APS teacher forced to crawl under table at faculty meeting because of low test scores

I have now read most of the CRCT cheating report and find it very depressing how easily adults sacrifice children to their own ends.

Here is a key finding that ought to be worrisome to the entire country as all states move toward pay for performance plans that reward educators on student scores.

From the report:

Data can properly be used to assess academic progress. But data can also be used as an abusive and cruel weapon to embarrass and punish classroom teachers and principals or as a pretext to termination. After hundreds of interviews, it became clear that Dr. Hall and her staff used data as a way to exert oppressive  pressure to meet goals. When principals, in groups of 10 to 12, met annually with Dr. Hall, each school’s scores were displayed on large colorful graphs framed and hung on the wall around her conference  room.

During the meeting, Dr. Hall would ask each principal, one by one, “Are you going to meet targets this year?” No one dared tell her “no.”

Many principals humiliated teachers in front of their peers for failing to meet goals. For example, at Fain Elementary School, the principal forced a teacher to crawl under a table in a faculty meeting because that teacher’s students’ test scores were low.

–from Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog