Test pressure didn’t create the CRCT cheating scandal
The numbers were good — too good. They kept rising, beggaring belief. The people who should have questioned them, should have inquired as to how those producing the numbers kept moving from strength to strength, instead got caught up in celebrating them, even taking credit for them.
The numbers were good — too good to be true.
Enron? Major League Baseball?
Atlanta Public Schools?
Let’s stipulate that the state’s review of dodgy CRCT results, prompted by an earlier AJC investigative series, does not on its own explain exactly what happened in Atlanta’s schools during last year’s standardized tests. The state’s analysis of erasure marks on student test sheets does not reveal who did, or knew, or ignored what. For that reason, Gov. Sonny Perdue and his staff have been wisely patient in waiting for the rest of the facts to come to light.
But let’s also acknowledge that cheating occurred. Barring some anti-APS conspiracy by the state, no innocent explanation suffices for a system whose schools were vastly overrepresented among the suspicious.
Surely, there are many innocent teachers and administrators — just as the majority of major leaguers didn’t take steroids, and only a handful of executives cooked the books.
Still, the alternate explanations from Superintendent Beverly Hall don’t cut it. The idea that Atlanta students are just really diligent about double-checking their test answers (and just happen to get dozens of questions right the second time around) doesn’t pass the laugh test any more than Barry Bonds insisting he was just a vitamin-popping gym rat.
When the next phase of investigation ends and — let’s hope — we learn more about how the cheating took place, some people will rationalize it as the inevitable result of an emphasis on testing.
That rationalization isn’t laughable, it’s abominable.
Start with the fact that some of the people who will take this broad-brush swipe at educators’ integrity are the same ones now bemoaning an unfair rush to judgment following the state’s CRCT inquiry.
Plenty of teachers and administrators in plenty of school districts faced the pressure to perform without cheating. Of the state’s 188 districts, 175 managed to avoid having a single school on the “severe concern” list that ensnared three-fifths of APS elementary and middle schools. Statewide, 80 percent of the schools under review were deemed in the clear.
So, clearly, cheating is not a reflexive reaction to pressure. We ought to be gravely concerned about any leader who would suggest that it is.
That’s particularly true for anyone who works with children and teenagers. If schools are not equipping students to face this kind of pressure, they will be even worse off as adults than we thought.
We can’t simply trust people to do the right thing, but we can verify it. For too long, we didn’t verify education results.
Now that we’ve begun to verify, the answer isn’t to de-emphasize tests. Baseball didn’t react to steroid use by playing down home runs, and Wall Street still measures earnings.
There’s one last commonality among APS, steroids in baseball and financial fraud.
Baseball players didn’t use steroids to be all-stars; they cheated to achieve the unprecedented: 66, 70, 73 home runs in a season. Enron didn’t cook the books to be merely profitable, but to reach soaring earnings and share prices.
And the scores of APS students didn’t just rise; they skyrocketed. Yet Atlantans didn’t demand that APS double its passing rates within a decade, only that it record steady, sustainable improvement.
Now, like fans and investors, we have to wonder whether we got even that.
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220 comments Add your comment
The Tar and Feathers Party
February 18th, 2010
9:18 am
Since the teachers and the administrators were getting money for this fraud, should they not be charged in a court of law with criminal fraud?
Kyle Wingfield
February 18th, 2010
9:27 am
Every CRCT answer sheet from every student at every public school was examined, Racer T. No system was singled out for examination. And the testing company did the examination free of charge, mike.
songbird
February 18th, 2010
10:02 am
Georgia’s public schools have been subpar for decades. I moved to Georgia in 1983 to attend graduate school. I obtained a graduate assistantship to help defray the costs since I was paying for it myself. As part of that assistantship, I graded freshman math tests. About half of the students flunked freshman math because the math training they got in high school wasn’t nearly enough for them to be successful at college level.
This was 25 years ago and here we are talking about the same thing. This state has had a horrible record on education for decades. Nothing will change until the people of this state are fed up with the BS and take a stand against the schools and the legislature for failing to provide a decent education to our kids.
