Atl. cheating scandal renews school reform debate

(CBS News) 

The Atlanta public schools are embroiled in a massive cheating scandal. It's a situation that's rippling far beyond the city's borders, because the alleged cheating involved the same sort of standardized tests used all over the country.

Most surprising is that it's not students who are accused, but 178 principals and teachers. Fifty-six schools were investigated, and cheating was found in 44, or nearly 80 percent, as CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports.

It's a scathing report: A decade of systemic cheating in Atlanta's school system by the adults. Dozens of educators erased wrong student answers on state standardized tests, and inserted the right ones.

In all, investigators accused 38 principals of cheating and said 82 of the 178 educators they identified as part of the scandal confessed.

"When educators have failed to uphold the public trust and students are harmed in the process there will be consequences," said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal.

The motive for cheating? It was to show phony progress at often troubled schools, what the report calls "the pressure to meet targets in the data-driven environment."

Regardless, some parents are calling for heads to roll.

Atlanta's scandal is the biggest in recent years, but other school systems, in Baltimore, Houston and Detroit, have had isolated cheating issues on state-wide tests.

Educator Diane Ravitch, author of "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education," blames it on a federal law that links funding with test performance.

"We have a terrible federal law called No Child Left Behind that says that all schools have to have 100 percent of their students proficient in reading in math by the year 2014 or their schools will be shut down," Ravitch said.

VIDEO: Atlanta testing scandal and "No Child Left Behind"

In Atlanta, the warning signs were there, but potential whistle-blowers were bullied, or worse. At one Atlanta high school, former teacher Paul Landerman saw a teacher helping 50 students change test answers. He reported it. The next day, he says, he was fired.

"The greatest value inside that system is loyalty to the system," Landerman said.

The report is very critical of Beverly Hall, the school system's former superintendent. Atlanta schools showed such progress during her term that in 2009, Hall was named America's superintendent of the year.

But investigators say Hall either knew of the cheating, or should have. She has denied that, but in her retirement video last month blamed other employees.

"I am confident that aggressive, swift action will be taken against anyone who believes so little in our students and in our system of support that they turned to dishonesty as the only option," Hall said.

Atlanta's interim school superintendent promised that anyone who cheated or was responsible for covering up the scandal will not work in an Atlanta classroom again.

As for whether there could be worse punishment for the cheaters, a standardized test is a government document. Altering one in Georgia can be a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

[benedicktus]

Comments from a teacher in Alaska about the status of her school, because of this 'standardized testing'
http://www.worldwidehippies.com/2011/07/06/thoughts-from-the-classroom/

I don't see how it's possible for teachers whose competence is based on how many students pass a test cannot lead to 'teaching to the test'. When a person's job is based primarily on the narrow scope of one test's results, of course problems are going to be involved, including teaching that makes sure students pass the test, pressure on the students to pass the test and other excesses. Unfortunately the test doesn't evaluate the relationship between student-teacher. Nor does it adequately evaluate what's going on in the classroom.
"No Child Left Behind" was set up to increase the number of students passing each year, and the concept is good. But unworkable. Students are being passed out of high school who can't read, write, spell, add, or think - at least beyond passing this test. There needs to be a better way of evaluating a students' progress.

[nearl451]

David Brooks' latest book describes it best. It was an epiphany to him. "No Child Left Behind", Teaching to the test, vouchers and privatization do not in themselves work.

To this day the best teachers are those who inspire their students and are are admired by their students. It is a close relationship between student and teacher that promote encouragement, challenges, and success.

[morriswise]

High school diplomas should be given to students that can give change of a twenty dollar bill. College diplomas for those able to change a 100 dollar bill.

[obwan222]

"Listening to teachers instead of using common sense like we used to is exactly why we're where we are today in education."

The problem is students have NOT been listening to teachers. And teachers have been increasingly asked to fill our students heads with facts instead of the ability to absorb, evaluate and use information.

Test-taking does little to evaluate how a student deals with problems, creates solutions and decides which solutions are best. Those things are best taught in a classroom where the emphasis isn't on who, when and where - but how and why.

"Listening to teachers instead of using common sense..."

I find this statement almost laughable since it seems obvious that common sense SAYS listen to your teachers.

I still remember many years ago when my teacher offered some criticism of my schoolwork in a parent-teacher conference. I began to offer a self-serving defense of my actions.

My father cut me off with a no-nonsense - "Don't argue with your teacher."

That was the end of that, I adopted the teacher's suggestions and I'm glad I did.

How many parents today teach there children to shut up and listen to their teachers?

[Sloughfoot]

80% of school investigated are confirmed to have been cheating. Unable to accomplish the assignment before them adults resort to cheating - a good example to set before the next generation of Americans.

[fairtax71]

GOVERNMENT EDUCATION=CHILD ABUSE

[formrusmcsgt]

by CuriousServant July 6, 2011 12:09 AM EDT
I'm a teacher... We do not cheat on our tests.

------
Ahem.

"Most surprising is that it's not students who are accused, but 178 principals and teachers."

[formrusmcsgt]

by CuriousServant July 6, 2011 12:09 AM EDT
Everyone thinks they kow how to fix education yet they do not talk to the people trained to do it and have been doing it. We have answers. ASK US WHAT IT TAKES AND WE CAN DO THIS BETTER!
---
You are as arrogant as you are ignorant.

