Terrible consequences of CRCT cheating scandal: Teacher recriminations, lost remediation, untold damage
The school board meets today at noon to discuss the CRCT cheating report. (AJC file)
What are the real consequences to the honest teachers in the CRCT scandal and the struggling students whose test scores were changed to mask failure?
I called one of the APS teacher/whistle blowers cited in the CRCT cheating report to ask about the consequences to APS students whose test scores were dramatically improved by teacher or administrator erasures.
The teacher acknowledged that most of the kids would have been promoted to the next grade anyway since few Georgia students are held back. The main problem was that the teachers who got those kids the next year in their classes had no reliable map to tell them where the children were academically.
In the beginning of the year, the teacher said that she and her colleagues review the CRCT scores of their new class to determine where students are weak and where they need extra attention. If the test scores have been altered so the child appears proficient, those early opportunities to address weaknesses are missed. “There is lost time that can’t always be made up and may make a difference when the child is in 10th grade,” she said.
Teachers also beat themselves over the child’s contradictory performance. “The CRCT from the year before shows the child is doing great and then he’s failing in your class,” she said. “The blame is put on you — what are you doing wrong that this child isn’t doing as well this year?”
The children and their parents are also baffled. They trust the test scores and can’t understand the low grades. “The child has been given false confidence,” said the teacher. In many schools, teachers who didn’t cheat ended up with lower CRCT scores in their classes than their dishonest colleagues. “We used to wonder how some teachers had such great scores,” she said. “Now we know it was because they were cheating.”
I also put this question of consequences to a smart school leader. She said:
I believe that the impact on these students is incalculable. Children have only a limited amount of time in school (12 years or so) before they move into the post-high school world. Especially for poor children, their best chance at developing literacy, numeracy and critical thinking and communication skills is by maximizing their school experiences given the paucity (compared to wealthier peers) of their home experiences. There’s ample research to suggest that even a couple of years in a row with weak teachers can have an enormous impact of a child’s learning trajectory.
Clearly, many of the educators in APS (and definitely the administrators) were not focused on actually educating these children because they’d figured out that they could get their precious, outlandish results much more easily by cheating. So, if you assume that the cheating culture was firmly established by say 2005, then for at least the past six years, district and school leaders who clearly had no real ability or intention to educate these kids were busy making sure that their staffs produced post-hoc results.
So, a kid who was in first grade in 2005 is now in middle school, and if he was at say Venetian Hills that whole time, who knows what gaps exist in his learning. No one was busy actually teaching him to read because they knew they could erase his way to a high score after the fact. A kid who was starting middle school that same year at Parks or Kennedy would just be graduating this year (or not) with none of the basic skills he needs to succeed in the job market or post-secondary schooling. It would be literally impossible to calculate financially and otherwise the damage that may have been done to these kids.
I think the lost focus on instruction, coupled with the explicit message to them and their families that their revered leaders had no faith that they could learn will cause untold damage to this community
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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140 comments Add your comment
catlady
July 7th, 2011
10:06 am
CRCTs are never reliable enough to base your planning on! I can’t imagine a teacher doing that! Not only are the scores variable, but the test varies in difficulty from grade to grade. We look at CRCT scores only to determine the first cut of who gets Title 1 remediation. Teachers can tell you pretty quickly what level the kid is really functioning on.
jsmtih
July 7th, 2011
10:06 am
i wonder why you dont hear about all these problems with the schools and the teaching in north fulton , cherokee and east cobb? i dont blame the teachers in atlanta the problem is the PARENTS OF THESE KIDS. teachers are not miracle workers. you cant make chicken salad out of chicken shi& !!!!!
Go Panthers!
July 7th, 2011
10:14 am
“A kid who was starting middle school that same year at Parks or Kennedy would just be graduating this year (or not) with none of the basic skills he needs to succeed in the job market or post-secondary schooling.”
Thanks for breaking this down, Maureen. This is exactly what I was saying in my posts yesterday. We’re all in this together because of this statement alone.
If you just opened a small business and want to reinvest in this community by hiring a recent grad who can grow into adulthood learning your trade, who can you hire? All of the academically-inclined kids are in college, but college is not and has never been for everybody. All of the kids left at home roaming the streets have no idea where they stand in terms of reading, math and comprehension levels because of the testing lies that cover their entire academic career. Plus, they lack the confidence to even fill out your application because the standardized tests told them for years that they knew how to complete tasks that they were never even properly exposed to. If they needed remediation, they never got it ’cause regardless as to classroom performance, the tests said they didn’t need it. So, they didn’t get it.