Shar
February 18th, 2010
10:02 am
We All Knew and Scooter: I could not agree more with your posts. I have spent hundreds of hours in APS schools as a parent volunteer, including as a proctor. Teachers are under the gun to raise scores, but they don’t have the opportunity that administrators do to change answer sheets. If a proctor is not present in the test room, I believe that some teachers are desperate enough to indicate answers to the students. Earlier posters’ comments have indicated that some students expect teachers to do this. However, administrators see the entire school’s performance and have more to explain than an individual teacher. Administrators also have more to lose. It seems plain to me that the greater proportion of cheating goes on at that level, quite possibly with collusion and assistance from APS bureaucracy.
Throughout this scandal, the question that has not been asked is what the role of the Atlanta Board of Education has been. They have been completely cowed by Hall, who has only to hiss “Micromanagement!” at them to send them all skittering back into their corner. However, it is their responsibility, as our representatives, to be sure that money is being used appropriately, that standards are being met and that children are being educated. They have failed, spectacularly, at those tasks. What is their culpability?
oldtimer
February 18th, 2010
10:07 am
My 30 years in the classroom proved to me that if you do a good job teaching, students do their homework, and parents see that they come to school healthy, teachers do not need to teach the test…..it just ain’t that hard!
The Tar and Feathers Party
February 18th, 2010
10:10 am
I demand a 50% across the board pay cut for all Georgia teachers and administrators and an END to Teacher Tax Breaks! Make it so…
LA
February 18th, 2010
10:17 am
Bottom line: Send your kids to private schools.
LA
February 18th, 2010
10:22 am
Well, for all of Bush’s problems, Republican congressmen never jumped ship!
Ouch, more bad news for Obama.
Senate moderate gives up on Obama
he woes of Barack Obama and his Democratic party allies have deepened with Evan Bayh’s announcement that he will not run for re-election to the Senate in November. The popular and amply financed Mr Bayh had a fight on his hands in Indiana, a Republican-leaning state, but no other Democrat running in his place will be nearly as strong. The likely loss of one more Senate seat is bad enough for Mr Obama, but the implications of Mr Bayh’s entirely unexpected decision are more serious than that.
The senator had long stood for moderation and bipartisanship – ideas that Mr Obama emphasised during his own campaign for the presidency. Mr Bayh has expressed frustration with his party’s congressional leadership and has called on the White House to espouse a more centrist agenda. He has been as scathing about Republican obstructionism, but his decision will mainly be seen as a centrist’s vote of no confidence in Mr Obama. For party and president alike, it is wounding, and a significant setback, quite aside from its effect on Senate arithmetic.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3be409ee-1bff-11df-a5e1-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1
LA
February 18th, 2010
10:23 am
Hey libs, remember when you gals all cried about spending?
Where are you now?
Obama Takes Deficits To New Frontier
In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said that “families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions,” so the “federal government should do the same.”
The following week, the president presented his new budget, which contains $1.267 trillion in new deficit spending. So much for cinching up the belt.
Elsewhere in his address, the president said, “Let me start the discussion of government spending by setting the record straight.” But, in his subsequent words, he barely even mentioned his own deficit spending.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=521420
Churchill's MOM
February 18th, 2010
10:24 am
The Tar and Feathers Party
8:28 am
If the $12,000 # is correct a class of 25 cost $300,000. The cost of a teacher is about $60,000 with fringe so the remaining $240,000 goes to overhead of which at least 50% is waste. Schools don’t count capital expenditures or depreciation int their cost. I know most teachers earn their money but have never seen an administrator worth their $125,000 per year salary.
My children go to 1 of the best private schools in Georgia and their tuition is less than $12,000.
Peter
February 18th, 2010
10:24 am
Kyle doesn’t this speak volumes for the legacy of Sonny Perdue ?
Education in the state going no where during his time frame in office, and now scandal !
Peter
February 18th, 2010
10:26 am
Hey LA……..is the cost of the (2) Wars included in the current deficit ?
Bush never included the War costs in his Budget deficit as far as I remember.
Richard
February 18th, 2010
10:28 am
Kyle, you might want to stop using sports analogies. You’d have been better of saying that the majority of the Bengals haven’t been arrested. Saying that the majority of baseball players didnt take steroids damages your credibility (although the majority haven’t been caught yet).