What makes you think only teachers understand the learning process?

40 years ago, high school grads had vocabularies of approximately 52,000 words.

Today's grads average about 17,000.

Listening to teachers instead of using common sense like we used to is exactly why we're where we are today in education.

[WeHappyFew]

Turn of the 20th C it was well over 100,000 words. This is just a snowballing trend.

One thing changed. People stopped reading.

[jpd723]

Teachers understand the learning process because they have college degrees. Their coursework mandates that they take such courses as educational psychology, theories of learning, content methods, etc. They also understand because they are in the classroom designing lesson plans and modifying them to meet the needs of their students on a daily basis.

The research study that you reference, but that you do not cite, has been proven to be terribly flawed, meaning you cannot make any reliable comparison regarding the vocabulary of today's students and the students of 40 years ago: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2724/does-the-average-american-student-have-less-vocabulary-today-than-in-days-gone-by. Students today DO read; they just do in online (as we are now, actually). It would probably be shocking to you to learn the types of things they do in math classes in elementary school now. Most parents say it's what they remember doing in high school.

Perhaps you are as ignorant about what goes on in classrooms as you are condescending, judgmental, and patronizing.

[tmittelstaed]

I took those standardized tests when I was in school and my son has taken them now when he's in school. It's made clear to the students that the standardized test results do not count towards their grade, it was made clear to me when I was in school and clear to my son when he took them. So, since they don't count, how many students out there are really going to work hard on them? Very few. So right there the test results are useless since they won't be the same as if the student actually cared about the test.

No Child Left Behind is actually a good law. What it allows is if your kid, just because of where he or she lives, ends up in a bad school that is failing, NCLB allows you to force the district to move them to a better performing school even if the district doesn't want to.

When you are young and you go buy a home you may do all your research and pick a home that has a great set of elementary, secondary & high schools serving it. Then 10 years later when your kids are old enough to be in those schools, the entire district might have changed, and that great school may have gone to pot. Sure, you can join the PTA and fight and do whatever to push the school to be better, but by the time your going to accomplish anything, your kids will be out of school.

We all realize that nobody wants children to get a poor education, but when it comes to brass tacks, a significant minority of parents will not do what is needed to make their kids be good students. Chief among these is turning off the TV and second is actually reading their homework and making sure they do it. Kids from parents that don't do this typically do poorly - and the simple facts are that in many cities, the parents that don't do this tend to live in the same areas. As a result you can get schools with a lot of kids in them that are like this. And with mob psychology what it is, if the majority of kids in a school are poor students, even the kids who would normally be good students start modeling the poor behavior.

NCLB allows the parents that do care, and do what is needed, to take steps to make sure that all their efforts at home are not hamstrung by a rotten learning environment, by getting their kid out of that environment.

I realize that teachers feel it is unfair that if they are stuck at one of the rotten schools that they are going to suffer for the lack of parental involvement. But NCLB has an answer for that - close the poor school and have the students and teachers scattered to the better schools in the district.

[jpd723]

You have contradicted yourself in the first in second paragraph. If there is no guarantee that students will do their best on the tests, then how can NCLB be a good law? How do the scores tell us which schools are bad schools?

What if a doctor or nurse were told, "Your office will be closed if your patients do not achieve 100% health in one year." The doctor and nurses tell the patients to exercise, eat well, get enough sleep, and avoid stress; however, when the patients return, they have not done these things. Does that mean this is a bad doctor's office? Is it actually possible for 100% of the patients to achieve perfect health? Wouldn't it be better to look at what actually happens during the consultations with patients to see if the doctor/nurses are giving clear instructions, if they are showing real concern, if they provide brochures to help the patients understand, if they make sure to give them the right prescriptions, and if they do all the other sorts of things that a good doctor should do? Isn't that the real measure of whether or not they are doing a good job?

Meanwhile, if NCLB's solution is to close the bad schools, what do you think is going to happen to the "good" schools when all of these students who no longer have a school to attend in their own neighborhoods suddenly have to go to this other school? Do you REALLY think things are going to be all peachy and wonderful? (If so, you don't know much about today's kids.) What about the issue of overcrowding? How is a school that is only designed to hold so many students suddenly going to accommodate all of these new students? Meanwhile, how are these "good" teachers who have only dealt with one particular population of students, who might not have ever taught the kids from the other side of the tracks (and lets face it, the schools on the other side of the tracks ARE the ones that are going to be closed) going to handle this new population of students? Do you really think they will be prepared for it, that they will actually welcome those students and their huge new increased class sizes?

And those teachers from the "bad" school? In this economy, do you really think they will get jobs at the "good" school. Ha! Not likely.

Imagine a kid whose school is close to his home now having a two-three hour commute on a school bus to his/her new school, both in the morning and at night. Do you really think this is better?

NCLB is a really bad piece of legislation. It is an absolute necessity to ensure that all students are getting the education they deserve. It is imperative to reform schools that need to be reformed. But NCLB is NOT doing it. Not by a long shot.

[guest173]

seems like a value system common in many job scenarios. I worked at Silverleaf Resorts and they supported the backstabbing drug using salesmen rather than the normal working people. Racetrac gas station, the women sleeping with the manager were getting the best schedules. etc etc Arne Duncan had mentioned some kind of corruption thing going on in CNN's report "Education in America Don't Fail Me" I wondered what he was referring to, seems like this type of thing.