No Child Left Behind: A conspiracy against public education that too few called out
Jim Arnold (Pelham City Schools)
A while back, I ran a piece from Jim Arnold, superintendent of Pelham City Schools in Mitchell County. Several of you commented that you wished you worked for such a straight-talking school chief.
I think that sentiment is going to be even stronger after this piece, which I plan to run on the Monday education page that I assemble for the AJC. But I can’t fit all of it in the newspaper, so here is the full version.
By Jim Arnold
We’ve done it now. Eleven years we had to educate the public, to register our protests and do everything in our power to warn people what was coming, and we blew it. We knew the moment would eventually come and we hem-hawed, looked at the ground, kicked at the dirt with our shoes and failed to look the opposition in the eye and face them down. All of us saw this coming, but very few took a stand and now we – and our students – are paying the price. We could have been prophets but failed the test.
We allowed the proponents of NCLB to control the discussion from the beginning. They wrote the language, sent out the media notices and explanations, wrote the definitions of AYP, Highly Qualified and leaned heavily on the fact that none of us would dare protest anything to do with a name that implies we would be providing a high quality education for every single child in America. They were right. We chose not to speak out, not to fight against a system we knew from the beginning would set us all up for failure, and instead, in our best Dudley DoRight impersonations we set about to change the way we taught and measured and tested and graded and thought.
We knew from the outset that NCLB and its goal of 100 percent – every child proficient in every area as determined by a single test on a single day each year – was patently, blatantly and insidiously absurd, but we took no concerted action. We knew Adequate Yearly Progress was a sham, and we literally and figuratively rolled over and tried our best to meet whatever impossible goals they set for us and our students. We knew that Federal law in NCLB was a violation of Federal law in IDEA but we went along with the insanity of testing Students with Disabilities based on chronological age rather than by IEP.
We learned very quickly and much to our chagrin that some student scores – usually the lowest ones – were counted not once, not twice, but often as many as three times, but we went along to get along. All of us were aware that Highly Qualified, for all the high rhetoric that went along with it, only served to make certification as much of a barrier as humanly possible for Special Education teachers regardless of degree or experience. It seems the teachers we needed most were subjected to the greatest roadblocks to reaching the nirvana of HiQ certification.
We tried our best to play the game but the game was rigged from the start. When the AMO’s were low it was pretty easy for most schools. When the AMO’s went up and more and more schools were labeled “failing” we looked around in a panic for help. Surely nobody believed a school deserved the failing label because two or three kids in a subgroup didn’t pass a test? Yes they did. Yes they still do. We let them make the definitions and apply the labels, even when we realized the absurdity of it all.
We actually pretended to believe that it was important for us to make sure that every child was tested on those all important test days so none could escape the trauma we inflicted upon them. We even learned in some places to game the system and hold back those kids we feared might not pass the test or might raise those student numbers to create a subgroup in areas we really didn’t want to see a subgroup or, God help us, to cheat or to make sure that we could hold out two or three or four of “those kids” on test days so their poor scores wouldn’t have a negative effect.
Oh sure, some of you stuck your necks out and said something to the effect of “NCLB forced us to take a closer look at ourselves, and we are better off for that” in spite of the fact that it was our students that were suffering the consequences. What balderdash. What hubris. Our kids were the ones whose education was stilted by our submission to the belief that one test could effectively distill and determine the depth and extent of an entire year of a child’s education. They are the ones whose time was wasted by “academic pep rallies” and “test prep” and by the subtle and insidious ways we told them the test was “important” and put pressure on them to “do their best because our school is counting on you.”
They were the ones that did without art and music and chorus and drama because we increased the amount of time they spent in ELA and Math. They were the ones that had time in their Social Studies and Science classes cut back more and more so schools could focus on the “really important areas” of ELA and Math. They were the ELL’s that couldn’t speak English but still had to take the test. Their teachers were the ones that were told “your grading of the children in your classes doesn’t count any more because standardization is more important to us that the individual grades you provide.” This told them in effect that their efforts at teaching were important but only if they taught using “this” methodology or “this” curriculum, then, when things started to go badly, they were the first to be blamed for the failure of public education. They were told to teach every child the same way with the same material but make sure to individualize while you’re at it. Hogwash.
