Atlanta schools cheating scandal (standardized testing)

[Momof3littles]

I recently read the story about the concern over whether cheating was widespread on standardized testing in DC. It looks like Atlanta schools are under suspicion now. None of this is surprising to me, but as someone who lives in a state where standardized testing is mandated for HSers, I find it a little...fascinating.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/probe-widespread-cheating-on-tests-detailed-in-atlanta/2011/07/05/gHQAURaczH_blog.html

[twoforjoy]

I think this is probably way more widespread than we think.

 

And, I think it's only going to get worse. By the 2013-2014 school year, NCLB requires that every school have 100% of their students testing proficient (at or above grade level) in math and reading. If they don't, there will be loss of funding and possible school closures. That is an impossible goal, and I think if the requirements don't change, we're going to see much more widespread cheating.

[OLG]

It is widespread....goes on in this little community (we hear from those inside who will not blow the whistle). Just not fair to the kids nor to society in general where 'cheating' of all sorts runs rampant. The Atlanta news piece yesterday was so disheartening given a small percentage of those doing it fessed up even.

[Jyniffrec]

My sister has her kids in public schools in GA. :scared: She is homeschooling one this year but plans to put her back in next year. I hope she sees this (I'm sure she will - I sent her a link :D).

[Greta Lea]

But the way they (the teachers) are treated, you'd think their scores were the lowest in the state.

 

She says she feels like just giving up since even being "the best" is not good enough.

 

I could see cheating going on in her school easily (not her, 'cuz she's such a rule follower!)

[abbeyej]

The cheating issue with APS has been known for quite a while now -- the new information is *how* widespread it really was. Of course, all the neighboring school districts seem to have their own major issues. Ours is criminal corruption and mismanagement of funds (criminal and merely oughta-be-criminal)... Sigh.

 

It's also interesting to me how so many people can say things like, "Yeah, that's true, but my neighborhood school is great."

[Denise in Florida]

It happens here too. Last month there was a tiny news article about a 'review' of the FCAT due to 'unusual amount of erasures'. If it is true to previous years we will never hear of the results but mid-summer early-fall there will be score adjustments.

[Jyniffrec]

But the way they (the teachers) are treated, you'd think their scores were the lowest in the state.

 

She says she feels like just giving up since even being "the best" is not good enough.

 

I could see cheating going on in her school easily (not her, 'cuz she's such a rule follower!)

 

So if the "good" teachers are considering leaving the system, where does that leave things? I just don't understand how some folks can still believe that these tests are a good thing. Do they really promote any true learning? If anything, they seem to bring out the worst in people.

 

By the way, I'm not against testing wholesale, just this craziness in the last several years!

[plansrme]

It's also interesting to me how so many people can say things like, "Yeah, that's true, but my neighborhood school is great."

 

This has always been one of my personal pet peeves: everyone thinks their schools are the shining exception and are just great, despite any statistical or other evidence to the contrary. At the Cinci convention, I attended a talk by someone who quoted statistics to back up my perception. Seventy-seven percent of parents with children in public schools give their kids' school an A or B. Among all responders, not just those who have children in public schools, only 21% give schools, generally, an A or B.

 

But as for the APS scandal, the affected schools are only in the City of Atlanta, not Fulton County or any of the dozens of neighboring districts that everyone thinks of as "Atlanta." Also, the APS superintendent denied any wrongdoing but, coincidentally, resigned as of June 30, just a day or so before the full report on the scandal was to be released. The City of Atlanta and its school system have many, many problems that are not necessarily shared by other schools in Georgia. I am not usually one to stand up for Georgia public schools, but keep in mind that "Atlanta" here does not have the same broad meaning that it does in more general references to the Atlanta metro area.

 

Terri

[treestarfae]

It's been going on for years in Georgia in different counties. Every year it's a matter of who gets caught. Some schools have 4 day school weeks because they can't afford 5.

[JudyJudyJudy]

But as for the APS scandal, the affected schools are only in the City of Atlanta, not Fulton County or any of the dozens of neighboring districts that everyone thinks of as "Atlanta."

Actually, Dekalb County has been and is still being investigated as well. One of the principals in Dekalb even admitted to cheating.

 

http://championnewspaper.com/news/articles/295up-to-20-dekalb-county-schools-suspected-of-cheating--295.html

 

That said, it's likely that it's not just Atlanta and Dekalb school systems that are cheating (in Georgia and around the country). They're just the ones being investigated and being caught. Some schools cheat more subtly, and some just aren't investigated (I hate to pull the race card, but I'm not surprised that Atlanta and Dekalb are more likely to be investigated than, say, Forsyth or Fayette). I'm a certified teacher and have taught school in various schools in GA from the bottom-ranked to the top-ranked, and while I wouldn't personally cheat, the pressure is so great that I can understand why some teachers and administrators do it.