In theory, testing might be superfluous, and NCLB might have made testing a draconian drag, but, when accurately administered, it at least provides some benchmark information to begin formulating a teaching plan for a student. Think of how many kids lost out on IEP’s because of this testing debacle? There are kids who might have been diagnosed as LD, gotten the proper accomodations and could have overcome poverty and “bad parenting” to go on to college and beyond. We’ll never know now.
Plus, testing has become ubiquitous in our society. My kid estimates that, bewteen SAT’s, ACT’s, EOCT’s and the GGT, she took 13 standardized tests in her junior year in APS. We get tested for some jobs. We get tested to keep some jobs. Tests aren’t going anywhere, whether or not they’re accurate indicators. The problem is that our children, African-American children, have been ingrained with test anxiety because of LACK of exposure. Private school kids start studying for the SAT in middle school. APS kids don’t even see a practice version of the thing until they (hopefully) show up to Councilman Mitchell’s test prep Saturday program in 10th or 11th grade. And then people want to know where the anxiety comes from? Unfamiliarity. More standardized testing, if the kids are properly introduced and not told they “fail” if they don’t score well, could actually be a good thing if handled correctly.
What the “or not” in the above statement alludes to is that kids who started APS the year Hall first came should have been graduating starting this year. Or not. Most were probably thrown out of school and tossed off the rolls years ago for conduct and attendance reasons so the academic gaps that false testing covered up could never be revealed. This has been the APS way for GENERATIONS. It predates NCLB by decades.
Collateral damage has never been mourned nor accounted for in this system. They’ve destroyed or falsified records for decades and failed to have an adequate records retention policy in place so that students can be tracked in APS and beyond. To cover up this practice, they have been able to blame “poor parenting” for their lax record keeping. How many “bad parents” are going to go downtown and ask for a copy of their kids’ “permanent record”? They know this will not happen. Try it. I challenge all APS parents to give this a try, just for gp. Rush the Records Office and see what happens.
Go down to the Records Center at the old Howard High (not sure if it’s still located there, but it used to be) and try to track a few APS alums from K-12 (or not – their “dropout” date). If you choose 10 people at random over 10 years, systemwide, you might find adequate info on 5 of them. You might find multiple files on kids. You might find a file with one piece of photocopied paper for a 5 year school career. A 50% success rate is not a success.
Maureen, I challenge you and your readers to try it and post your results for us to read. I welcome the opportunity to be proven wrong. Find 10 readers across say, 20 years, who will give you permission to pull their records and see what’s in those files. CAT, ITBS, these are what pre-dated the CRCT, and now we’re told those were “invalid” tests; our testing time back in the day was apparently a waste of time. But try and see if you can even find those scores for scores of former students. It’s a mess. On purpose.
Again, it has been my experience that most of the teachers in the system will teach any child from any background of any ability to the best of their abilities. APS has truly had some miracle workers among their rank and file educators. The cheaters are an anomaly and, while still guilty, are victims of the culture at the time. But, it’s the administrators who have always played with the numbers and the kids’ lives. It’s this administrative culture that set the tone for Hall’s hiring in the first place and her continued delusion.
I believe her claim that she had NO clue regarding the cheating because she is delusional to the point of mental illness. You have to be crazy and not in touch with reality to let this kind of crap go on for a decade, to not understand the damage your adminstrative style causes an entire organization of people, to delete reports that could help tens of thousands of students from your computer because the evidence is damning to your own career and then to go on an Hawaiian vacation when your entire career legacy is in jeopardy. She didn’t know because she’s out to lunch and needs help. If she pleads insanity, she could very easily get off.
Middle School Teacher
July 7th, 2011
10:15 am
Trust me! This is not only a problem in the Atlanta school system. I am sure you would not find the cheating anywhere near the problem in Atlanta in other metro school systems. I know that it does not happen in my school. The security is tighter than Fort Knox. However, there are other problems tied to NCLB. Summer school is the perfect example. It is almost impossible for anyone to fail, regardless of whether they even attend all sessions. The teachers are forced to pass everyone. You and everyone else know that it is difficult to bring a student from a 40%-50% average in any subject up to par in three weeks (compared to the 36 weeks of the school year). Yet, everyone passes. No Child Left Behind! This nonsense in our school system must end. Yes, the new administration has changed the name of the program, but nothing has truly changed.