After a couple of years of this insanity, the “NI” status began to take its toll. Someone somewhere invented the term “failing schools” and, unsurprisingly, the label stuck. Students were given the opportunity to transfer to more test-successful schools, but at a price. Schools that did not meet AYP standards, oddly enough, were often those with high minority populations and high poverty. Nobody seemed to notice the zip code effect that left predominantly white schools meeting AYP standards and minority schools caught by the “failing” label. Oh surely, we reasoned, our government would not want to put public education in a situation it could not win………..or would they?
I struggled with the rest of you as to why NCLB would go to such great lengths to make public education appear to be such a failure, to set up a system that would guarantee failure for practically every public school as we advanced toward that magical 100 percent level and provide no tangible rewards for success and such punitive actions for not meeting arbitrary goals. On top of all of that, I failed to recognize why our nation’s legislators so nimbly avoided even the discussion of reauthorization to change what everyone knew was a failed policy. One day it finally hit me.
They didn’t want to change the policy, because the policy was designed in theory and in fact not to aid education but to create an image of a failed public school system in order to further the implementation of vouchers and the diversion of public education funds to private schools.
I am not usually a conspiracy theory guy, but this was no theory. These were cold hard facts slapping me in the face. We failed in our obligations to protect our students from one of the most destructive educational policies since “separate but equal.” We did not educate the public on the myth and misdirection of Adequate Yearly Progress, and we allowed closet segregationists to direct the implementation of policies that we knew would result in our being the guys in the black hats responsible for “the failure of public education.”
Now we are paying the price. AYP is here to stay in one form or another, and the vast majority of our parents and public really believe the propaganda that it actually measures a school’s educational progress. If we try to convince them otherwise we are “making excuses.”
Vouchers – especially for private and charter schools exempt from the same restrictive, destructive policies we are forced to endure – are a part of every legislative session in almost every state. High stakes testing for all public education students is considered a necessary reality and teachers are leaving the profession in droves. Student test scores will soon determine teacher pay in some places even with no data to support the correlation. Students that do not graduate high school in four years are labeled as dropouts, even if they graduate in nine or 10 semesters.
Only first-time test takers are considered in the grading system for schools regardless of how many students ultimately pass the test. It will take years to undo the damage done to science, social studies, fine arts, foreign languages and other academic electives. Generations will not be enough to rid ourselves and our students of the testing mania neuroses created by our attempts to quantify the unquantifiable.
I hope the generation of teachers and administrators that follows has learned something from the failure of our generation to ward off those determined to destroy public education. We didn’t stand up to be counted, we didn’t stand in the schoolhouse door and tell them they couldn’t do that to our kids, and we didn’t educate the public about what a gigantic failure another one size fits all education policy would be. In the words of that great educator and philosopher Jimmy Buffet: “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.”
We have all been left behind.
– From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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339 comments Add your comment
Ed Researcher
September 4th, 2011
1:58 pm
Jim, you are right. Those who believe standardized test scores are useful in making teachers and schools accountable don’t know much about standardized tests, assessment in general, or people. First, the tests don’t measure what they purport to measure and sample only a tiny portion of what the schools are trying to teach. Second, by placing such emphasis on these tests, the curriculum has restricted to what is on the tests with no evidence that the tested items measure what is important to the child’s success in life. Third, the people who are being held accountable for the scores (not the real learning of their pupils), are human beings with all of their foibles. Just see Michelle Rhee and the test cheating scandals in D.C. during her regime.
Jerry Eads
September 4th, 2011
2:50 pm
‘Come on out’ and join the fun, @ed researcher. Lest ye be inside the gummint as I was for many years and had to psuedonym. That said, We’ve been hammering those points for nigh on four decades to deaf ears. People WANT simple answers like test scores to actually mean something so they don’t have to face the complexities of the real world. AND Jim’s ‘conspirators’ know that all too well, and have taken superb advantage of it. THAT said, I have a modicum of hope: it may be a very biased sample that responds to Maureen’s pieces (sorry, HATE the term “blog”), but there seem to be some rays of understanding even beyond the wonderful teachers who post here. AND the literature is beginning to reflect a realization that the emperor has no clothes. We’ll see.