Steve
February 18th, 2010
10:30 am
Beverly Hall makes $378,000+ per year. How do you taxpayers like that? Great value!
vracer
February 18th, 2010
10:31 am
Must have accurate and honest standardized tests. They are the only true indicator of student performance.
LA
February 18th, 2010
10:31 am
“Hey LA……..is the cost of the (2) Wars included in the current deficit ?
Bush never included the War costs in his Budget deficit as far as I remember.”
Hey Peter, guess what………..WE’RE STILL IN THOSE TWO WARS!
Your reply: ITS BUSH’S FAULT!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Crenshaw8
February 18th, 2010
10:47 am
APS needs to check into The Seed Foundation. Getting Atlanta’s children out of their home environment and into one conducive to learning would eliminate the need to cheat.
Horrible Horrace
February 18th, 2010
10:52 am
“Beverly Hall makes $378,000+ per year.” Thats outrageous for any govt worker. Hall isnt worth over $38,000.
retiredds
February 18th, 2010
10:56 am
LA, I would like to give you a short lesson in economics. In times of depression and/or recession the prudent, but risky, path is to run up large deficits to get the economy going. This has been done successfully on many occasions. This is because the government is the only entity that can do that, not private business nor publicly held corporations. In times of economic expansion the government should balance budgets or run surpluses, putting the extra $$ into a “rainy day fund”, as GA has done, but even that has not been enough this time around. The problem at the federal level comes because very few administrations and Congress would do the latter. Instead they continued to run larger and larger deficits (you can look that up on line if you don’t believe me). So, here we are, with an accumulated deficit at the start of the Obama period of around $10- $12 trillion and having to run even more large deficits to stabilize and jump start the faltering economy (GDP declining at an annualized rate of 6% even before Obama took office). So, regardless of who is the President this is the reality of the economic situation. And by the way there are two stimulus programs: #1 The $700 Billion TARP program instituted under the Bush administration and the Economic Recovery Act (Stimulus Bill) of $787 billion. Now if you have an alternative or better solution to turning the US economy around, let’s hear it. And if you say cut taxes, that has been tried on several occasions and does not work. If cutting taxes was such a panacea why is the deficit so high? Well, let’s see, could it be that the politicians (Republican and Democrat) can’t or won’t curtail their spending habits? Is there an “earmark” that a Congressman would say no to. So let’s hear a more creative solution from you.
Williebkind
February 18th, 2010
11:06 am
Too many progressive liberals teaching in schools. The progressive agenda always comes before real education. Like the books they are introducing into schools that has practically rewritten history–most of it is fiction.
The samples of common sense can not apply in schools today for instande the kid with the 2in toy soldier gun gets kicked out of school. How much time did this take away from his education and how much time did the teacher spend out of the class room because of this. What was the total cost to the tax payer for this displayed progressive ignorance.
Monroe Burbank
February 18th, 2010
11:37 am
Just where does Georgia rank nationally when it comes to education? Here you go:
Assessments –
Math – Grade 4: 37th out of 51 (includes DC)
Reading Grade 4: 39th
Math – Grade 8: 40th
Reading – Grade 8: 39th
Best Educated Index: 40th out of 50
% of people who have completed high school, including GED: 40th out of 51 (At least we’re ahead of AL, MS, TN, AR, KY, LA)
I think we’ve got a combination of kids who aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, and a bad educational system. And you know what? The system is being run be Republicans. Can’t blame this one on the Democrats, folks.
But hey, at least we’ve got the DAWGS!!!!!!.
Nan
February 18th, 2010
11:47 am
If the cost of educating each child is $12,000, give them vouchers for private schools, most of which cost much less than $12,000. The so-called “educators” and administrators in the public school system who will lose their positions, can then go get jobs for which they are “qualified”…..if anyone is willing to pay for their “qualifications.”
Multiple problems solved and tax $ back to the tax payers, where they belong.
Monroe Burbank
February 18th, 2010
11:48 am
Williebkind,
So “the books they are introducing into schools that has practically rewritten history – most of it fiction”(sic). Oh, really? Can you give us a few examples? That’s what I thought.