I have taught misddle school for 20 years at all grade levels and all levels of children, including gifted students. I have not once done anything to specifically prepare my students for the CRCT. I have never done a CRCT review; I have never given CRCT practice tests; I have never worried about the CRCT. All I have done is learn the curriculum for which my students are responsible, and I have always taught EVERYTHING in the curriculum. Yes, I have stressed my students. The results have always been positive, to the point where I consistently have my students achieve far above the average performance of the school—–regardless of the level of students I have taught.
MOST teachers are TREMENDOUS individuals. This is a tough job, and throughout my career I have seen some of the very best examples of what a great teacher is. I take pride in what I do and what my students accomplish. Most teachers do, and it is disgusting to me to hear that some teachers have violated their committment to children. When I read yesterday that one students in APS was refused special education placement because his teacher inflated his score on the CRCT, I almost cried.
These irresponsible and criminal individuals deserve all the legal syeten and school system can throw at them. Good riddance to them all.
Dr. Beverly Hall's Conscience
July 7th, 2011
10:16 am
@ Hello.life
Your friend got 1500 out of 1600 and you only got 1120 out of 1600. No, I don’t know who you are. It’s just that I have heard multi-millionaires remind billionaires how limiting it was to only have millions.
The SAT scores we speaking of are more between 400 out 1600 and 900 out of 1600.
APSTeacherfor5years
July 7th, 2011
10:19 am
@jsmtih
First of all, in my 5 years teaching at a Title I school in Atlanta, I only had one parent that I would call “chicken $hit.” And I was lucky enough that my admin supported me through that mess. Let’s not generalize that every kid in APS that is poor comes from a dysfunctional family. But let us assume that premise is true for some or even many parents. Why is this the case? And what can be done to help? Are these parents too young? Were they themselves victims of poverty/subpar education? Are they dealing with stressful situations that make involvement very difficult (illness, deportation, incarceration, homelessness)?
I would venture to say that most parents, in theory, want what is best for their child. Should we start making mandatory volunteer requirements for schools? Home visits? I’ve heard so many people raise the issue that parents are failures and therefore their kids are failures. Let’s have some ideas on how to address these issues.
Patricia
July 7th, 2011
10:20 am
OK, normally I try to be professional when I post to this site, but ANY teacher who depends upon the CRCT as the PRIMARY means by which they determine the strengths or weaknesses of their students in preparation for their program is not doing their job. IF anything looking at the CRCT scores from one year to another with huge unexplained gains should have been the REAL clue something was going on. I personally have had students from the lower end of the Did Not Meet and I do mean the lower end to two or three points below the DNM within a year’s time. Of course administration only saw they still did not meet the standard. The entire debacle just completely blows my mind because these students were DENIED a quality education in these schools. All of these teachers and administrators who participated in ANY way in this disgraceful display should be FIRED. I hate to say that, but the stress these children were put under to maintain false academic expectations due to their bogus scores is criminal!!
Mike
July 7th, 2011
10:32 am
Maureen, I will be surprised if you get much more than a weak defense as response. The DOE is very wishy-washy in most respects. What was it Dr Barge said when asked about the practice of transferring students a day or 2 before graduationto an alternative school to improve graduation rates in Hall County?
Something like ‘we know and we aren’t worried about it’.
As I’ve said before, there’s your answer as to why people like Bev Hall and her cronies do these type of things to teachers and kids. It is passively allowed to happen until it is too late. Borders on negligence if you ask me.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/the-transfer-track-on-945991.html
http://www.ajc.com/news/hall-county-students-pushed-960650.html
http://www.wsbtv.com/video/27890457/index.html
Ms. Willis, I’d love to hear your take on the situation revealed by the above links!
Shar
July 7th, 2011
10:32 am
Given the huge number of kids who have been victimized by this situation, I wonder if there is any opportunity for volunteers in the schools to tutor? There are many of us who would be willing to give time to either a single student or a small group, to provide one-on-one support under the direction of a classroom teacher and with periodic reviews of some kind to analyze progress. If these kids are 3, 4 or more grade levels behind, only one-on-one help is going to make a meaningful difference, and the implications of this investigation will inevitably mean a shortage of teachers and principals going into the coming school year.
We’ve got the summer to work with. What if volunteers were sought and trained to be ready to go come August?