Kerri
September 4th, 2011
3:27 pm
Spot on.
It has never been about accountability. NCLB has been and is about those in power framing the entire discussion about education, blaming teachers for everything, and using federal funds as a means to blackmail just about everyone into passivity.
Teachers are told that their judgment, their ability to assess students’ progress, is insufficient. A flawed testing system — impersonal and absolutely subjective — is esteemed above humans who are trained in education and experienced in the classroom.
An assumption was made years ago which may never have been true. Were students truly not being educated? The generation that was slapped with the “failure” label is now rising to power. Those in the public school system while NCLB was being devised are now responsible for advances in various technologies. We are professionals and entrepreneurs. We read. We can create. We can protest racist and classist policies and we can redesign the law.
APS Teacher & Proud of It
September 4th, 2011
4:02 pm
If someone is going to hold a club over my head & threaten my livelihood and under Maslow means numero uno is protecting the roof over your head & keeping food on the table for you & your family where a “Test” becomes measuremen¬t of that outcome, trust me..keepin¬g a roof over my head & for my family is going to win – hands down.
Brandon Granny
September 4th, 2011
4:19 pm
When my now rising college freshmen started elementary school back in, I was volunteering to make copies for his teacher. In front of me was a 5th grade teacher making copies of a worksheet that explained what a card catalog was. Even 13 years ago, libraries used computers not card catalogs.
Why? There were a couple of questions about card catalogs on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.
What is scary about the situation in GA is that parents put stock in our state tests as though it means something if their child passes. However, the bar is already so low and if someone is changing answers so kids will pass it is beyond pathetic.
Making the Grade
September 4th, 2011
4:41 pm
In the mid 1990’s on my radio show, I covered the very beginning of the right wing’s aggressive decision to go after vouchers to pay for their private school education with tax payer dollars. Their tactics were also examined by a Yale professor. They involved continual bad-mouthing, even lying about public education, regardless of the facts. Their attitude was that the end justified the means. They did not want their children educated with “them”- whoever that might be in their particular communities. Politicians were urged to view teachers as incompetent enemies, and we entered this awful age of insane “accountability.”
Not only the arts, foreign language, and PE have been denied a generation of children, but recess and even coloring in kindergarten has become suspect! We’ve completely lost track of how children develop and what they need to be productive citizens. And we’re being surpassed by other countries!
Let’s get this straight — this has been an unrelenting power grab for tax payer dollars while undermining one of the central pillars of American society. Let’s not forget that America became great because it provides free public education to every student. We are not elitist like other countries where education is only available to those who can pay for it. We give this gift to every child, regardless of ability or ethnic background. Many countries think we’re crazy to attempt this. And it’s hard. I know. I’ve been in the classroom since I covered this story to help raise up responsible citizens in some very challenging schools.
Public education is a heritage from our Puritan ancestors! They insisted that everyone, even the native Americans whose land they were usurping, learn to read. Every town was expected to provide a school. Teachers were respected as the adults in the community who were/are willing to spend productive time with other people’s children. NCLB has done considerable damage to teacher morale and has run droves of top teachers out of the profession because they couldn’t stand what was happening to children and themselves. Bravo to those who have tried to make this insanity work — they have been standing up for kids through all this and being professional about it.
Common Sense
September 4th, 2011
6:16 pm
“It is unclear whether the rise in cheating on standardized tests is due to more incidents of actual cheating or increased public awareness. Either way, as federal education policies and state teacher evaluations increasingly hinge on testing data, observers worry that the mounting pressure to produce results will cause more teachers and principals to crack. ”
My mother recently retired from teaching. She loved teaching, but grew tired and cynical from all the bureaucracy involved in it these days. She would spend too much time prepping her kids for these standardized tests, instead of doing what she wanted to do with them and was to teach them to read, do math, learn science and art. But the administration above here dictated her lesson plans, as they were more concerned about government funding rather than the effects it would have on the kids. Ask most Teachers and they will point to the administration, and government programs like “Reading First” and “No Child Left Behind”, as the main problems in today’s education.
