Atlanta Schools Created Culture of Cheating, Fear

Atlanta Schools Created Culture of Cheating, Fear

abcnews.go.com

Teachers spent nights huddled in a back room, erasing wrong answers on students' test sheets and filling in the correct bubbles. At another school, struggling students were seated next to higher-performing classmates so they could copy answers.

Those and other confessions are contained in a new state report that reveals how far some Atlanta public schools went to raise test scores in the nation's largest-ever cheating scandal. Investigators concluded that nearly half the city's schools allowed the cheating to go unchecked for as long as a decade, beginning in 2001.

(visit the link for the full news article)

A very disheartening story, how this was allowed to continue for a decade shows how much the educators in this city cared for the children they were paid to teach.

I am sure that this isn't the only place that this is happening, during the final few years that my children were in public schools, it was pretty apparent that the goal was to teach the test as it were, the tests that the Feds used to evaluate a school's efforts.

What is the solution? Like most everything they touch, I don't see our elected in Washington finding one.. Didn't they create the atmosphere for this kind of corruption with the legislation they have already made?

I hope that something can be done, and soon.. the children's future is at stake here.

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

People may think this is bad, but I disagree, I dont really see anything wrong with cheating. Tests are based on memorization which is a practice that we have instilled in people from generations prior. Now technology has changed things to the point where if we need the answer for something we have the internet at our finger tips to find solutions. If anything children should be tested on the solutions that they are able to come up from googling or researching on the internet, not useless facts that are required to memorize for a test that is forgotten in the next several months. Besides the teachers are responding to the reward system put on them, they should be praised for pulling out the kinks in the system, like a hacker breaking into a system so it can be repaired for the future.

It is the result of "No Child Left Behind". There are plenty of cases all over the country - - of how schools manipulated or outright cheated to make their "numbers".

That's what happens when "numbers" are the measuring factor.

Kids today are taught to pass tests.

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Teachers and schools who don't make the "numbers" lose funding and their job.

reply to post by JacKatMtn


This is absolutely appalling!

The children are now going to grow up thinking that cheating is the way to go! As a teacher you should be a role model and if a kid isn't doing as well as you had hoped, offer further learning or programmes which help students learn at their own pace!

I left school about five years ago and they had implemented learning programmes way before I had started!

All the teachers should be sacked and they should return to university / college and learn for themselves what teaching is all about!

Originally posted by Theoretician
All the teachers should be sacked and they should return to university / college and learn for themselves what teaching is all about!

If the teachers didn't make their "numbers" - - - they'd be fired anyway.

Maybe - - we should return to allowing teachers to teach.

Public schools are a joke in this country...an absolute joke.

The only real solution I see is to go through every teacher in the country and fire about 95% of them. Hold them to higher standards and only bring in teachers who are dedicated to the kids...not the unions.

My kids will never step foot in a public school, regardless of how many extra jobs I have to pick up to make that happen.

reply to post by JacKatMtn


I heard about this a while back,

Can you imagine?

I'm speechless,

reply to post by Theoretician

they should return to university / college

I think that is where the problem started.

Originally posted by nyk537
The only real solution I see is to go through every teacher in the country and fire about 95% of them. Hold them to higher standards and only bring in teachers who are dedicated to the kids...not the unions.

That's what they tried to do with "No Child Left Behind" - - - which resulted in "numbers" being the criteria of judgement.

Most teachers are dedicated to teaching. And most hate "No Child Left Behind" - - - because it interferes with teaching.

Originally posted by Stormdancer777
reply to post by Theoretician

 

they should return to university / college

I think that is where the problem started.

It is.

I was taking a couple classes at the local college. There were several teachers in there trying to qualify under the new rulings of "No Child Left Behind".

These teachers had been teaching for approximately 15 years each.

reply to post by Annee


I don't agree with that. I honestly believe most teachers are selfish jerks who are only interested in the benefits and power they wield behind the teachers unions.

NCLB saved them from having to teach their students...now all they have to do is show them videos and collect their checks.

reply to post by Annee


I think it goes back much farther than 15 years, this is why my daughter dropped out of college, she is going back, but she couldn't tolerate the politics in the class room, a few years ago I did research on the colleges and their professors, and it was a real eye opener

reply to post by nyk537

show them videos and collect their checks.

Yes, they show them movies, my son dropped out and got his GED, he learned more in three months of ged classes than in all his high school years,

Originally posted by nyk537
reply to post by Annee

 

I don't agree with that. I honestly believe most teachers are selfish jerks who are only interested in the benefits and power they wield behind the teachers unions.

You are so wrong.

Many of the teachers were I live - - just gave up when the new rulings for "No Child Left Behind" became law. Some that had dedicated their lives to teaching.

They were only making about $21,000 a year - - - and often bought supplies out of their own pockets - - because of no funding.

Like everything else - - - news only covers what sensationalizes. No one is going to report on the thousands of hard working dedicated teachers - - - which are the majority.

reply to post by Annee


They are not the majority...they are the minority. The ones who work as you mentioned and are really dedicated to the students need to have their pay increased about 200% and lead the initiative to replace the rest of the bum teachers in their districts.

The whole time I was in school (high school and college) I had about 3 teachers who actually gave a crap about teaching and their students. The rest were there because it was a job....and one they did not take seriously.

reply to post by Annee


My daughter was an English major, and she became very disheartened when she saw the people she was going to be working with, now she is going into nursing, sad really because she really wanted to be a teacher.

Originally posted by Stormdancer777
reply to post by Annee

 

My daughter was an English major, and she became very disheartened when she saw the people she was going to be working with, now she is going into nursing, sad really because she really wanted to be a teacher.

I know. It is so sad.

I don't know why anyone would become a teacher today - - with all the crap they have to put up with. And the low pay.

It would have to be your passion to teach. There is just no logical reason - - other then personal passion - - to become a teacher today.

Originally posted by Annee
Teachers and schools who don't make the "numbers" lose funding and their job.

Exactly. Bad test results = no money = incentive to cheat...

Education in the US have had some really bad programs... but No Child Left Behind is by far the worst so far.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when the only measure of how good a school is happens to be how many students pass some random test.

The government has tacked school funding and teacher's jobs to student test scores. Did they honestly expect these things wouldn't happen?