Prosecute Now
July 7th, 2011
10:33 am
Beverly Hall is a LIAR. She knew, encouraged and orchestrated the cheating and then obstructed the investigation into the CRCT cheating. She should be prosecuted – as well as all principals and teachers involved – to the fullest extent of the law. She should be stripped of all pension money she might have earned during her tenure at the helm of APS. She should be required to move out of the State of Georgia if she is not incarcerated in the State Prison System. If allowed to stay in the state, if she earns any pension money, she should be required to go and scrub toilets in the APS schools for the rest of her miserable life!
Tez
July 7th, 2011
10:34 am
Does the State Deserve any Blame?
I just moved here from Texas. In the report there are several cases where they simply said Teachers used the previous years test to give to students. Most states do not recycle test as much as Georgia does. In fact most states pay for newly created test every year. Therefore, Parents can use test from previous years to teach skills to their students. Yet the state attempted to save a buck by recyling test for up to 5 years. Sylvan Prometric and any of the other major testing firms know that they must change test regularly to maintain its integrity. During the early .com days there were plenty of people getting MCSE certified in microsoft because of weak testing. Weak testing is a State problem not a city problem.
Ashley
July 7th, 2011
10:36 am
In order for this country to progress, we must educate all children. The powers that be keep saying the face of the U.S. is changing. We can ill-afford to have another generation of illiterate children who turn into illiterate adults. The basic necessities of a changing world will not be met if only a few are allowed to experience a decent education. As a single middle-age woman, I have never been married or had children ,it frightens me that children have been caught up in this cheating scandal. The have and have-not gap is widening, this economical upheaval doesn’t make anyone optimistic. Education is the one thing that brings us together somehow we have to ensure the next wave of American citizens are up to the job. I am not saying that everyone should have a college education, all I am saying is that the basic ability to read and write and function in an everyday society is a must. So whether you are wealthy , middle-class or poor we can not allow the education system to falter or cease to exist. The whole world is watching us
Double Zero Eight
July 7th, 2011
10:39 am
Why didn’t the DOE follow up on the tips the state received
for several years regarding cheating on the CRCT?
Didn’t the DOE have the obligation and authority to
review out of pattern trends and verify the testing results?
Maureen,
How about also forwarding the above questions to the DOE.
ScienceTeacher671
July 7th, 2011
10:40 am
@Maureen – while you’re looking at the CRCT and other Georgia tests, it might be useful to go here
http://www.gadoe.org/ci_testing.aspx
and click on the “2008 Testing Newsletter” link. Read pages 16-18 carefully. In particular, the following sentence is extremely important: “Because the readers’ Lexile scores are less than the demand of the textbooks typically found at a grade level, students with Lexiles at the low end of the median Reader range, as well as those below the range, will probably experience some difficulty comprehending the text materials typical of that grade level.”
When translated from Eduspeak to English, the sentence means that many students who are “proficient” according to the CRCT cannot read well enough to comprehend a textbook written at grade level. In other words, passing the CRCT in no way means that a student is working at grade level, but that is what parents and many teachers believe it means.
Mrs. G.A.O
July 7th, 2011
10:44 am
First of all the CRCT test is a basic skills test. Students that unable to pass the CRCT test is lacking very basic skills. There are many variables to this defict. (1) Is the lack of parental involvement and support-Parents are the first teachers, (2) Low Expectations- Many people (teachers and parents included) do not expect much from inner-city/urban kids, (3) Teacherts are forced to teach the test – not to teach the students to think, (4) Discipline is out of control in these schools-the students and parents make the rules and the administrators support them, (4) These students do not know they are poor, because their mothers recieve free housing, food stamps, free healthcare, and other social income benefits. Therefore, the kids do not see the need of an adequate education, Finally, teachers are burned out. The candle is burning at both ends, because of federal, state, and local mandates. Education is a broken system and until we adopt the standards of the countries that are leading the world in education progress it will continue to churn unsuccessful results.
Ronin
July 7th, 2011
10:45 am
The Atlanta School system paid Beverly Hall $411,545.80 in salary and $13,528.57 in travel expense.
They got very little in the way of performance and school improvement.
The Georgia open records site: open.georgia.gov
lists all state employee payment information.
The central office staff salaries are, in most cases huge. It’s public information. The compensation packages should be debated and reevaluated.