No Child Left Behind: A conspiracy against public education that too few called out | Get Schooled | EdLead | Scoop.it
September 4th, 2011
6:40 pm
[...] No Child Left Behind: A conspiracy against public education that too few called out | Get Schooled A while back, I ran a piece from Jim Arnold, superintendent of Pelham City Schools in Mitchell County. Source: blogs.ajc.com [...]
Struggling Teacher but Proud
September 4th, 2011
8:15 pm
Vouchers and charter schools weaken the public school system. Vouchers allow the “cut and run” mentality rather than the adult stay and fix the problem. Charter schools get to abandon the rules that are ruining public schools. They are a method of “cut and run” in order to attend a private school with no tuition. Dr. Arnold needs to be heard.
Teacher Forever
September 5th, 2011
1:14 am
Finally, finally more are speaking out against the multi billion dollar standardized testing industry. A generation is already lost and the billionaires making our kids cell phone and gaming junkies have been allowed to taint education. It was never about anything but money…NCLB? Right. Half of them can’t think anymore; they just bubble.
The White Shadow: Bill Gates, Charter Schools, & The Evil Twins « Living Behind the Gates
September 5th, 2011
2:24 am
[...] why, if not to fail public schools all along? Maureen Dowdy thinks so in her article entitled: “No Child Left Behind: A Conspiracy Against Public Education Too Few Called Out. [...]
Tired of stupidity
September 5th, 2011
5:57 am
Failed Ideas that lead to NCLB
1. Not keeping children who need to repeat back( aka social promotion)
2. Never allowing a child to repeat more than once.
3. Lack of standards because mommy and daddy go to the principal and yell about the mean teacher who insists their child do the work and behave so not to steal education for others.
4. Rewarding the families in #3 by giving their child more attention , stickers, and rewards because they won’t work otherwise.
5, People who never taught a day in their lives that have no clue about special needs, esl , or poverty issues making standards and creating tests to be given by those who do.
6. Just because education was always better a generation or two ago. In the heyday of the ’50’s my grandparents were told my high functioning mentally handicapped child should be warehoused . They sent her to a private school where the teachers put her in the corner with a coloring book and crayons. Today we teach these children. We don’t ignore children anymore so we are failing. ( right giving folks who were ignore what little education they can glean is a sin in some circles ,I guess.
So according to pols who have no education experience or listen to those who do think we are failing. Special populations, and ESL students should be tested where they are at. An IEP means you are not going to grow at the expected rate. So are we failing or are we educating as many as we can in a society too busy worshiping money, and fame ? Just look in the media smart people and education are denigrated every day. Kiddie shows that show grown ups, teachers, and smart people as fools while “popular” kids are oh so much smarter because of good looks and popularity. It’s time to teach kids, parents and society in general that education is important and must be valued. NCLB is what you get when a society speaks out of both sides of their mouths.
Teacher's Husband
September 5th, 2011
8:37 am
If you are a truly concerned imparter of knowledge, then you know there are no true failures. Only those that don’t recieve encouragement, allow themselves to fail. I would not have been able to travel the world and survive in this world without encouragement by teachers that knew my grades didn’t reflect my abilities.
That “magic” light bulb over the head goes off at different phases of developement. I remember my last year of high school after summer vacation. No one wanted to challenge me, as before, because my physical appearance suddenly changed the way I could move through society. I grew big. Many kids vary in their mental growth as well. Laws cannot regulate that, but an educator can help guide the growing mind to direct THEMSELVES to knowledge and to be proud of discouvering that knowledge.
