The message from Atlanta: Don’t cheat. Never. Don’t erase answers. Don’t do anything to violate professional ethics, no matter how you may be threatened or offered bribes (merit pay, bonuses) by higher-ups.
Eleven of twelve Atlanta educators were convicted of racketeering. One was acquitted. Others who were indicted made plea bargains. Superintendent Beverly Hall, who was accused of rewarding principals and teachers who got high scores and punishing those who could not raise scores, died a few weeks ago; her terminal illness prevented her from ever going to trial.
A reader asked me to contrast Atlanta with Washington, D.C., where an investigation by USA Today uncovered widespread cheating, as well as evidence of many erasures changing answers from wrong to right. The difference is that the Governor of Atlanta put together a serious investigative team and broke open the scandal. In Washington, D.C., the investigation was limited and cursory. The cheating happened, during Michelle Rhee’s tenure in office, but no one was ever held accountable.
The bottom line: don’t cheat and don’t permit students to cheat. Period.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m sure many of you have read this, but it’s a really great piece on what happened in Atlanta.
While the bottom line is “don’t cheat”, what actually transpired there is much more complicated than ‘bad people, cheating”. A series of decisions were made over years that created a skewed incentive structure. It was gradual, and cumulative.
If no one really looks at what led to this and tries to understand why it happened it will happen again.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/07/21/wrong-answer
Sadly, the new Atlanta superintendent and mostly new school board bothered to learn nothing as to why the cheating happened. They instead decided to go with a “New Day” propaganda campaign. So no surprise that just several days ago a local news report revealed APS was investigating grade changing at a high school.
“The school steadily improved, but students’ test scores were never high enough for Parks to make “adequate yearly progress,” a measurement defined by No Child Left Behind, a nearly utopian statute that required all public-school students to become proficient in math and reading by 2014, as judged by their test scores. The reform model, which drew on an accountability system used in Texas in the nineties, ignored less quantifiable signs of intellectual development. Schools that didn’t progress at an appropriate pace were eligible for federally funded support. They also received a series of escalating sanctions, including state monitoring, a revised curriculum, replacement of staff, and restructuring or closure of the school.”
One of the things they did was replace 90% of the long term staff, so there was no “institutional memory” to draw on and relatively new employees found themselves thrust into leadership roles that they weren’t prepared for. Sound familiar?
If anyone should be convicted of racketeering, it should be Pearson and all the individuals who have forced this high stakes testing on the public schools.
Agree. The current U.S. judicial system is structured to protect the financially powerful. It imprisons those who dare to try to survive as middle class.
How teachers are treated in court vs those who created the financial mess of 2008 or thereabouts.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/biggest-outrage-atlanta-crazy-teacher-091500508.html
justateacher
Thanks for the link. No prosecution nor follow-up investigation, of the alleged leak at the Federal Reserve that allegedly benefitted hedge funds via info. provided by a Pearson company.
Yeah, “don’t cheat” is always good advice. Unless you’re a politician or a billionaire. In that case it just shows your resourceful, can-do spirit.
This might be an interesting investigation someone or other could launch.
“Well, it all dates back to last July. Corinthian Colleges, which is a chain of for-profit colleges with 70,000 students, ceased operations very suddenly. And that was in response to a crackdown from the Department of Education. Then in November, 50 of the campuses – the 85 campuses – were sold, and they weren’t sold to an education company. They were sold to a loan financing company, a middleman in the student loan market. And this company, ECMC, had never operated colleges before. Then just over a month ago, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Ed. announced that they were forgiving almost $500 million of these private student loans that were held by former Corinthian students.”
http://www.npr.org/2015/03/31/396636885/students-from-troubled-for-profit-colleges-refuse-to-pay-back-loans
Or, Dienne, unless you’re a Wall Street CEO (Goldman Sachs, et.al.) or Wells Fargo or FANNIE MAE/FREDDIE MAC.
OR…Pear$on Publi$hing.
