Some of you probably read the title and thought this article would be about students cheating, but it is really about thirty-five educators in the Atlanta School system who are accused of cheating,
concealing cheating or retaliating against whistleblowers in an effort
to bolster test scores and obtain pay bonuses. The cheating has been traced all the way back to 2005.
Former Atlanta Public schools superintendent Beverly Hall was freed on a
$200,000 bond recently. Hall was named national superintendent of the year in 2009 by the American Association of School Administrators mainly because of student improvement on standardized tests. The 35 defendants include four high- level executive
administrators, six principals, two assistant principals, six testing
coordinators, 14 teachers, a school improvement specialist and a school
secretary. They were indicted on
65 counts, including racketeering, making false statements and
improperly influencing witnesses.
The investigation began after there were reports of widespread erasures on
student state competency tests in 2009. Investigators conducted over 2,100 interviews and reviewed
800,000 documents of middle and elementary schools before determining
that 44 of the 56 schools had engaged in score changing. Seven teachers
have confessed to test tampering. The most significant example is Parks Middle School, which had a student reading competency pass rate increase from 50 percent to 81 percent in one year. The proof of grade tampering became apparent when test scores under the cheating investigation dropped
substantially when added test security prevented staff from changing
wrong answers.
How could something like this happen? Part of the problem is the "high stakes" nature of state testing. There are consequences for how students perform on these once a year tests, including pay bonuses tied to student scores and state sanctions for low performing schools. Some school districts tie teacher evaluation to student performance. So when these schools didn't think they could get the results they want by improving instruction, they resorted to cheating.
Nebraska Schools are in the process of giving the state assessments in reading, mathematics and science. To ensure that the tests are being administered properly, school principals must sign off that the testing rules will be enforced and state test monitors visit school random schools to check for compliance. Last week we had a test monitor sit in on our 7th grade reading testing.
We don't give staff bonuses or evaluate teachers based student performance on the state assessments. It doesn't make sense to make decisions based on a single test. I like to make decisions based on individual student growth over time using a combination of the state test (given once a year), the MAP achievement tests and DIBELS assessments (given three times a year), and classroom assessments (given continuously).
At Bancroft-Rosalie, we provide student rewards for test performance to motivate each student to do their best. If they don't give their best effort, the test results won't be a valid measure of the students' ability- making the test results meaningless. Like the test results from Atlanta.