A Lover of Learning
September 5th, 2011
9:26 am
Some of you believe that our children are graduating from public schools in Georgia, fully prepared to enter college or the work force, having learned what they should have in the courses they took in high school are wrong. What they have learned is: HOW to pass TESTS! That is not enough! Is that all you want teachers to do–teach our children to pass the tests? I am glad that I had teachers who did more than expend knowledge; they made me curious about the world in which I lived, they challenged my intellect, they encouraged me to become the best me I could be. THEY would be proud of the teacher I became. NCLB and eight out of ten months of the school year spent: preparing to test, testing-retesting-analyzing test scores is a ridiculous waste of TEACHING TIME!
A Necessary Optimism -neologophilia
September 5th, 2011
9:57 am
[...] A Necessary Optimism Filed under: public schools,school funding,school reform — wtucker @ 8:57 am Tags: accountability, Education Reform, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, School Reform, Teacher evaluation We’ve done it now. Eleven years we had to educate the public, to register our protests and do everything in our power to warn people what was coming, and we blew it. We knew the moment would eventually come and we hem-hawed, looked at the ground, kicked at the dirt with our shoes and failed to look the opposition in the eye and face them down. All of us saw this coming, but very few took a stand and now we — and our students — are paying the price. We could have been prophets but failed the test. http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/08/31/no-child-left-behind-a-conspiracy-against-public-e... [...]
Anonmom
September 5th, 2011
10:01 am
I think that education has created small 3rd world countries… I think that it’s not a crime to recognize that the bell curve exists for a reason. If you give the parents vouchers, you can design a system to allow competition between schools and allow schools to become really good at a few things rather than mediocre at many things –let the schools focus on certain “types” (I don’t mean to denigrate here) of kids — some can be really good for kids with IEPs (ala the Speech School or St. Francis); some can be really good for gifted kids (ala the “top 10″ that don’t even make the Newsweek top lists — we don’t even come close to this with any of our schools in Georgia — not even our special “high achiever” magnets); some can be really good with other things that kids need help with (ala those that want to become carpenters and plumbers). Let’s stop this madness of spending billions of dollars making our schools be all things to all kids and having all of our kids — with so many different skill sets, loves, interests and abilities sitting together and teachers (some of whom are awesome and awe-inspiring and some of whom can’t speak English well, can’t be understood at all and don’t know that there are 50 states in the U.S.) and are dreadful and need to go — the same can be said for administrators. I am an American who actually believes in competition — I understand that phone service is better since MaBelle was split apart and plane tickets are cheaper and more available since deregulation — nothing is ever perfect — but competition infuses an incentive to make things better and currently, the public school system, at least in the metro area in Atlanta (and elsewhere around the country) is spending way too much tax payer money, with zero accountabilty and very little to show for it on the back end… We, as a society, will pay even more, in the future — this is not a “zero sum game” — these are children involved — who will grow up and become a part of society — they can be positive members of society or they can be negative members of society — a handful of negative members always have existed and can be addressed but when the numbers of negative members of society reach into the hundreds of thousands, then what does society really start to look like? Why am I the only one seeing things this way….. I want my kids and grandkids (who are really getting their educations and will have a future for themselves if society allows for it) to have a life almost as nice as mine and my husbands — I’m not sure it’s possible to hope for a better life…..
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 5th, 2011
10:58 am
A thought: Is there an extreme negative correlation between the degree of hatred toward standardized tests and scores on such tests?
Making Sense of Cheating APS Teachers
September 5th, 2011
11:03 am
As we eat the end stages of NCLB, it will be easy to spot the schools where cheating has occurred– they will be the ones that haven’t been labeled “failing.” As we make the final approach to the requirement that 100% of students receive above average test scores, it becomes impossible to meet the federal educrat requirements honestly.
I wish school districts had the balls to simply let NCLB implode under the weight of its own failure. But the weak and the foolish will crack under pressure and cheat.
It’s a bad choice, a wrong choice, but since NCLB was implemented, success was never an option. If you’re generous, you may assume that the feds were simply foolish. If you’re cynical, you may assume that the purpose of NCLB was always to create massive public ed “failure,” thereby justifying dismantling public ed. But 100% success on a standardized test was never possible.
Mark Halpert
September 5th, 2011
11:31 am
NCLB had a few good components but it was flawed from the start.