[jenbrdsly]

As a former teacher, here are my thoughts on the cheating scandal: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/2011/07/06/teachers-caught-cheating-scandal/, and an explanation on how standardized tests were administered in the two districts I taught in.

[JudyJudyJudy]

As a former teacher, here are my thoughts on the cheating scandal: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/2011/07/06/teachers-caught-cheating-scandal/, and an explanation on how standardized tests were administered in the two districts I taught in.

 

From the blog:

 

Anything up on your bulletin boards that had been up there all year could remain.

We had to remove everything from our bulletin boards. Prior to testing, an administrator came around to inspect and make sure this had been done.

 

So was it really fair to judge my performance as a teacher based on my standardized test results?

Nope. I'll argue all day long against using test scores as a means of evaluating teachers.

 

At one of the schools in our county, we had some kids who were living in the crawl space of someone else's home. :(

[Momof3littles]

Oh, just to be clear, I totally agree it happens in small towns, other cities, etc. as well. I find it fascinating when there is actually news on it, however. One of our local district principals was forced to resign as a result of a test scandal. This was in the far suburbs of a mid-Atlantic city, in a cute, sweet little town w/ a supposedly excellent school district.

 

I just find it interesting that I am forced to provide standardized test results to my school district. I am not looking forward to making my DC take a standardized test at all. I find it fascinating that there are districts all over the US where cheating is taking place, and they are looking at homeschoolers' test scores to determine "adequate progress" and so forth :glare:

[MomLovesClassics]

As a former teacher, here are my thoughts on the cheating scandal: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/2011/07/06/teachers-caught-cheating-scandal/, and an explanation on how standardized tests were administered in the two districts I taught in.

 

Thanks for sharing! Your blog was very insightful. I wish more people would understand the pressures placed on teachers.

 

Any teacher no matter how good can guarantee all students will produce perfect scores on test, nor should they be expected to. There are many circumstances beyond a teacher's control. I am concerned that teachers will not want to continue teaching in bad districts or underperforming schools. Who could blame them? They are threatened with lower saleries sometimes.

 

I am not fond of teaching to the test. Students are the ones missing out.

[JudyJudyJudy]

Oh, just to be clear, I totally agree it happens in small towns, other cities, etc. as well. I find it fascinating when there is actually news on it, however. One of our local district principals was forced to resign as a result of a test scandal. This was in the far suburbs of a mid-Atlantic city, in a cute, sweet little town w/ a supposedly excellent school district.

Yet that didn't make national news. The same was true with the teacher I knew who quietly resigned when she was caught with a copy of "the test" from the previous year. (The students recognized the questions on "the test" and told their homeroom teachers who were testing them that the questions were exactly like the practice questions Mrs. ___ had given them.)

 

I just find it interesting that I am forced to provide standardized test results to my school district.

We are required to test our homeschooled kids every three years, but, oddly enough, we just keep the scores for our own records. We aren't required to show them to anyone, but we could be asked to provide proof that we gave a test. The actual scores on the test wouldn't matter. I'm in Georgia.

[anne1456]

My daughter is in public school for 9th grade. When she went to take her end of the year Regents test (required to graduate in NY) I was very surprised to learn they had to do the test in pen. They are required to use pen to prevent teachers from changing the answers. I think it is a widespread problem.

[jenbrdsly]

From the blog:

 

 

We had to remove everything from our bulletin boards. Prior to testing, an administrator came around to inspect and make sure this had been done.

 

 

Nope. I'll argue all day long against using test scores as a means of evaluating teachers.

 

At one of the schools in our county, we had some kids who were living in the crawl space of someone else's home. :(

 

That is SO SAD!

[Matryoshka]

There have been reports of this kind of thing in my state too. One school system got caught because they saw that an unusually high number of tests had had a large number of wrong answers erased and correct ones put in.

 

Even though this was pretty recent, I haven't seen the local media make a connection with the Atlanta case. Short memories.

[Daisy]

My husband said that the teachers gather all the tests and they get to sent to a room where principals and other administrative types go through and clean up tests. They make sure the scan-tron has no stray marks. Hubby says there are plenty of opportunities for teachers & administration to falsify test results if they are going to do it.

