The Christian Science Monitor reported on July 5 that at least 178 teachers and principals in Atlanta Public Schools cheated to raise student scores on standardized tests, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). So far 82 teachers and principals have confessed to changing student answers and conspiring to cover-up the scandal.
Since the early 2000s, Atlanta’s public schools have received recognition and praise for the steady increase in student achievement on high-stakes standardized tests. The system has received funding from outside organizations to continue their perceived improvements, including grants from the Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation. But when test scores were analyzed more closely, 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.”
What is most disturbing about the Atlanta case, however, is that investigators have reported on collusion among district and school officials, ignoring evidence of cheating, refusing to investigate allegations, and retaliating against a whistle-blowing employee. Furthermore, while 2009 Superintendant of the Year, Atlanta educator Beverly Hall, has not been directly implicated, investigators say she likely knew, or should have known, what was going on.
Critics of the current emphasis on standardized testing claim the Atlanta scandal, as well as other recent cheating scandals nationwide, are a “tacit indictment…of politicians putting all bets for improving education onto high-stakes tests that punish and reward students, teachers, and principals for test scores.” Those who choose to cheat are certainly to blame, however, when results of an assessment can mean loss of a job or closing of a school, serious questions arise.
To read the full article, visit http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0705/America-s-biggest-teacher-and-principal-cheating-scandal-unfolds-in-Atlanta