Secretary of Education Rod Paige when told that 100 percent passing would defy the bell curve, commented, “That is our goal”. That is absurd
We help students with disabilities and have a 90 percent passing rate, and believe 100% goal to be idealistic and wrong — NCLB was set-up to help and to make schools look like they are failing
What one should take note of are the public and charter schools that have made huge progress — while charter schools deserve a mixed report card — one should really look at their successes — some of them are great
Also, school districts like Valle Arizona have done an outstanding job of improving their students’ reading and math scores
The law needs to be changed — and it needs to keep the disaggregation, so that students with disabilities, African Americans and Hispanic students are given the attention, and the scorecard needs to be far more focused on student growth — how much better students are getting
A Teacher in McDonough
September 5th, 2011
12:00 pm
A great article! Unfortunately it’s not on page one of the AJC, the feature article in Time magazine, or the lead story on the evening news. Most Americans will never see the perspective from the educator’s side. When educators do speak out, they are criticized as moaning and crying.
Tamara Hamlin
September 5th, 2011
12:00 pm
When you are knee deep in NCLB (ie working inside the system), you know how true this rings. If you are an observer, a parent, or a politician, you have no idea how idiotic the testing grind really is. Reform we needed; however reform based on testing and graduation rates does not lead to excellence in education.
Surprise. Big Surprise
September 5th, 2011
12:03 pm
What did they expect would happen?
Do the impossible¬. If you don’t, we will fire you – both teachers and administra¬tors. No excuses. We KNOW that it can be done and if you can’t do it, we will find somebody who says they can.
So they cheat. If they didn’t cheat, they would be fired immediatel¬y for not meeting objectives¬. If they cheat, they may be fired for cheating, but that could be many years from now.
When APS schools were held to impossible objectives and rigorously punished for failure, you destroy the organizati¬on and the lives of countless children. The self-engrossed Beverly Hall and her loyal band of perpetrators deserve the harshest of consequences.
Digger
September 5th, 2011
12:29 pm
This is the result when one attempts, at the expense of everything else, to close gaps which can never be closed.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 5th, 2011
1:23 pm
ATNMD and TH,
We teachers erred in our opposition to the deficiencies in NCLB and to the abuse of standardized testing under its color when we spoke out and spoke out and spoke out and spoke out but went no further.
My maternal grandmother, who never graduated from HS but who was as sharp as any razor blade I’ve ever handled, cautioned me, “Actions speak louder than words.” Talk may be a prerequisite for action but it certainly is no substitute for it.
What have we as practicing and retired teachers DONE to reform this law in a manner consonant with our best educational practices and beliefs?
Civics 101
September 5th, 2011
1:58 pm
How disappointing:
Cheating on tests that don’t really contribute to student learning.
Cheating on tests that are used to beat teachers over the head with.
Cheating on tests that are imperfect and measure a minute area of a student’s true talent/knowledge/skills
Cheating on tests that too many administra¬tors obsess over
Cheating on tests that force teachers to teach to a test that’s incredibly flawed
Cheating on tests that sadly don’t do anything to truly improve this country.
NCLB, I take my hat off to you. You put these districts to the “test” and when they couldn’t pass muster (that means AYP – Adequate Yearly Progress), then they found another way to meet their AYP targets.
This sordid episode of American history is just beginning to reveal itself.
Anonmom
September 5th, 2011
2:36 pm
There’s a famous Holocaust quote about how important it is to speak out and to do what is right and ethical — it was by Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), an ardent nationalist and prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Hitler (he spent the last 7 years of Nazi rule in concentration camps):
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
Cheating isn’t the answer. Just dealing with it, isn’t the answer. A monopoly isn’t the answer either.