 

The pressure is HUGE. Job positions, school budgets, evaluations, state & federal funding, district autonomy, etc all tie into a test that junior may have decided to make dot-to-dot designs on.

 

Cheating is wrong, period, and should never be tolerated but this is just one more symptom of an educational system that is adrift in a political quagmire. The focus is on anything and everything but giving the child a solid education.

[LibraryLover]

:(

 

I wouldn't assume good teaching isn't going on in a cheating district. :( The stakes are so high. I think high- stakes testing can push some good people to panic, and perhaps want to 'save' their students, which might lead to decent people acting wrongly.

Edited July 7, 2011 by LibraryLover

[JudyJudyJudy]

:(

 

I wouldn't assume good teaching isn't going on in a cheating district. :( The stakes are so high. I think high- stakes testing can push some good people to panic, and perhaps want to 'save' their students, which might lead to decent people acting wrongly.

I agree.

[Renee in NC]

I think this is probably way more widespread than we think.

 

And, I think it's only going to get worse. By the 2013-2014 school year, NCLB requires that every school have 100% of their students testing proficient (at or above grade level) in math and reading. If they don't, there will be loss of funding and possible school closures. That is an impossible goal, and I think if the requirements don't change, we're going to see much more widespread cheating.

 

Comnsidering that only 35% of the students at our zoned school were proficient in reading at the end of 2010 - yeah, this is pretty much impossible!

[tex-mex]

It's been going on for years in Georgia in different counties. Every year it's a matter of who gets caught. Some schools have 4 day school weeks because they can't afford 5.

:iagree:

Back in the stone age when I taught Elementary grades, it was more common than you think. Then NCLB was introduced and boy, did it cause more folks to tamper with testing.

[NittanyJen]

I was just reading the news articles on this topic (Atlanta and DC) and I was horrified, but not shocked. The NCLB culture has become succeed-or-else. I often wonder how my kids' former school does so well on testing when it has so many special needs kids not getting services and really sub-par academics (I used to grind my teeth and force myself not to let any Orwell quips slip out as I marched my kids in past a banner reading, "We are a Superior School -- NCLB!") for everyone else.

 

I am so glad we chose to HS, where we are free to focus on education, and not testing.

 

I say I am not shocked (as in saddened) but I am horrified. I feel terrible for everything those children have been cheated of... And it gives me something else to think about before ever letting my kids do any testing at a school if the monitors know my kids are HS'rs. I wouldn't want their scores tampered with by anyone with an issue with HS. Thank goodness we live in a state where any testing is optional.

[jenbrdsly]

From the blog:

 

 

We had to remove everything from our bulletin boards. Prior to testing, an administrator came around to inspect and make sure this had been done.

 

 

Nope. I'll argue all day long against using test scores as a means of evaluating teachers.

 

At one of the schools in our county, we had some kids who were living in the crawl space of someone else's home. :(

 

The crawl space comment has really gotten to me. So has dredging up memories about how horrible the conditions were in the first school district I taught in. I'm starting a series of posts on my blog about what it was like teaching in the Ravenswood School District, the former Murder Capital of America: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/ravenswood/when-the-bell-rings/

I don't think there is any excuse for the teachers or administrators in Georgia who cheated, but I do wish that people knew how awful some school districts really are.

[MtnTeaching]

My 14yo ds wrote an essay on cheating in schools this past year (for a Brave Writer class that was AWESOME!). He was shocked at the cheating that is taking place in schools by the students, teachers, administrators, and government. After his research, ds felt that cheating was actually being encouraged and decided to write his essay on that point. The Atlanta and Washington D.C. test scandals were a big part of his essay.

 

Please keep in mind this is an 8th grade paper, but I was very impressed with the amount of research he did on this. His thesis statement needed to be something shocking and a bit controversial and I think he backed it up pretty well in his paper. We were both amazed and shocked at the information and he was actually saddened by it.

 

Ninety-five percent of high school students have cheated in some form. This stunning statistic was the result of a nation-wide study conducted by Donald McCabe of Rutgers University in 2008. Unfortunately, most students believe that this type of behavior is acceptable, and the general response is, “Everyone does it.†The Rutgers study also polled students regarding the reasons why they cheat. Academic pressure was the top reason cited for cheating, but the second most common answer was the poor example that the adult world is setting. Professor McCabe has an opinion regarding this and says, “I think kids today are looking to adults and society for a moral compass and when they see the behavior occurring there, they don’t understand why they should be held to a higher standard.†(Slobogin 1-2) In fact, there have been many examples recently of poor behaviors by people and entities with authority, both intentional and unintentional. Whereas cheating by students has always been perceived as unethical and immoral conduct, cheating is currently being encouraged by parents, teachers and schools, and the government.

