not only have benefited from good teachers but also have fond memories of a particular teacher or teachers who turned them on to the pleasures of poetry or the intricacies of DNA.

Students in the schools we visit are not turned on. Black, brown, speaking broken or accented English, with cultural values clashing with those of the white middle class, they are seen as needing elementary instruction in secondary school; as capable only of drawing and coloring; as in need of discipline rather than encouragement. They are asked to make acrostics in middle school social studies; to write eight sentences in high school English class; and to fill out endless worksheets in math class.

Teachers say they have to teach the students where they are, which means at sixth-grade level in high school if they can't read well. Their attitude may be compassionate, but it is misguided. There's ample evidence that accelerating instruction works better than retarding it in the name of remediation. Observations made in the Dallas Unified School District show that students who score well have teachers who cover the curriculum appropriate to the grade level. These teachers spend little time on drill and practice, and don't remediate in the classroom but rather get help for students outside of class.

Too often, however, policymakers accept the teaching profession's excuses -- students' background and lack of parental support -- for student failure. Policymakers don't visit classrooms or, as we do, sit in on teacher meetings designed to help teachers reflect on their work. The experience can be profoundly depressing: In the West Coast high school, students in English classes were sleeping through movies, even in AP classes. And four of the teachers were late for class themselves.

Teachers have themselves been badly served by the educational system. Poorly trained for the most part and without subject-matter degrees at the elementary level, they are now being faced with requirements that students learn material at certain grade levels -- material that in some cases, such as elementary mathematics and science, teachers don't know themselves. Teachers have been trained to think their work is done if they have delivered the material in the textbook, kept the class from bothering the principal and assigned grades that don't fail too many students.

Their training was simply not adequate to the new demands of standards-based accountability. No wonder there's such an outcry against the accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act.

But no matter how much we may sympathize with the teachers, our concern must be with the children. The most pressing need in education for kindergarten through 12th grade today is massive teacher retraining. School boards and administrators who do not act to provide it are betraying the public trust.

[Avatard]

The only flaw in their plan of keeping Americans dumb, fat, ignorant, scared, and voting Republican is that now we're just all too dumb and fat to compete on an International level at all anymore, and the rest of the world is eating our lunch.

We were so far ahead of the rest of the civilized world previously, that this wasn't even a consideration before...only now they've all caught up (and in most cases, passed us...we're 17th in education now), and that plan is starting to backfire miserably.

We either need to educate, or rely on the growing strengths of other countries to take care of us; make our cars, pull back our military & let the UN lead...hey, soon we'll be getting foreign humanitarian aid to feel all those starving fat people in flyoverville...

Murica, fuck yeah!

[Kaneman]

and voting Republican


I just wanted to point out that I'm surprised there's something we have such a strong disagreement about. I agree with you more than anyone except AMJ maybe, but this is a big one to me. You honestly believe in your heart that there is less evil in the Ds than the Rs huh?

[Avatard]

Who routinely cuts more education? Who?

You're right...they're all bad...but who's worse?

I know the answer in my state.

Talking about education here, right?

Mine isn't even a political statement...it's a statement of fact.

[Avatard]

Are the fattest/dumbest states red?

Facts.

[shmike]

Who routinely cuts more education? Who?

You're right...they're all bad...but who's worse?

I know the answer in my state.

Talking about education here, right?

Mine isn't even a political statement...it's a statement of fact.

This is about the 3rd thread in as many days that you've been harping on education.

Why you so uppity lately?

Did you get your GED recently?

[Kaneman]

Who routinely cuts more education? Who?

You're right...they're all bad...but who's worse?

I know the answer in my state.

Most politicians that I have seen speak in support of legalization lately are Republican. And certainly those who are doing it the loudest are Republican. What say ye to that sir?

BTW, I'm not coming from a pro-republican stance here, but you know that. The pro-pot politicians being Republicans is probably mostly coincidence....you have to be one or the other to be taken seriously anyway.

I also think the current education fiasco has less to do with money and more to do with what is actually being taught in the schools and the way certain interests are able to very successfully influence what goes into the textbooks. Sure, there are definitely schools, especially in poor areas, that have educational problems related to money....but by and large I think the money is there, though a lot of it is being stolen.