By the way, dude. Your grammar is atrocious. I nominate you as “Typical-Undereducated-Georgian-Adult-And-Ignorantly-Proud-Of-It” poster-child for the day.
Carl Hodges
February 18th, 2010
12:04 pm
Did you hear about the Educator from India who came to study our educational system and on being asked the difference in Education in India and Education in the United States he replied in India our policy focus is on teaching our children and in the United States your focus is on measuring your children. All children enter school with differences in their readiness mentally, physically and emotionally, in their preparation, home support and environment and yet we measure them all with the same test, makes as much sense as doing away with weight classes in boxing or criticizing an offensive tackle on a professional football team for not being able to run as fast as the split end.
Horrible Horrace
February 18th, 2010
12:16 pm
Carl. You also worship Karl Marx now DONT YOU!
LA
February 18th, 2010
12:24 pm
“So let’s hear a more creative solution from you.”
Sure thing. Cut taxes, kill wasteful government programs, open up the gulf of mexico and alaska for drilling.
LA
February 18th, 2010
12:33 pm
More bad news for America. November here we come!
Jobless Claims, Inflation Jump as Economy Wobbles
The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance unexpectedly surged last week, while producer prices increased sharply in January, raising potential hurdles for the economic recovery.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35457298
scrappy
February 18th, 2010
12:34 pm
So, Test scores were not inflated because of the emphasis of test scores because 175 of 188 school districts are not on the severe concern list?
This only tells me that the Atlanta School district was motivated enough by the funding based emphasis of test scores to carry out the cheating, while the other districts didn’t.
LA
February 18th, 2010
12:34 pm
“Did you hear about the Educator from India”
No but I did her the one about the Indian at the 7 eleven.
NJinGA
February 18th, 2010
12:35 pm
Since returning to school in January my child’s school has done almost nothing but prep for CRCT. If they effectively taught the curriculum the CRCT scores will follow, right? Apparently they scored lower than their rival school for the first time last year. And guess what they are the only school in our area not to get ‘0%’ questionable erasers. They weren’t high enough to make the suspect list, but I still am concerned. Meanwhile the IOWA test scores are dropping. HELLO! GA ranks near the bottom of the states as far as education goes, why teach to the CRCT and not a national test? I can just hear the cheers “We’re mediocre, we’re mediocre, Yeah!” WHich is then follwed by “Why aren’t are SAT scores as high as the rest of the country?”
Kyle Wingfield
February 18th, 2010
12:45 pm
Peter: I don’t know how you can pin the scandal on Perdue. Is he supposed to peek over every superintendent’s shoulder all the time? He — and every other governor — might have looked into cheating earlier, technology permitting, but I think on this issue he deserves credit for acting now.
Richard: No investigation into steroids in baseball has ever indicated that the majority of players were juicing.
Kyle Wingfield
February 18th, 2010
12:49 pm
Monroe Burbank: You don’t get to be as bad off as Georgia’s schools are in just eight years. I think there’s plenty of blame to go around.
To Carl Hodges and other test skeptics: Without testing, how do we know whether the kids are learning? There’s all this talk about testing being an “artificial measure.” OK, then what is a natural measure? Letting the school systems essentially evaluate themselves is what we did for more than a century, and the results speak for themselves.
LA
February 18th, 2010
12:50 pm
Well, looks like the resident AJC racist Cynthia Tucker needs to be fired. She wrote a column a few years ago condemning the Duke Lacrosse players even though they were acquitted.
NOW THIS!
Duke lacrosse accuser charged with attempted murder, arson
Durham police late Wednesday arrested the woman who four years ago falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape. Investigators said Crystal Gayle Mangum assaulted her boyfriend, set his clothes on fire in a bathtub and threatened to stab him.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/7068705/
LA
February 18th, 2010
12:52 pm
LOLOLOL!!!!!!
“Miss Me Yet?” Bush Merchandise a Hit Online
The cheery image of former President George W. Bush appeared on a billboard in Minnesota earlier this month, next to the words, “Miss me yet?” It appears a lot of people think it’s a fair question.