Cindy Lutenbacher
July 7th, 2011
10:54 am
I don’t know Matt or his credentials, Maureen, but I recommend that you also get people who have spent their lives studying such things: Steve Krashen, Monty Neill, Linda Darling-Hammond come to mind. A BOE member may not be the best resource, for most boards and their members are willing to take whatever administrations and media tell them without truly investigating the sources of their beliefs.
Gwen R
July 7th, 2011
10:56 am
If Georgia was so concerned about the education of the students, why did the Department of Education not know what was going on. We are placing a lot of blame on Ms. Hall, who has not been here long. This problem did not began with recent tests. It has been a problem for a while. This is all happening so the “good old boys” can return to control of the school system. I do not live in Fulton and no one in my family attends school in Atlanta but if I did, someone would have to be accountable for this malady in the school system. I am a personal friend of Janice Kelsey (I have not see her in years) and I know her level of integrity is very high. I can personally vouch for her character and I would put a large stake that this whistle blower will not stick up in the end. I know the character that she worked to instill in her children. I also know her strong religious values. If there were wrong doing at Thomasville Elementary, I can say that she was not aware. I do not know about the others but I can say that Janice Kelsey is not guilty of any of what they are saying about her.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
July 7th, 2011
10:59 am
Folks, let’s remember that Dr. Barge and his team are on our side.
Not for one minute do I envy Barge’s team’s efforts to transform the rats’ nest that is the GDOE into a mission-accomplishing organization.
In GA, we have too many people who prefer to remain supportive of, and party to, the educractic sham characterizing many of the public schools in our state. So remaining is much easier and remunerative than becoming part of the solution to our public education problems.
Let’s not subject our supporters like Dr. Barge, Dr. Buck et al. to misdirected rhetorical fire.
amazed
July 7th, 2011
11:00 am
@APSTeacher
The loss of services for Special Ed students also struck me. That was the most criminal aspect of this whole situation.
It wasn’t just keeping their job. It wasn’t just getting undeserved bonuses. It involved taking away from some of the students most in need. It hampered all their classmates the next year as the teacher had to deal with such issues without any needed services. For the Special Ed students, it could mean the difference between being a successful functioning adult and someone totally dependent.
Those principals and administrators need to be in orange jumpsuits.
APS meeting @ Noon
July 7th, 2011
11:01 am
Does anyone know if this meeting will be publicized, if so on what tv station?
Kira Willis
July 7th, 2011
11:05 am
@Mike,
I have read those articles, but glanced over them again.
Again, this goes back to the systemic problem. Pointing fingers is not the answer; we are all to blame for this, top down and bottom up. There is pressure for a school to do well, not only for an individual’s job, but also for the state/county/school to receive funding.
It would be a whole lot easier for us to educate our students without the federal government involved. The mandates are so outrageous (every student will graduate high school and be proficient in all areas by 2014??) that educators are all scrambling to meet those mandates.
We receive a total of no more than 12% of our funding from the USDOE, yet the mandates far outweigh the funding.
Do I agree with what those schools and districts are doing? No. But I can understand why they did it.
In the words of John Trotter: “Follow the money.”
And while we are following the money, I think that we should check into which politicians have stock or investments in textbook companies. Which legislators have investments in testing companies. Who is in the back pocket of whom.
That might be something to research, Maureen.
So when does the NYTimes publish an apology to Atlanta news organizations, specifically the AJC?
July 7th, 2011
11:06 am
Remember last year when the New York Times published a bootlicking story on Beverly Hall and all the trials and tribulations poor Dr. Hall was enduring?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/education/08atlanta.html
My favorite quote? In describing the whitewashed ‘investigation’ report from the Blue Ribbon Panel, the New York Times wrote:
“But local news organizations seemed unable to digest the investigation findings.”
Gee, maybe that’s because people living and working in Atlanta understood that the Blue Ribbon Panel report was a pack of lies. Instead of speaking with local sources, however, the NYTimes reporter just decided to insult the intelligence of journalists and editors working here.
So when does the NYTimes publish an apology to Atlanta news organizations, specifically the AJC?
Eddie G
July 7th, 2011
11:07 am
@Gwen R……………Dr. Hall hasn’t been here long? Really? 12 years isn’t long enough? You need to take your blinders off.
APS Parent
July 7th, 2011
11:08 am
First of all: Hall and her imps should be jailed because they have abused federal and state funds and force to repay every bonus received with their pensions withheld. All area superintendents and principals should loose their certification and pensions. Teachers should either loose certification or be suspended with the provision of receiving professional development on true teaching skills. Chandra Burks should be removed from the Board by the Govenor immediately because of her participation in manipulating reports to cover up the cheating. Had to get that out.