long time educator
September 5th, 2011
3:14 pm
@Anonmom,
What you seem to be talking about with charter schools that would deal with particular groups of students, such as those with IEP’s, gifted, and vocational, was what we called tracking in the olden days when we took care of all groups under one school building.. Tracking became a “bad word” denoting discrimination and the sun shone on “inclusion” and graduation with one diploma track only. Parents of students with IEP’s did not want them pulled out and treated like second class citizens; they wanted them “included” in the regular classroom even if they could not do any of the curriculum. Teachers are expected to differentiate instruction. In reality this means a fourth grade teacher is expected to teach the same science standards across the second through sixth grade reading levels of the students in her classroom. This requires getting mucho materials on different levels and planning small groups within the room to meet the needs of all the different levels in the inclusion classroom. It also includes color sheets for the way below grade level special ed students in her room. This doesn’t even touch on the extreme behavior problems included, which would have been pull-out before. It is a zoo.This one concept – inclusion – has created more chaos in the classroom than anyone wants to admit. Tracking would be easier and makes alot of sense, but it is not politically correct. When parents of gifted students see the inclusion classroom, they often pull out their kids and go to private school if they can afford it. Private schools can track as much as they want.
A Sympathizing DCSS Colleague
September 5th, 2011
3:58 pm
To APS teachers:
I want to start with a strong statement. I do not, in any way, condone cheating. That said…
This honestly does not surprise me. The pressure to show improvemen¬ts on tests – with negative reinforcem¬ent if you do not (which, by the way, is noted to be a terrible practice in teaching, one wonders why we use the “stick” when we know the “carrot” works much better) – would put strains on even the most honest of people. Teachers are not “supermen/superwomen,” we are humans just the same as you. I have been pressured to cheat on standardized tests. I was able to resist because it was one small incident, the pressure was not systematic, and the person pressuring me was not really in any position to do anything if I refused to do as he asked. But I felt the pressure all the same. I can only imagine what teachers feel when their administra¬tors or peers pressure them significantly and systematically. Until you have walked a mile in their moccasins, you have no place to judge.
Disgusted
September 5th, 2011
5:21 pm
Sure there are teachers who cheat, but I find it offensive and ridiculous that the media continues to label this as “teacher cheating.” As a teacher who has administered a countless number of standardized assessment¬s in multiple states, I have never had more than 10-15 minutes with completed tests in my possession. During these 10-15 minutes, I was also supervising my students and it would’ve been impossible to cheat.
It is the administrators who spend countless hours unsupervised with completed assessments. And yes, my colleagues and I have often wondered if the principal was cheating because of the lack of transparency. If a teacher was going to cheat on an assessment, they would do it by steering children toward correct answers while proctoring.
Stop calling it “teacher cheating” because it is the leaders who are truly at fault here. But, once again, in the eyes of the public, teachers are to blame for something that is beyond their control.
Ignorance begets Ignorance
September 5th, 2011
7:07 pm
Ignorance begets Ignorance
Education is geared increasing¬ly toward the lowest common denominato¬r. What the education establishm¬ent seems to want is complete consistenc¬y. Teachers are to teach to the test. Any sign of creativity¬? Crush it. Nonconform¬ity? Punish it. Initiative¬? Bury it. Here’s the book; here’s the test; pass it. Oh, and by the way, anyone interested in Latin Club? Spanish Club? Band? Orchestra? Dramatics? Debate?…no funding available. Schools increasing¬ly want students to be equipped with pre-ordain¬ed abilities, the old cookie-cut¬ter principle. It’s no wonder the kids are dropping out.
Standards…? | Just questions!
September 5th, 2011
7:52 pm
[...] via No Child Left Behind: A conspiracy against public education that too few called out | Get Schooled. [...]
