Under Pressure, Teachers Tamper With Tests

cnredd · #1 (**permalink**) 06-11-2010, 12:07 PM

Setting the example...

Quote:

The staff of Normandy Crossing Elementary School outside Houston eagerly awaited the results of state achievement tests this spring. For the principal and assistant principal, high scores could buoy their careers at a time when success is increasingly measured by such tests. For fifth-grade math and science teachers, the rewards were more tangible: a bonus of $2,850.

But when the results came back, some seemed too good to be true. Indeed, after an investigation by the Galena Park Independent School District, the principal, assistant principal and three teachers resigned May 24 in a scandal over test tampering.

The district said the educators had distributed a detailed study guide after stealing a look at the state science test by “tubing” it — squeezing a test booklet, without breaking its paper seal, to form an open tube so that questions inside could be seen and used in the guide. The district invalidated students’ scores.

Of all the forms of academic cheating, none may be as startling as educators tampering with children’s standardized tests. But investigations in Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, Virginia and elsewhere this year have pointed to cheating by educators. Experts say the phenomenon is increasing as the stakes over standardized testing ratchet higher — including, most recently, taking student progress on tests into consideration in teachers’ performance reviews.

Oftencold · #2 (**permalink**) 06-11-2010, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd

Setting the example...

Under Pressure, Teachers Tamper With Tests

As with all Educational issues, the obvious solution (from the Statists) would be to increase teacher pay, as this sad incident so clearly illustrates.

alan · #3 (**permalink**) 06-11-2010, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oftencold

As with all Educational issues, the obvious solution (from the Statists) would be to increase teacher pay, as this sad incident so clearly illustrates.

And more teachers and administrators are needed also. Less work and more pay for them will dramatically improve performance.

PinkSpoon · #4 (**permalink**) 06-11-2010, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pat

And more teachers and administrators are needed also. Less work and more pay for them will dramatically improve performance.

How about we just go back to no school. Kids can be taught by their parents like the "old days."

Oftencold · #5 (**permalink**) 06-11-2010, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PinkSpoon

How about we just go back to no school. Kids can be taught by their parents like the "old days."

Considering the home schooled kids I've known, we could raise the educational level of the country by about 100% in 12 years with this approach.

If we add to that requiring people uninterested in educating themselves to perform appropriate labor, and we might usher in a golden age.

PinkSpoon · #6 (**permalink**) 06-11-2010, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oftencold

Considering the home schooled kids I've known, we could raise the educational level of the country by about 100% in 12 years with this approach.

If we add to that requiring people uninterested in educating themselves to perform appropriate labor, and we might usher in a golden age.

I'm all for homeschooling but ONLY if the parents take it seriously. I've known home schooled kids who are very well educated and home schooled kids whose education was severly neglected.

If done well, homeschooled kids are better educated than most kids who go to public/private school.

One of the problems we have is that too many parents use school as the babysitter and would never consider such a thing.

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