The bottom line–& the VERY bottom line on that is STOP THE TESTING. Point the finger at the REAL guilty parties–the CEOs who own the companies (&, again, I repeat–Pear$on) who make the thoroughly rotten tests, which do NOT “inform” educators as to improving teaching, which do NOT tell parents how their children are doing, which are NOT “standardized” (never have been & never will be–lemons, beyond pineapple), which are NOT educating our children, but, rather, STEALING their educations and which, in fact, ONLY $TEAL education fund$ meant for the good of our children–$TEALING $$$ which could be used for school libraries, REAL books (not test preps.), school nurses, social workers, psychologists and arts teachers & enrichment programs.
Indict & convict Sir Barber & his ilk. THEY are the REAL criminals.
Oh, yes, & while I’m at it, Rhee, Johnson, Deasy, Klein, Coleman, Broad, Kress and EVERY LAST ONE of them who has stolen the education from “other people’s children” must, themselves, be tried & convicted of racketeering at the least, crimes against humanity at the worst, through their UNRELENTING cheating.
When will the lid blow off the sordid Michele Rhee, Washington, DC cheating story? She certainly should face indictment! No more “Waiting for Superman” public relations nonsense. The story is about Super-fraud! In fact Rhee should do time in the same jail as her child sex abusing husband! Difficult to sort out which one of those two are the bigger loser!
I wish this headline were the April Fool’s joke!
While civil disobedience is preferable to cheating, when is telling a lie to protect children and schools from idiotic policies justifiable? When will the authorities who created the arbitrary, destructive policies these educators defied going to be prosecuted? What EDUCATIONAL principles did these teachers violate? How did they hurt children? Compared to the damage wrought by Arne Duncan, these teachers are guilty of crimes on a par with littering and jay walking.
I thought the publicity around the case and the perp walk was insanely over the top.
It’s funny, because the investigator’s report was much more nuanced and sympathetic to the employees than the general media coverage. The investigator did a good job-looked at organizational history and events. One of the things that stuck out was how often and to what extent SHAME was employed as a management/control tactic- it’s pretty appalling.
Oh, yeah, Jeff–Arne. How could I have left Arne off my list of REAL cheaters?
Here’s the investigator’s report:
http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2011/07/06/atlanta-schools-cheating-investigation-full-report
Part IV describes the “culture of fear” and gives one an idea of what it was like to work there during that time period.
Thanks Chiara for the link to the report. I think you meant to refer to Part III. I did read the New Yorker article, and the amazing thing is this investigator’s report is even more sympathetic to the educators on the ground and devastating in its portrayal of higher authorities, who come across as lacking any shred of decency or integrity.
When the system is this rotten, what are the right rules to follow?
I think the warning should have read, “Don’t cheat on standardized tests unless you are Michelle Rhee or a corporate reformer.”
I don’t condone, but I understand.
And may superintendent Beverly Hall rot in HE-double-hockey-sticks.
As for the teachers, guilty and time served.
I could condone. If my kid’s teacher had a choice between spending the year test prepping vs. cheating on the test and otherwise spending the year teaching interesting and worthwhile material, I’d take the latter any day. Unfortunately, what usually happens is spending the year test prepping and then still cheating – it’s all about the test scores.
Indict the system.
Exonerate the teachers.
TAGO!
The whole system screams cheat or else. I had a opportunity to game the horrible system in Ohio. One minor tweak and I would suddenly look like a s.
… super teacher rather than mundane. One small change. I did not, played it straight, and will pay the price for having integrity and honesty. That is the problem. The system can be gamed so those that risk cheating and not caught, win the game.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/04/01/396869874/the-atlanta-cheating-verdict-some-context
“But a Government Accountability Office report last year found confirmed reports of cheating on at least one standardized test in 33 states in the school years 2010-’11 and 2011-’12. Thirty-two of the 33 states, the report said, “canceled, invalidated, or nullified” test scores as a result of suspected cheating.”
One small tweak, and 20% rating difference. No one would have caught it, guaranteed. The fact I even saw it shows the corruption of the system and everyone in it. I don’t cheat. I don’t even like legitimate gaming a system because it takes the focus off of what is important – teaching. But after dealing with Ohio’s teacher evaluation system, I always feel like I need a shower.
I understand exactly what you mean. The system is designed to demoralize teachers.