I am thankful that my children had ‘real’ teachers in APS who cared and taught their students. My children graduated with honors and are still receiving HOPE. Yes, even with the ridiculous changes. But during their elementary and Middle school years, you could see the climate change brought by Hall and her imps. Most of the ‘real’ teachers left APS because of the pressure from their principals and administration. They hated the testing and what it was becoming. They did not have the freedom to actually teach. I remember that a science teacher, who loved to have the kids experiment, was told that she now had to allow the kids 15 minute of test prep per class on different subjects notjust science. Which meant she lost 30 minutes of instructional time. My daughter left middle school and so did she along with 8 other teachers.
Now this mess has got to be fixed. The sad thing is how do you now go back and reteach a ninth grader who has been passed on but can’t read or do algebra. Or, tell the child who was promoted that ‘there goes your summer’ until we get you to at least the 3.5 grade level. And, how much is this going to cost me, taxpayer, now?
I do agree with the comment of a program to encourage some of the educators of high performing schools to take positions in Atanta. But, that is not enough. Because, we still have to retrain the teachers that are here not to teach the test or cheat but to now do the job that they received their degree and certification to do. Teaching is not a lazy job but is vigorous and fun. Nor can it be done without support from parents and administration. They need to be able to discipline and control their classes without retaliation from administrators or parents.
And, parents, why didn’t you see the problem. I was an involved parent and checked bookbags. I blame parents as well as the over burden, scared or lazy teachers.
Reed and Deal now is the time to pool resources and see how many good, eager people are PSC certified and truly ready to teach. Look at extending the learning day or year to get the students back on track. And take action against those who have caused the problem and no slap on the back of the hand or standing in the corner.
Ronin
July 7th, 2011
11:14 am
@Dr. Spinks, 10:59, Well said.
Ashley
July 7th, 2011
11:26 am
Just read where a retired principal at Thomasville Heights Elementary by the name of Janice Kelsey, who was implicated in the cheating scandal is now working at College Main Street Charter School . As ridiculous as it sounds shes working as a Student Support Manager, did anyone else hear about this?
Dr. John Trotter
July 7th, 2011
11:31 am
@ Kira Willis: I don’t know where you were but MACE was fighting for each teacher…one member at a time, and we have the battle scars to prove it! Ha! I am sure that you read about us as all (even the AJC) were pooh poohing us, trying to make it seem that we were “crazy.” That’s where MACE was…in the thick of the battle!
Former teacher
July 7th, 2011
11:32 am
I wonder if anyone at APS, knowing that they would be found guilty, used their time wisely and crafted the remedial program that needs to be in place NOW. The poor kids will go back to school in August to administrative chaos. Before we do anything to punish the guilty, we need to focus on how to make sure that the upcoming school year isn’t a loss as well.
Dr. John Trotter
July 7th, 2011
11:34 am
@ Kira: I am not mad at you, but your earlier question just struck a nerve. Most the principals that are brought up on this blog, we have had dealings with, including the principal just mentioned at Thomasville Heights. We were right in the smoke of battle each day and night. No spelling bee contests at MACE! Ha!
Dr. John Trotter
July 7th, 2011
11:34 am
Did this post?
thomas
July 7th, 2011
11:35 am
Tests are designed for different purposes. CRCT, in theory, tests how much of what students are supposed to have been taught in a particular grade they have mastered/learned. Therefore, they are aligned to the state standards as they list what are to be taught – and there is nothing wrong with a state (or even a country) to tell teachers what to teach as that is a societal decision, not teachers’. However, how to teach is a different matter. I imagine the new tests being developed for the CCSS will aslo be that type of tests. However, both groups that are developing the tests have indicated that there will be multiple measures, including some that are not multiple choice.
NAEP (nor ITBS nor SAT) isn’t aligned with any particular state’s standards. So, the fact that there are discrepancies between the scores on the NAEP and the CRCT isn’t by itself that surprising. They are designed with different measurement standards. In CRCT, in theory, it is perfectly fine that everyone scores 100%. That’s not the case with the NAEP, SAT, ITBS, etc. If you consider some tests that are used for selection purposes, they must include questions only a few students can answer them correctly so that they can screen out some people.
I think criticizning tests or curricula that are still being developed purely based on one’s philosophical/political/educational ideology (and on assumptions) seems to be rather inappropriate.