Dude, you're in NJ.....fire up your Netflix right now and watch "The Cartel." Try not to have a stroke while you watch it. :lol:

[Kaneman]

Are the fattest/dumbest states red?

Facts.

That's a pretty good point. As a whole the dumbest fattest states are the most Republican. There is no denying that.

But I don't think that points to Dems as being the less evil, it just means their particular brand of propaganda appeals to more intelligent people. The end result (sociopathic rich dudes in power) is the same. The system is very good at making people think they have a choice to keep them from becoming restless and burning this motherfucker down.

This is about the 3rd thread in as many days that you've been harping on education.

Why you so uppity lately?

Did you get your GED recently?

He probably had to stop at a Walmart for some reason and took in all its humanly horrors.

[Avatard]

This is about the 3rd thread in as many days that you've been harping on education.

Why you so uppity lately?

Did you get your GED recently?

Actually, as you may have heard me cry the blues before, my scholastic career was soundly bungled, IMHO. In 9th grade, I had a first year college reading level...but I assure you it was with no help from my school. They couldn't even figure out I was an accelerated learner, and actually had held me back a grade previously (I was one of those kids right on the line, that could have gone in a year earlier, and I did, only to have them decide to hold me back a couple years later).

I grew to completely resent educators, education, and everything to do with the system that had screwed me, and had learned how to educate myself, as they were boring the ever living fuck out of me. What they should have done was move me 2 years ahead.

I am, however, smart enough to realize that my personal bad experiences cannot overshadow the fact that education is clearly the key to a society that can compete globally.

We're losing ground to the rest of the planet...that's just a simple fact.

My personal grudge against the education system takes a back seat, even in my mind, because of this.

Yes, I can put my personal prejudices aside.

:shrug:

[Avatard]

What say ye to that sir?


Careful; AMJ's on a quest to modernize English today.

:lmao:

[Archren]

He probably had to stop at a Walmart for some reason and took in all its humanly horrors.

These days all I have to do is go outside to see humanly horrors. They aren't staying just in Wal-Mart anymore.

Thankfully... not many make it to some of my preferred hang outs (like the Flying Saucer.. guess if there's no Bud Light, they're not interested :lol:), but the thought of having to fight all the miscreants on the road is usually enough to just keep me on the couch at home with a book or my tablet.

[fujimoh]

Who routinely cuts more education? Who?

You're right...they're all bad...but who's worse?

I know the answer in my state.

Talking about education here, right?

Mine isn't even a political statement...it's a statement of fact.


So your answer is to keep pumping greater and greater percentages of State budgets into a failing system? We have been throwing bales of money into that hole in the water for too long

I would personally like to see the Dept of Education in Florida dissolved and return all of that budget to the local school boards and let them control and decide how to educate their children in their neighborhoods.

[Avatard]

National curriculum. National independent student testing. Independent teacher testing and review.

Accountability that can't be faked by the administrators.

Watch them start using their resources more responsibly, or face unemployment.

Fixed.

[goof2]

I like how the author of the original article likes to blame the testing instead of the teachers. When a student is caught cheating does the test get blamed?

For all the gnashing of teeth over the testing that resulted from No Child Left Behind it strikes me as one of the least onerous ways to measure teacher performance under the current structure of our public education system. Teachers are bitching and moaning about it but they sure as hell wouldn't like what true oversight would look like.

The feds are giving out way too much money to way too many small fiefdoms for its effectiveness to be accurately tracked without a serious commitment on the part of individual schools and school systems. Unfortunately I think the primary thing those schools and school districts are committed to is getting more money from Uncle Sugar.

Kaneman, that was an interesting article you posted but it makes a big assumption without backing it up. It assumes the kids have the interest and ambition to do more than the teachers are giving them, only the teachers don't want to. I'm not sure that is the case for many of these students. The article also doesn't back up your premise that it is an active conspiracy to make the population dumb. With that author the blame is put on teacher laziness/incompetence/motivation. The article also readily states there are AP classes available and I can only guess with the way they describe the regular classes the standard to enter AP classes is not eating paste.

[MILK]

Its Georgia..

As we left Florida yesterday and entered GA my son said, "Oh great, is Georgia going to stink up the car again?". :lmao: