NYC grade school principal who committed suicide had forged tests

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A successful New York elementary school principal who took her own life had forged standardized English exam scores for her third grade students, the city's Department of Education said on Monday.

Jeanene Worrell-Breeden, 49, who was the founding principal of the Teachers College Community School, jumped in front of a subway train on April 17, the same day the impropriety was reported. Breeden died in a hospital about a week later.

Breeden told the person who reported her, who has not been named, that she wrote in answers because some of the students had not completed their tests, New York City Department of Education spokeswoman Devora Kaye said in a statement. Breeden had not been interviewed by the department before she took her own life.

“Ensuring the integrity of assessments for all New York City students is critical to measuring students’ progress and holding schools accountable," Kaye said. "We closed the investigation following her tragic passing."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-grade-school-principal-committed-suicide-had-forged-201601591.html

[Mnemosyne]

1. This speaks volumes about the destruction of the public education system. The fact that this woman

felt so much pressure...words cannot convey my anger and disgust.

Yes, what she did was completely unethical and most likely criminal,
but did her actions deserve a death sentence? Absolutely not.

My heart goes out to anyone suffering such desperation.


On edit: I hope the BFEE made enough money off their destruction. Heinous fucks.

[tabasco]

6. Actions like Worrell-Breeden's help to destroy public education. n/t

[Mnemosyne]

10. Yes, she was a cheat and it does hurt education, but please consider the changes and pressures that

are causing such actions in the first place.

[valerief]

7. The Right has eviscerated public education. nt

[Mnemosyne]

9. With two grandsons, ages 5 & 14, in the public schools, I agree completely. nt

[oberliner]

2. Those two things might not necessarily be related to one another

We don't really know what else might have been going on in her private life.

[appalachiablue]

3. The April conviction of teachers in Atlanta for changing scores was disturbing like the sentencing.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/04/02/11-former-atlanta-educators-convicted-in-standardized-test-cheating-scandal

[marble falls]

4. I've read about this person and she was an amazing, capable, driven educator and .....

advocate for children. That she felt driven to this terrible end is a tragedy. We need more like her while we do something to end the "test" culture of gauging the effectiveness schools.

[Locrian]

5. yes

Three things and they guarantee bad things will happen:

1) top down dictates, be usually by someone who thought it's a good idea for ranking and measuring. usually an authoritarian or someone who says "if you cant measure it you cant improve, etc"

2) upward accountability. kissing up and nobody with enough guts to call bullshit

3) a measurement system in place to track things


So now you have a bad idea by the clueless, rolled out by the middle management, with metrics now used to "enforce" the bad idea - ie hit people over the head with a stick - if they don't meet the metric.

[jwirr]

8. So okay I agree that the testing is not good for children, schools, and teachers. I could probably

call my sister who taught special education for 30 years and ask her but there are more teachers here on DU.


What was happening in schools that the PTB thought we needed to fix them in the first place. (My 11 great grandchildren all go to the same schools their parents went to and they are excellent schools.) The only thing that I have seen was that two of my grandsons dropped out of school when they were juniors because they were bored to death. My daughter also dropped out because of the same problem. All three were at the top of their class. Our schools now work with the college to allow students like this to take college work when they are ready. Problem solved.

So what was going on other than the Rs wanting to get rid of the public schools. Other than not enough money in some districts and a changing economy that provides no jobs when the kids finally finished their education. Other than including special education in the testing.

Why are we testing and what do we expect the teachers to do about the results of the tests?