Critics of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have long warned that the federal government’s demand for ever higher test scores would lead to perverse consequences. There would be narrowing of the curriculum, teaching to the test, cheating, and gaming the system. All of these things have happened, but the advocates of high-stakes testing don’t listen and don’t care.
It isn’t always easy to explain what it means to “game the system.” Connecticut provides an excellent exemplar of what it means and how it is done.
Quite simply, there are districts that have figured out that the best way to raise test scores is to assign more children to the alternate assessment given to students with special needs. As the number of reassignments grows, the scores on the regular state tests rise.
And without any change in curriculum or instruction, the leadership can boast of getting great results. This is what has been called “addition by subtraction.”
It is also a good example of gaming the system.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And guess what? The “leaders” who manipulate and juke the stats get big promotions. In our state they become appointed (not hired via an elected BOE) acting superintendents (Vallas) and appointed “special masters” – creepy title if you ask me and his name is Adamowski. They travel in packs, stroke each others’ egos and ignore teachers, tax payer and parents because they are the smartest ones.
Statistics and test results only matter when they want to take you over, but not so much once they are in charge. They get more money even with bad results. I suppose only the lowly teacher will be held accountable.
Read chapter five in Diane’s Death and Live of the Great American School System titled: “The Business Model in NYC”. It is where our dear commissioner, Stefan Pryor, with no prior teaching experience, is getting all his tips. This is the playbook Bloomberg provides once they leave his kingdom.
We even have some of the fancy titles, such as “chief talent officer”. This person will be responsible for the new teacher evalution process that will tie test scores to your rating each year. One thing is for sure this creates a need for more educationalleaders and less teachers. And they call this reform?
Check out more specifics on the Adamowski shell game in Hartford, CT. Thank you to Jon Pelto…CT’s Jersey Jazzman.
The art of inflating test scores – http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/03/21/steven-adamowski-governor-malloy-and-perfecting-the-art-of-inflating-test-scores/
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Also, check out how they improved graduation rates under Adamowski:
Last week we got an email of just that sort regarding the Hartford Schools grading system. The Hartford School system (like many other urban schools) is no stranger to controversy. The most recent blowup occurred in late February when Mayor Segarra waited until the 11th hour to question the selection of a new school superintendent. Just another day in Hartford politics.
Anyway the email we received has to do with the grading system in Hartford schools and involves mandatory average bumps and how students have learned to game the system in a way no doubt many shortsighted teenagers would. Why wouldn’t they? The whole education system they have been brought up in is one concerned with “juking the stats” and meeting rate goals. The main thing many have learned from the system is the most important thing is how to work the system to meet the minimum standards.
Email to the Mayor’s Office was referred to contacts at the Hartford School system. Multiple emails to the Hartford Schools contacts were not replied to. The verbatim email follows;
“The Hartford schools have a new computer program called Power School. The program tracks everything; attendance, grades, GPA, etc. Teachers set up their grade book by entering assignments and giving each assignment a weight toward the final grade. (For example homework could be 20%, classwork 20%, quizzes 20% and exams 40%.) The program keeps a running average for each student. However, just before the marking period ended in January teachers were instructed to go into the program and manually override the average of every student receiving a failing grade to a minimum of 55.
Students who never show up to class receive a 55. Students have figured out that in a four marking period course they must earn a 75 one marking period to pass the course. Then they do not have to return to class. In a two making period course they must ear a 65 during one marking period to pass the course.
This improves the graduation rate doesn’t it? Makes Adamowski look good doesn’t it?”
http://sadcityhartford.blogspot.com/2011/04/schools-out.html
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Where’s there a will there’s a way. Don’t know who originally said that. I sure have heard it enough times.
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Actually, two of us posted this on Jonathan Pelto’s blog. ; R.L. and myself. What was not said is that many t eachers have noticed after the fact that many of our grades had been changed. Students that we know had failed our class, passed by someone going into our online gradbooks and changing our grades. All they needed to know as our district-provided User ID’s and passwords. The rest is simple.
For those who have not seen powerschool, there is an actual piece of evidence when grades have been manually overridden; the actual fraction of earned grades is posted on the right hand side of the screen. The manually overrriden grade is posted in bold numbers and letters on the left. If you were to notice the artificial grades of 55, it would appear as 55 45/100, meaning that the student actually earned 45 but had been inflated to 55. Nobody can change the fraction.
When we checked our grades after we noticed graduating seniors who we knew had not passed, we see, for example, 65 45/100. Our administrators at the time swore that it was impossible for them to do so, but all they would need are those district-provided information. They can easily access our gradebooks.
This is Adamowski at his best!
Bill Morrison
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And the best way to assure that gaming the system is possible is by publicly and swiftly shutting down critics: http://www.realhartford.org/2011/03/10/conform/
It’s possible through threats of job loss ( http://www.realhartford.org/2011/02/12/mandatory-minimums-for-youth/ ) and through the extortion disguised as accountability with federal dollars attached.
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And the best way to assure that gaming the system is possible is by publicly and swiftly shutting down critics: http://www.realhartford.org/2011/03/10/conform/
It’s possible through threats of job loss ( http://www.realhartford.org/2011/02/12/mandatory-minimums-for-youth/ ) and through the extortion disguised as accountability with federal dollars attached.
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I believe that the phrase “addition through subtraction” started out in the sports world. By getting rid of an unproductive player (usually more experienced with a large contract) and filling the spot with a “hungry” rookie or inexperienced player making little the team could improve itself. Did it always work? No, and sometimes that “unproductive” player would come back to haunt the team that got rid of him by playing “lights out” against that team.
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“Addition through subtraction” was a technique suggested to me many times in my first year as principal last year. Various instructional experts told me that the easiest and most sure-fire way of improving test scores would be to concentrate on those kids who were “on the bubble” and not worry about the top and bottom. I refused to do this; my staff and I see our mission as one of educating all students. We still believe that student achievement will rise if we focus on conceptual understanding and the well-being of our students.
So, we have our own method of addition through subtraction – we have added in the arts, parental involvement, and community involvement through volunteers. We have subtracted (as much as we could) the effects of extreme poverty and neighorhood violence. Last year our students learned to read, do science experiments, and collaborate with each other on projects. They also went on field trips to places they had never been before.
We added love and life experiences to their background; we subtracted fear and illiteracy.
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These school reform profiteers did not just crawl out of the slime of recent economic devastation—they’ve cut their teeth on many other scandals and schemes to funnel public, taxpayer money to private corporations, eliminating all democratic checks and balances along the way. Making money off of children is just about as easy as making it off of disasters… so, Connecticut’s very own Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor, was trained at the feet of Kathleen Wylde—all roads lead to the classroom and the shady dealings with consultants, exams, faux graduation, etc. Firing staff, removing due process, eviscerating the gains of universal education and equality—all in a day’s work (and thank you, R.L., Bill Morrison, Jonathan Pelto, and the many people trying to expose the corruption at the top of Connecticut’s education reform hierarchy):
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2007/11/diane-ravitch-emerges-victorious.html
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/feud-twixt-wylde-ravitch-laid-to-citys/65554/
Click to access Gotham&GreenbergSocialForces2008.pdf
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Concerned mother and educator,
Thank you for your kindness! I appreciate it. Please feel free to join us in my classroom on Thursday, July 19 at Hartford Public High School at 12:00. many of us are trying to create a resistance movement to this corruption.
Bill Morrison
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