Anonmom
September 5th, 2011
8:03 pm
Yes: long time educator — tracking — I was a product of it — my kids had it and my youngest really excelled with it in 8th grade at a DCSS school last year (it was a fluke) — I’ve now pulled private — I get it. I really do. But what I’ve come to fully understand and appreciate, in addition to the fact that “differentiated instruction” is bogus and next to impossible to pull off with so many different levels in the classroom, along with behavior problems, is that the system is absolutely corrupt. There is no accountabilty for the dollars being spent. So long as billions of dollars are being put into the system in a “top down” funding model and the state and the media won’t make the sytem account for the outcome being produced, there’s too big of an incentive for the money to be skimmed off the toip (via the employment of unqualified people for inflated salaries and actual embezzlement) and, therefore, I believe, that vouchers, is a better system, becuase it would fund from the bottom up so the dollars would be spread out among more people and there would be a greater incentive for the system to actaully produce results — no, results, than the parents, take the voucher and take the money elsewhere — less of an ability for skimming off the surface. The state can then watch what is happening to the money — there would be more checks and balances in place for the money going in and the outcome (the education being received) coming out and the bonus is that the if the vouchers could be used private (even if only half a voucher) then the tracking could actually again begin to take place…. the current system is such a failure that I fail to see how the system I’m proposing could be any worse — particularly if the “privates” half to leave “half vouchers” in their local public schools (necessary so there’s a ‘ding’ to the public to motivate the public to compete to get the kid back…..). I want accountability and actual education. I’d really love real, honest to pete, thorough annual forensic audits of our billions in taxpayer money.
To Disgusted From Good Mother
September 5th, 2011
8:19 pm
To Disgusted,
Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
Of course teachers are to blame for the cheating and “teacher cheating” is not just a media term. It is accurate.
Did you read the blog from the teacher who cheated and is proud of it? She or he claims they pointed to the correct answers and will continue to do so. Did you not read about the teachers who had “changing parties” where they changed the answers in their own homes?
Administrators are guilty — they are the mafia that hired the hit man but the teachers are the ones who pulled the trigger and they deserve the very accurate title of “cheating teacher.”
Pardon My Blog
September 5th, 2011
8:21 pm
I am reading a lot of the comments from teachers and there seem to be a lot of excuses for not getting the job done and doing the right thing. It is always someone elses fault, the program doesn’t work, etc. Unfortunately, it is a combination of totally incompetent teachers, administrators and a program that does not work. We see administrators more concerned with their “panels”, etc. that are complete nonsense but it gives them a sense of importance. We see teachers who can not spell, speak proper english, or even know the basics of world geography. Yet, they are the ones that are hired for the classroom. As one teacher said, there ought to be certain standards (GPA, SAT, etc.) for a student to get into the college of education at an accredited University (and only graduates from said universities be allowed in the classroom). Colleges ought to seek only the best and brightest for the programs. This might lead to a shortage of teachers but that will not necessarily be a bad thing.
For all of its warts, NCLB was trying to address the total incompetence we see at the schools but it seems to have opened the doors wide for more. It is time to get back to the basics and instead of testing to the students, let’s start testing the teachers.
City Profile
September 5th, 2011
8:38 pm
The credibility of the school system that Hall led for a dozen years is in tatters.
The entire 12 year record of APS’ supposed improvement in the quality of its education has been rendered a complete lie. When all these corporations who relocated to Atlanta from the North start leaving in droves because they realize their kids aren’t receiving much more than a Third World education around here, leaving this city bankrupt and good people unable to escape the suction of the city going under, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Pack your bags now and prepare to flee, folks.
No Justice
September 5th, 2011
9:01 pm
School administrators like Hall and Augustine will eventually go on to other supervisory titles in other school districts in this country, and you know they’ll be predominantly black districts. What a shame we are allowing these cowards to just go on and wreak havoc without being punished properly, and we wonder why our kids are so far behind.
Everybody Left Behind
September 5th, 2011
9:13 pm
What does it matter? There will be no jobs for these kids anyway.
With “no child left behind” and each generation becoming more stupid than the previous, I don’t blame the teachers for cheating. I would too. The younger generation feels they’re entitled to big paying jobs just for being alive. Reality will hit them like a ton of bricks when they realize all the jobs have been offshored and they’re fighting for table scraps by flipping burgers
Lady J
September 6th, 2011
7:10 pm
Mr. Arnold is correct. So is that statistics guy. You can’t measure a teacher’s effectiveness by one test and what we are doing to kids is horrendous. Thank God some are finally beginning to stand up for both kids and teachers.
RxSpence
September 6th, 2011
9:53 pm
When something is so wretchedly broken we don’t need to be told it is broken.
Make it work, promote alternatives, or move into the private sector and design programs that work.
Unless you recognize that it is the political lobbying that is destroying our education system.
Or maybe you do !