The system is analogous to the belief that body counts were great indicators of the progress of the US in winning the Vietnam war.
NPR reports, “…those convicted face decades in prison.”
Seems that the teachers should have availed themselves of the defense that a victim of abuse might have used to shield herself / himself from an abuser.
So Wall Street doesn’t play by the rules, the creators of this mess in educational evaluation don’t play by the rules and yet they expect teachers to play by the rules. Yes I agree Christine Langhoff with the analogy to abuse.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/biggest-outrage-atlanta-crazy-teacher-091500508.html
Interesting take on this. Teachers v Wall St.
Christine Langhoff and Peace,
Stop whining and moaning.
Justice and fairness is for the ruling class. Arrests and indictments for the little people.
Get used to it . . .
Only the little people pay taxes . . . . and consequences.
🙂
Yes, Robert Rendo, we HAVE to quit whining & moaning (& I sense you’re being sarcastic, here, but it’s the truth) & take the next step from the opt out movement–time to shut it all down–don’t agonize, organize. Start by collecting the monetary data in your state (not hard to do, in IL, “state officials said there was $34 million for testing in 2014-15”–Chgo. Trib.). Start telling EVERYONE you know (conservatives & Republicans I’ve spoken to are aghast at the monie$ $pent on te$ting–& there is, of course, a lot more than just this year) about the amount$ of money from the education funding is/has been $pent over the year$. Again, the info. is easily found–you don’t have to file a F.O.I.A.–you just have to research/read a bit.
Then, get organizations together–you do need hundreds of people–to protest at your nearest Pear$on (or any other high-stakes testing co. your state uses) campus (look up the 2011 “Pineapple Protest” organized by Class Size Matters on the Pear$on Manhattan headquarters, & contact someone if you need to find out how to get it together). I will NEVER stop believing in… yes, WE did, yes, WE can, and yes, yes WE WILL!!
Me? Sarcastic? WHERE did you get THAT idea? How dreadful . . . .
Sarcasm set aside in a rare moment for moi, I am addicted to your spirit.
Goodness and morality will prevail over evil and imbalance, but it will take heavy lifting on all our behalves . . . .
As a test coordinator for over a decade, I cannot emphasize that one must dot every I and cross every T even if you believe what you are doing is nothing more than hogwash.
Unless you have the resources of the Washington Post, DC Mayors Office, many billionaires and the U.S. secretary of Wducation behind you, in which case you will make out like a ion dollars. Literally.
Sent from my iPhone
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As I scanned the video in which, the Atlanta teachers were handcuffed, it appeared the defendants and their attorneys were people of color. Then, in the follow-up interview of the acquitted teacher, her lawyer appeared white. Has the racial make-up of the attorneys been identified?
Based on Judge Jerry W. Baxter’s intemperate comments and, possibly unusual decision to immediately incarcerate, I had immediate concerns about equal treatment under the law.
Is there sufficient cause for U.S. Justice Dept. review?
What was the racial make-up of the jury?
Here’s an interesting and well-thought-out piece on the convictions. While acknowledging their guilt, the writer compares the convictions and sentences of the teachers vs those responsible for the mortgage crisis. As he says, you can count the mortgage convictions “on one finger.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/biggest-outrage-atlanta-crazy-teacher-091500508.html
I hope the teachers now realize why when as testing coordinator I yelled at them not to dare do anything out of line while giving the state tests. The tests never told me anything I did not already know (I. e., students didn’t know multiple meanings of words–many of our students had learned English as a second language), students in seventh grade did not know the multiplication tables, etc.
Many of the so-called reformers think these tests are important because they did well on the SAT. Unfortunately for them, C students became CEO’s, and the SAT doesn’t measure beyond literal or interpretative thinking. Many so-called reformers seem to be in a field that does not require real education, just technical training. Who knows? Maybe they are not able to deal with real solutions such as juggling the needs of a multi-cultural democracy. Just 1 or 2, on or off.
In her recent article, why did NPR’s “lead education blogger”, Anya Kamenetz, quote controversial economist Steven Levitt, graduate of MIT (alma mater of the Kochs) and currently, affiliated with the University of Chicago, for the context of the Atlanta teacher convictions?