Dr. John Trotter
July 7th, 2011
11:35 am
OK. I see it. I need coffee. Went to bed after 5:00 AM. Ha!
Retired teacher
July 7th, 2011
11:38 am
There are retired teachers like me willing to come to APS and teach. We know what it takes to help children learn. Just ask us; pay for experience and watch children learn. Children who want to learn can master gaps in knowledge. Learn to read in the 7th grade? Yes–desire is a great motivator.
Retired teacher
July 7th, 2011
11:40 am
Enter your comments here
Credit Due
July 7th, 2011
11:40 am
@Anonymous Teacher, YOU HIT THE NAIL SQUARE ON THE HEAD. This point is often made, but it appears no one will pay any attention to it. Thanks for making it again.
In all this fall out, will anyone give credit due to the principals who refused to be a part of this mess? There are some, you know. There are some who were crushed out of the system because they wouldn’t “join the club.” Name those principals, and give them credit, because these were some severely abused principals. Truth is, they should call some of them back to open up the new school year until they can get things smoothed out.
With all that’s going on, what’s being done to assure a good opening to the upcoming school year? Everyone seems to have forgotten that the new year is truly upon us, and is due every effort to be a good, well planned year. As a retired APS teacher, I want to see things progressing as they should.
KenFromCalifornia
July 7th, 2011
11:42 am
“No one was busy actually teaching him to read because they knew they could erase his way to a high score after the fact.”
so, beverly hall’s great contribution to the city wasn’t education, but simply laziness. gee, why even make the kids go to school at all?? the principals didn’t need them around for anything, apparently.
this entire scandal is a RICO-scale criminal enterprise, designed to fatten the wallets of all who participated. they submitted phony results that generated real increases in pay….a fraud by any definition.
i do hope that the school board meeting today will result in a direct request from the board that the atlanta police and the district attorney begin charging people with felony fraud and conspiracy. beverly hall should be at the top of the list; despite her claims of cluelessness, the d.a. doesn’t have to prove she directly told people to cheat in order to show that she was part of the conspiracy that benefitted her.
beverly the emperor has no clothes. i think the school board needs to protect its tenuous hold on its accredidation (and credibility) by calling the cops on beveryly hall and her senior staff, and not chicken out and wait for someone else to do it.
Shiri
July 7th, 2011
11:44 am
When are we going to get a refund from the school board for this test scamming? We paid for education, so PAY UP….
Kira Willis
July 7th, 2011
11:53 am
@John,
I was busy trying to change the system.
Open Records??
July 7th, 2011
11:59 am
Maureen – I have seen lots of references and stats alluding to the weakness of the CRCT as a valid metric. Teachers and parents both seem to say things like the test is easy, a joke, etc. I’ve also seen posts that state the cut scores are as low as 40% and manipulated yearly.
Is there a way you could ask the DOE to address these concerns? Can you ask (using an open records request, if necessary) to see released copies of the tests? I want to know if these tests are as easy as claimed (or if the math and science tests are as much about reading as about math and science, as I have heard). I want to know if there are bad questions, as I have heard. I want to know what the cut score REALLY is, and if it was lowered this year to help schools meet higher requirements from NCLB. As a parent and a taxpayer, I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to have these things clarified. Thanks!!
Competitive
July 7th, 2011
12:00 pm
@Maureen: I hope the DOE will respond to your questions. I would also like to know why old versions of the CRCT are not released, as is done in many other states. Why doesn’t the state send detailed results for each student, including the exact GPS strands that correspond to each question missed?
The state currently sends out a vague result sheet that tells how many questions were answered correctly out of 4 broad categories. For example, in Social Studies, a teacher might find out that a student answered 10 out of 15 questions correctly in economics. That doesn’t tell me very much. Is that personal finance or economic systems? If economic systems, was it in one particular region of the world, or common among all regions. This is information teachers NEED to be able to remediate and plan. Currently, the CRCT provides nothing for the teachers to use to support kids.
The DOE would be smart to make the CRCT much more transparent if they want to overcome this mess. The DOE also needs to make the CRCT results more useful, so that it is less of a waste of time and money than it currently is.
Dr. John Trotter
July 7th, 2011
12:04 pm
@ Kira: Sometimes that requires dealing with individual people and their problems. Talking theory is easy. This is what we do on blogs, etc. But, more power to you. The system is indeed broken. At MACE, we’re not afraid to get dirt under our fingernails…while GAE and PAGE might be attending a luncheon with politicians. Ha!
