This article by Daniel Denvir is the best article I have read to date on the Atlanta cheating scandal.
The “no excuses” mantra is at the root of policies that incentivized cheating. Atlanta is only the tip of the iceberg. There will be more, and most will go undetected.
What distinguished Atlanta was the thoroughness of the investigation.
Of course, adults should not cheat, and those who cheat should be punished.
But it is important to change the context that demands impossible results and punishes adults who don’t produce them.
It is especially pleasing to see this article in The New Republic, which is an influential political journal.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m continually flabbergasted at how “deaf” the school reformers are! Already the “no excuses” folks have been retorting to the article, and they JUST DON’T GET IT! Anyone who bothers to learn about the brain and education knows that the more stressed an individual is, the worse they’re likely to perform in any situation that requires deep thought. More pressure, more pressure, and more pressure LOOSENS the connection to the frontal lobe and makes humans less likely to think and MORE likely to react out of survival instinct. I believe that our kids are less able to think due to the stressful situations of their home lives, and our teachers are becoming less able to think when their livelihood is on the line… no win situation.
Oh, I think they get it. It’s just that they don’t care. At least not about anyone else’s children.
They want public schools to fail, and they have created impossible standards for students to meet, which in turns creates an atmosphere of cheating.
These “reformers” don’t care about children; the tax money in public schools is what they are after, and they want to STEAL that money in order to make themselves richer. They no longer want public schools to exist.
It’s a form of gangsterism, of bank robbery.
http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/stress.html
Here’s an article about the human brain under stress and the damaging effects that it has. It DOES mention that not all stress is bad; however, what we’re trying to say as teachers is that the stress level has become toxic, and it’s negatively impacting the children. If one were to do brain scans on the teachers in Atlanta (and other districts around the USA), I’d bet that their brains are all showing the symptoms of long term unhealthy stress.
It’s true, there will always be methods to cheat and remain undetected. Believe me, the school districts know this but rather not deal with it. When schools go from far below scores up 100 pts in one year the whistles should blow but they don’t. They slap the principal on the back and claim a victory for school reform as evidenced by test scores. But those of us on the front line know things that can be manipulated to reflex an increase in test scores(cst v cma).Lies, damn lies and statistics I say.
Without mentioning details, we on the ground – the teachers – know what is going on. The teachers and administrators in Atlanta must not be very smart. Erasing answers has to be the dumbest thing in the world.
Everyday teachers cheat by teaching to the test which, in turn, invalidates the test.
Many veteran teachers become so familiar with these tests, after years of administrations and performing read alouds, that testing outcomes at the state level are meaningless. They do not produce trustworthy data, period.
I would love to do a longitudinal study analyzing testing outcomes years after it was first given to show the artificial inflation of scores through teaching to the test. I think Kozol may have already did something like this. Every time a new test is administered, scores plummet only to pick up steam and wind up where they were before after the new 5 year period.
Technically, for these standardized tests to remain “secure”, we’d have to ensure teachers NEVER have access to them ever. That is impossible, and we all know it.
No amount of test security can solve this. Atlanta is the tip of the iceberg, but what’s underneath is just as bad.
I’m actually bitter at many teachers because of what I’ve seen. These same teachers run up and down the hallways in celebratory song, win awards, and are held in high esteem by the principals.
Yet they are the worse teachers ever – robbing students of gaining real knowledge because their students respond to test questions after being prepped and readied to do so. Then that memorization of information is lost forever some days after the test with the students being left without critical thinking skills and an inability to solve real life problems.
These types of shenanigans are exactly why good teachers leave, and when I say “good”, I mean teachers that are more concerned with teaching their students skills that will not be on the test.
Campbell’s law people. Look it up. The effects are easily observed.
Hiya, That link doesn’t seem to work. 🙂
Kim
*Yep, sent from another iPhone.*
I fixed the link
Hmm, quite a dynamic at work: create a punitive, coercive environment where only test scores are valued, then feign shock when the inevitable cheating occurs. Then, rather than reconsider a failed policy, direct even more resources to more deeply entrench entrench a culture of mistrust, obedience and enforcement.
Profitable for the few, disastrous for the many…
Kafka Academy!
Diane,
Wow, you start out so early. I love that you are relentless, and I like everything you post.The only area that I know that you will never cover is the abuse of school administrators toward the teaching staff. I am a 30 year teaching veteran, and I am in the process of revealing the conditions that teachers have to contend with every day from administrative paranoia. It exist in every school, and is never discussed. I realize that you laud the principals and superintendents, and believe that teachers should remain subservient to someone. But you know as well as I that these people were just ‘garden variety’ teachers who took those contrived college course that conferred upon them the title of administrator. By the way, so did I. I would love to hear what someone of your insight has to say on the subject. I’m going to continue to follow your blog because you definitely are aware of the problems, and articulate them better than anyone else.
However, if someone doesn’t address this subject, there never will be a true reform movement in education. I would like to send you a copy of my book, but the file is too large for e-mail. It’s available as an i-book with audio. That’s because I had to validate my career in education in the midst of the expose. It’s called “New Money for Old Rope.”
Respectfully, Ian Kay
What are you smoking? Where has Diane ever said anything that would lead you to think that she believes this: “I realize that you laud the principals and superintendents, and believe that teachers should remain subservient to someone.”?
Kay, you might have your blogs mixed-up.
You are not describing Dr. Diane Ravitch.
“believe that teachers should remain subservient to someone.”
Umm, Ian,
Wow..perhaps you missed some posts…like thousands of them. The ones where Dr Ravitch stands up for us teachers?
As far as I am aware, she is the most high profile person who is doing so.
Dienne, readingexchange, and Ang: what y’all said.
Am I missing something—Jupiter aligned with Mars, or too much pollution in the air we breath or flouride in the water we drink messing up the firing of neurons in the brain, or big gubment hidden bases sending out secret electronic waves that “cloud men’s minds” like that mysterious radio hero of yesteryear, the Shadow—that has led to several bizarrely inappropriate postings today on this blog?
I end here so as not to violate Diane’s most sensible “Rules of the Road” on her blog.
🙂
There is no page there.
I checked, George, the link to the New Republic works. Try again.
At a test examiners’ training, we were told that in case of a fire, we must collect all test materials….and don’t forget to post the time on the board on your way out. I was shocked to see that teachers had little to no reaction to this absurd demand. What have welcome to? The test is more important than life itself.
That’s INSANE!
Someone used the term “educrat” the other day when referring to the so-called education reformers who dismantle, sorry about that, “manage” public schools. So let’s run that term up the flagpole. And just how would ‘educrats’ handle the problems caused by providing very powerful incentives and mechanisms to cheat? Well, if you think of them as ‘technocrats’ and ‘bureaucrats’ under a different label, then the solutions to cheating are obvious.
You don’t deal with the systemic causes of cheating. That is just so passé—you’d think we were still in the twentieth century. Rather, you seek clever [and ¿surprisingly? expensive innovaty] tricks to deal with ‘guarding the tests’ and you engage in a lot of ‘kissing up and kicking down.’
There. Problem solved. And imagine all the edupreneurs and consultants you were so kissy kissy with who will be happy with the enhanced excellence of your brand-new twenty first century te$ting $ecurity. Voilá! $tudent $ucce$$! You can bank on it!
🙂
Of course, teaching staff and students and parents might not like the kicks but what do they know about ‘data-drivel’ [er, data-driven] instruction.
But not to worry. Education reformers have the Broad view of things and that handy pdf file on school closings…
🙂
The article is no longer available at New Republic.
Try again. Works for me.