Atlanta School Cheating Scandal

I'm sure most U.S. residents with an interest in education have heard about the cheating scandal in the Atlanta school district.  I've been meaning to write about it for several weeks, but I've been unable to form coherent thoughts that address what happened in Atlanta.  Part of that is how the administrators and press discuss the issue verses the way I (and everyone I know who works in education) see the matter.

The facts are these:
In the beginning of July Georgia Governor Nathan Deal released a report that found that erasure cheating on the 2009 state tests occurred in 44 out of 56 elementary and middle schools. Erasure cheating is when teachers correct wrong answers on a test after students have finished, by erasing wrong answers and filling in the correct ones.  The cheating was discovered when test graders noticed suspicious patterns in erasures what were not found in other districts. 178 teachers, principles, and administrators are charged with actively cheating, encouraging it, or ignoring the signs of cheating.  An Interim Superintendent, Erroll B. Davis Jr, has been appointed.

Davis, and most of the media*, suggest that the cheating was caused by a lack of ethics in individual teachers coupled with the pressure exerted by then Superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall to have high test scores or face termination.  From reports it seems that Davis thinks ethics training and "a more open, transparent and empowering culture," will fix the problem.

When I think about the issue and discuss it with my friends in education we all reach the conclusion that teachers' salaries and retention were based on test scores.  When more then 3/4ths of the schools are effected its a systemic problem, and unlikely to be created by one bad superintendent and some unethical teachers.  In fact, when taken in context, with the economy being what it is, if test scores are tied to a teacher keeping their job cheating, instead of being the easy option, might seem like the only option.

After all it isn't only in Atlanta schools where cheating on high stakes test occurs, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania,  are under investigation as well.  And erasures aren't that most common form of cheating.  Teachers are much more likely to help students while the test is going on by correcting their answers in class or allowing them to have calculators when the test specifies otherwise.

The system (with No Child Left Behind) has set impossible goals, like the requirement that 100% of students are "proficient" by 2014.  Teacher and principle salaries, bonuses, and retention are often determined largely on Adequate Yearly Progress in state test scores.  Furthermore school funding is also tied into AYP.  Campbell's Law states that "the more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it was intended to monitor." 

I've heard teachers in this country likened to delivery people.  The standards, curriculum, and assessment methods are determined by the state and federal government.  Many teachers have little time to educate students in areas of interest or provide special lessons or help to students who need them.  Strict schedules and teaching to the test are what education has become in the United States.  The test themselves rarely go beyond assessing rote memorization and a students ability to quickly fill in bubbles.  There's no deeper meaning or higher level learning, and since it's not on the test it isn't being taught in classrooms either.

The countries with the best elementary and secondary education in the world don't oppperate this way.  Scandinavian countries are some of the highest performers on global education assessments.  Currently Finland is the highest. 

• All three Scandinavian countries have quality public pre-schools that stress social behavior and personal responsibility, as well as pre-numeracy and pre-lieracy skills.  This helps students develop intrinsic motivation, which experts agree is generally better then enternal motivation (which is what high stakes testing does in the U.S). 
• Students don't begin formal schooling untill they are seven (the age when most children have mastered gross motor skills and can now sit and focus for longer periods of time.)  They also have limited grading and don't track students untill they are in 9th grade.  After this about half the students attend academic heavy high schools (with the idea of going on to college) while half attend vocational and trade schools.  Also, Finland does not negatively judge people who attend vocational schools.
• Universities and polytechnics run by the government provide free higher education for any student who completes high school and/or passes the traditional matriculation exam.
• Finlands curriculum, as defined by the state, totals 10 pages.  Future teachers attend a rigorous and exclusive program and at the end are trusted to know how to educate their students and to pick the appropriate material for age and grade level. 
• All schools recieve the same amount of funding.  In the U.S. (local and state) funding is determined by property taxes of an area and voter turnout.  Areas with more expensive property and higher voter turnout have more money to spend on education.  The differences can be several thousand dollars per child.

We need to change the education system in the U.S. Right now far to many children are falling through the cracks.  But the way to do this isn't yearly state standardized tests that determine student achievement, and teacher ability, and teacher and principle saleries and retention, and federal funding.  We need to have the people determining education standards, curriculum, and assessment methods to be actual educators instead of lawmakers. Margaret Spelling, the one time Secretary of Education who helped creat NCLB, did not study education or child developement and has never worked in that field.  Yet the State of Texas and U.S. government somehow found her qualified to reform education. 

We need to go back to trusting teachers to know who to teach without the government beathing down their backs.  We need to stop seeing students and education as products.  We need to stop applying capitalistic and corporate principles to schools.  If we can do this, and take a lessons from Finnish schools, we might (30 years down the road) have a populace with knowledge, creative thinking skills, and personal responsibility.  Think about how much better the U.S. would be like that.

*Not all the media does this. The Huffington Post and The Week address the systemic issues.