Wes Sayid
July 7th, 2011
12:05 pm
No amount of money or other resources will ever help if the parents aren’t involved – both in school and in the home. It does take millions to hold you back – you are minions because you are slack.
Dr. John Trotter
July 7th, 2011
12:10 pm
“The Atlanta Public Schools (APS) is by no means the only school system in Georgia or in the nation to engage in widespread cheating, but the cheating in Atlanta was so pervasive and so endemic in the system itself that it turned the school system into a cruel hoax, a cruel caricature of education, a hackneyed institution bent on inflicting fear, intimidation, retaliation, and pain on anyone who deigned to summon a scintilla of integrity and mettle within his or her spirit to speak out — ever how muted the voice — against the heinous actions of those in positions of power and who feigned to be caring educators but who were really jackals of the night, only pushing their own fiendish agenda with no regard whatsoever for the innocent children or the still innocent teachers. A prophetic voice was needed. Speaking truth to power. We at MACE always tried to be this prophetic voice. We tried to do our part. We were one voice, but some teachers and other employers became single and lonely voices, crying out for justice and mercy, and suffering for their cries for justice and mercy. They just wanted others to know that injustice and cruelty reigned in the Atlanta Public Schools. Their voices were heard ever so faintly…not because of their own failings but because the cold wax of fear, intimidation, retaliation, and pain cluttered up the anvils of others’ ear drums.” — first paragraph of a new article about the mess that Beverly Hall created in Atlanta. >>>
http://www.georgiateachersspeakout.com
Competitive
July 7th, 2011
12:11 pm
@ What’s Really Going On- You’re right. There is no excuse for a student to be in front of an educator for that long without gaining more knowledge than they have. There are certainly obstacles and difficulties that get in the way of educating some students, but those teachers clearly hold some responsibility as well.
@Kim- The body of work throughout the school year is even easier to cheat and lie about than the CRCT. I know of teachers who give students a 100% on every assignment for simply writing their first and last name on the paper. I had a teacher on my teaching team several years ago who copied pages out of a coloring book and had his students color for their assignment. This was 7th grade Math. (By the way, I informed my administrators about both teachers. Nothing was done to fix the problem.) Also, administrators and parents can have a very strong influence on the grades teachers give in their classes. I’m afraid that relying simply on a student’s work throughout the year would lead to more opportunities for students to fall through the cracks.
The CRCT is badly flawed, especially in APS or wherever cheating may occur. However, I do think we need some kind of objective 3rd party assessment to get a better understanding of student learning and teacher effectiveness.
Nikole
July 7th, 2011
12:12 pm
@ Shar—-I would love to have a tutor in my first grade classroom in Dekalb. I work off of Memorial Drive. My school does tutoring, but it is only for the upper grades. That’s truly unfortunate because research says that interventions are much more effective in primary grades. Email me at nikhowall@yahoo.com if you are interested!
Nikole
July 7th, 2011
12:12 pm
@ TRUTH—There are no union in GA. If there were, this scandal wouldn’t have gone on so long. The whistle blowers would have been protected from retaliation from their union!
Nikole
July 7th, 2011
12:13 pm
*by their union
simply beige
July 7th, 2011
12:19 pm
Maureen,
Can’t you do something about AJC biased reporting? They are only showing photos of African American educators and administrators, which is an intentional effort to set back race relations 40 years?
Why can’t they find some White teachers to show who can add diversity to the scandal?
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/AJC%20front%20page.jpg
At least they could come out and admit that if White weren’t so scared of blacks, they would send their kids to public schools and teachers wouldn’t need to cheat to bring up the average scores- White kids would score high enough to solve the problems.
We are hearing too many Whites who never said anything racist in their lives becoming raging hatemongers. They evidently don’t feel that they have any responsibility for the problem.
They built the racist system, and then they look at any black problems as proof that they were justified when they segregated.
What do Whites think life will be like for their children when they are the minority?
Rone
July 7th, 2011
12:30 pm
This situation is not surprising in my opinion. As a student who will be graduating this year with a degree in education from GSU, I have a strong feeling that the pressure on schools to provide the performance levels necessary for accredidation have forced this situation on administrators. It doesn’t make it right though. We need strong willed and dedicated teachers to get good results honestly. This will be accomplished with a strong belief in the children I will teach, and hard work on my part to do the best that I can.