Many parents play the first and most direct role in encouraging their children to cheat. These acts may be intentional or unintentional. According to About.com, Ask.com completed a survey regarding parents doing their child’s homework for them. This study showed that of 778 parents, an astounding 43 percent did their child’s homework for them to bring back to school (McClure). Stephen F. Davis, co-author of “Cheating in Schoolâ€, said, “Parents, in the normal quest to help their children live better lives than they did, may inadvertently encourage cheating or at least not discourage it.†(Blackwell) More lucrative jobs, keeping up with the Joneses, admission to better colleges, better lives, higher grades, and lack of time are all reasons parents gave for encouraging cheating. Not only do these unethical behaviors encourage the same behavior in the children, when the parents do the work, but the child also does not gain the knowledge from the material.

Equally important is the role teachers and schools have in encouraging cheating. Cheating by teachers and schools is caused by the pressure found in high-stakes standardized testing and the pressure to show improvement. Teacher’s tenure, merit pay, and job security are linked to student achievement and scores from the standardized tests. This puts extreme pressure on the teachers. All of this pressure creates situations like the Washington D.C. erasure scandal and the Atlanta erasure scandal where principals erased wrong answers on tests and put right answers in. Incidents of scandals like these are increasing as “No Child Left Behind†progresses. The Washington D.C. erasure scandal involved ninety-six schools and seventy-five percent of the classrooms as the newspaper, USA Today, stated in their news article, “Testing the System.†(Gillum 10A-11A) In instances such as the Washington D.C. erasure scandal and the Atlanta erasure scandal, where students see their educators and schools cheating, It makes them wonder why they should be held to a higher standard.

Finally, the government is encouraging cheating through the implementation of several laws and acts, including President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act†and President Obama’s “Race to the Top Act.†These ideas, while enacted with good intentions, did not work as intended and have placed intense pressure on schools to meet and exceed the stated goals. Federal law makers felt pressured themselves to address problems such as those stated by Margaret Spellings in her report entitled, “Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening The No Child Left Behind Actâ€. The report indicated the dismal academic rating of the United States among developed countries. As an illustration, fifteen year olds in the United States are ranked twenty-fourth out of twenty-nine in math computation. (Spellings 3-4) It would seem the solutions that government has implemented to address these problems have resulted in making them worse and has in turn encouraged cheating throughout the system, ending with the student.

In conclusion, the government, teachers and schools, and parents are all encouraging cheating in some form or another. If this cheating goes unchecked, the moral fiber and future knowledge of our nation will decline. Alice Newhall, a George Mason High School student, sums up a common view amongst students when she says, “The better you do, that’s what shows. It’s not how moral you were in getting there.†(Slobogin 1) What we should be aiming for is what novelist John D. MacDonald believed when he wrote, “Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat then you know he never will.†(Tagliere 1-2) When cheating is encouraged by parents, teachers and schools, and the government, what does our nation learn? How can our country grow? We are forgetting the student sitting behind the desk and the implications of how the examples that are being modeled by authority figures are going to affect the future of our nation. Is our moral compass broken along with our integrity? With cheating being encouraged, as it is, how can students say, “No�

Works Cited

"A Cheating Crisis in America's Schools - ABC News." ABCNews.com: Breaking News, Politics, World News, Good Morning America, Exclusive Interviews - ABC News. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://abcnews.go.com/primetime/story?id=132376&page=1

"How Teachers Cheat: Other Local Cases, Allegations | Cincinnati.com | Cincinnati.com." Cincinnati.com | Cincinnati Local News, Sports, Business, Community, and Entertainment | Cincinnati.com. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20110305/NEWS0102/103060378/How-teachers-cheat-Other-local-cases-allegations

Gillum, Jack, and Marisol Bello. "D.C. 'shining Stars' Are Studied in a New Light." USA Today [boulder County] 28 Mar. 2011: 10A-11A. Print.

Kennedy, Robert. "Cheating - Cheating 101 for Private Schools." Private Schools - Data and Information About Private Schools. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://privateschool.about.com/cs/forteachers/a/cheating.htm.

McClure, Robin. "Do You Do Your Child's Homework?" http://Www.about.com. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

Professay.com. "Buying a Custom Essay Is NOT Cheating | Custom Essay Writing, Custom Written Essays, Term Paper Help, Research Paper Writing Service." Custom Essays, Essay Writing Help, Custom Written Essay Paper, Term Paper Help, Research Paper Writing Service. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://www.professays.com/info/is-buying-a-custom-essay-cheating/.

