How many testing scandals do we need as a wake-up call?

[proud2BlibKansan]

It is not surprising that the recent Atlanta school cheating scandal earned so much attention. Its massive scope and details of corruption, including pizza parties for erasing students’ incorrect answers, shocked the nation.

Focusing solely on Atlanta, or even other recent cheating cases around the nation, including our nation’s capital, is a mistake. These are not isolated incidents. Rather, they are episodes in a series of unfortunate events spawned by the nation’s government-mandated testing obsession. Considered in light of a recent National Research Council (NRC) report confirming other negative impacts of high-stakes testing, they should be a giant wake-up call for policymakers.

The report from the Georgia Office of Special Investigators makes clear the link between high-stakes testing and the “culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation” in the district. The report, said school leaders, often set unreasonable impossible test score targets and “put unreasonable pressure on teachers and principals to achieve targets.”

Atlanta school leaders were taking their cue from the federal No Child Left Behind law, which mandates 100% “proficiency” on state tests by 2014. That goal is now widely understood to be unattainable.

more . . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-many-testing-scandals-do-we-need-as-a-wake-up-call/2011/08/07/gIQAIvfZ0I_blog.html

[msongs]

1. corporations fleecing taxpayers via public schools. Hey it's the Race to the Top nt

[Bozita]

2. DFP Survey: Nearly 30% of Michigan teachers report pressure to cheat

Survey: Nearly 30% of Michigan teachers report pressure to cheat
1:57 AM, Jul. 27, 2011 | 250 Comments
BY CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY AND KRISTI TANNER-WHITE
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

One out of three public school educators report pressure from bosses, parents or others to change grades, and nearly 30% say pressure to cheat on standardized tests is a problem at their school, according to a voluntary Free Press survey of Michigan educators.

At schools that don't meet federal standards, the tension is higher: About 50% say pressure to change grades is an issue, and 46% say pressure to cheat on the tests is a problem.

Some cave in -- about 8% say they changed grades within the last school year, and at least 8% admit to some form of cheating to improve a student's standardized test score.

The survey results show the pressures on educators as the state moves toward making student progress and test scores a major factor in teacher evaluations starting in 2013. The comments left by survey-takers reveal frustration with reliance on standardized tests to judge both students and teachers.

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Nelson Maylone, a professor of educational psychology at Eastern Michigan University, said the survey results were "deplorable, but inevitable."

"Teachers and principals have not been told to raise student achievement levels; they've been told to raise test scores, and the two things are not the same," he said. Attaching "indefensibly high stakes to grades and test scores produces pressure to cheat, which in turn results in actual cheating."

-snip-

more...
http://www.freep.com/article/20110727/NEWS06/107270396/Survey-Nearly-30-Michigan-teachers-report-pressure-cheat