The online store CafePress saw a spike in demand for items featuring the same image as the billboard, the New York Daily News reports. Ten “Miss Me Yet?” items were on the company’s list of its top-selling designs, CafePress spokeswoman Jenna Martin told the Daily News.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/17/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6216739.shtml
Horrible Horrace
February 18th, 2010
12:55 pm
“No but I did her the one about the Indian at the 7 eleven.”
lolol!!! I guess HDB is applying for jobs today?
Jefferson
February 18th, 2010
12:55 pm
Kyle, is it easier to mess up the US economy in one year than it is the mess up the GA education system in 8 years?
LA
February 18th, 2010
1:00 pm
“I guess HDB is applying for jobs today?”
No, according to her, since a democrat is in the White House it means she has a job. I’m guessing that job is with a janitorial staff or the DMV.
Steve
February 18th, 2010
1:04 pm
More from the world of ‘School Administrators Gone Mad’
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/new.york.doodle.arrest/index.html?hpt=C1
Horrible Horrace
February 18th, 2010
1:16 pm
Miss Me Yet?” Bush Merchandise a Hit Online
I just ordered my shirt!!
Churchill's MOM
February 18th, 2010
1:19 pm
Wingboy………….Where are you going to send your child to school?
Churchill's MOM
February 18th, 2010
1:21 pm
Had lunch with my husband & he said that the tuition to Athens Academy was a little over $12,000 not less as I posted.
dewstarpath
February 18th, 2010
1:35 pm
Horrible Horace and LA – I’m guessing you two have shacked up
- as “life partners”.
Jefferson
February 18th, 2010
1:41 pm
You can tell a lot about people by the cloths they wear…
LA
February 18th, 2010
2:05 pm
“I’m guessing you two have shacked up- as “life partners”.”
Dupestartrash is a racist.
Roger Webb
February 18th, 2010
2:16 pm
As a psychologist interested in measurement and intellectual development, I have been following stories of systematic cheating on tests since about 1968. Georgia is currently in the spotlight, but there have been some beauts over the years from all over (California, Florida, South Carolina, New York, and particularly Texas stand out in my memory).
The problems arises from two incompatible facts: first, scores on achievement tests are determined for the most part by general intellectual ability (g or IQ), and g is largely determined by the time a child enters school by genetics and early experience. Therefore, the is little the schools can do to change test scores by more than marginal amounts (and there will always be individual exceptions, but not enough to change the statistics). Second: we use standardized test scores as the sole measure of academic performance and put increased pressure on the schools to raise scores with increasingly severe consequences.
What is a teacher, principle or school system supposed to do when faced with an impossible task and severe consequences for failure? Cheating is about the only response left. To paraphrase R. D. Lange, it is a rational response to an irrational system.
I do not approve of what is going on in schools all around the country, but I think I understand it. Personally, I want to know the truth. Test scores have no inherent value. We use them, if we use them correctly, as measures of progress and predictors of future behavior (e.g success in college, on the job). Phony scores have no predictive value and are worse than nothing since they systematically confuse the people making educational decisions.
The solution is not to get rid of tests or brutalize the teachers and schools even further. The solution is to lower the pressure for higher scores and get back to looking at tests for what they can honestly tell us.
dewstarpath
February 18th, 2010
2:22 pm
Sorry Trashsmeesha – you’re the racist (every poster on this blog
can testify to that), and a woman – hater (every one who disagrees
with you is a “girl”).
Don’t hate the messenger – change your foolish ways.
The Tar and Feathers Party
February 18th, 2010
2:22 pm
a girls gotta pull a lot of tricks for $378,000+ per year – just sayin’ some people work harder for their money than others.
dewstarpath
February 18th, 2010
2:26 pm
LA Trashsmeesha – when are you going to get back to the topic ?
The last time you did was 10:17 this morning. Then you overdosed
on Obama again – sort of a Grand “Mull” seizure.
LA
February 18th, 2010
2:27 pm
“Sorry Trashsmeesha – you’re the racist (every poster on this blog
can testify to that), and a woman – hater (every one who disagrees
with you is a “girl”). ”
Whatever you say Mrs. Godzilla.
scrappy
February 18th, 2010
2:33 pm
Very well said Roger Webb…. I believe that is why the No Child Let Behind mess was doomed to fail.
I don’t have kids, yet, but seems like Home Schooling sounds better and better.