"Q & A with the Authors of Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do." Interview by Wiley Blackwell. http://Http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/PressRelease/pressReleaseId-56517,descCd-release_additional_material.html. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

Slobogin, Kathy. "Confessed Cheater: 'What's Important Is Getting Ahead'" Editorial. Survey: Many Students Say Cheating's OK 5 Apr. 2002: 1-2. Print.

Spellings, Margaret. "Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening The No Child Left Behind Act." http://Http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/nclb/buildingonresults.pdf. U.S. Department of Education. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

Tagliere, Julia. "Making The Grade At Any Cost." Editorial. Cheating Among U.S. Students: 1-2. Print.

[jenbrdsly]

My 14yo ds wrote an essay on cheating in schools this past year (for a Brave Writer class that was AWESOME!). He was shocked at the cheating that is taking place in schools by the students, teachers, administrators, and government. After his research, ds felt that cheating was actually being encouraged and decided to write his essay on that point. The Atlanta and Washington D.C. test scandals were a big part of his essay.

 

Please keep in mind this is an 8th grade paper, but I was very impressed with the amount of research he did on this. His thesis statement needed to be something shocking and a bit controversial and I think he backed it up pretty well in his paper. We were both amazed and shocked at the information and he was actually saddened by it.

 

Ninety-five percent of high school students have cheated in some form. This stunning statistic was the result of a nation-wide study conducted by Donald McCabe of Rutgers University in 2008. Unfortunately, most students believe that this type of behavior is acceptable, and the general response is, “Everyone does it.†The Rutgers study also polled students regarding the reasons why they cheat. Academic pressure was the top reason cited for cheating, but the second most common answer was the poor example that the adult world is setting. Professor McCabe has an opinion regarding this and says, “I think kids today are looking to adults and society for a moral compass and when they see the behavior occurring there, they don’t understand why they should be held to a higher standard.†(Slobogin 1-2) In fact, there have been many examples recently of poor behaviors by people and entities with authority, both intentional and unintentional. Whereas cheating by students has always been perceived as unethical and immoral conduct, cheating is currently being encouraged by parents, teachers and schools, and the government.

Many parents play the first and most direct role in encouraging their children to cheat. These acts may be intentional or unintentional. According to About.com, Ask.com completed a survey regarding parents doing their child’s homework for them. This study showed that of 778 parents, an astounding 43 percent did their child’s homework for them to bring back to school (McClure). Stephen F. Davis, co-author of “Cheating in Schoolâ€, said, “Parents, in the normal quest to help their children live better lives than they did, may inadvertently encourage cheating or at least not discourage it.†(Blackwell) More lucrative jobs, keeping up with the Joneses, admission to better colleges, better lives, higher grades, and lack of time are all reasons parents gave for encouraging cheating. Not only do these unethical behaviors encourage the same behavior in the children, when the parents do the work, but the child also does not gain the knowledge from the material.

Equally important is the role teachers and schools have in encouraging cheating. Cheating by teachers and schools is caused by the pressure found in high-stakes standardized testing and the pressure to show improvement. Teacher’s tenure, merit pay, and job security are linked to student achievement and scores from the standardized tests. This puts extreme pressure on the teachers. All of this pressure creates situations like the Washington D.C. erasure scandal and the Atlanta erasure scandal where principals erased wrong answers on tests and put right answers in. Incidents of scandals like these are increasing as “No Child Left Behind†progresses. The Washington D.C. erasure scandal involved ninety-six schools and seventy-five percent of the classrooms as the newspaper, USA Today, stated in their news article, “Testing the System.†(Gillum 10A-11A) In instances such as the Washington D.C. erasure scandal and the Atlanta erasure scandal, where students see their educators and schools cheating, It makes them wonder why they should be held to a higher standard.

Finally, the government is encouraging cheating through the implementation of several laws and acts, including President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act†and President Obama’s “Race to the Top Act.†These ideas, while enacted with good intentions, did not work as intended and have placed intense pressure on schools to meet and exceed the stated goals. Federal law makers felt pressured themselves to address problems such as those stated by Margaret Spellings in her report entitled, “Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening The No Child Left Behind Actâ€. The report indicated the dismal academic rating of the United States among developed countries. As an illustration, fifteen year olds in the United States are ranked twenty-fourth out of twenty-nine in math computation. (Spellings 3-4) It would seem the solutions that government has implemented to address these problems have resulted in making them worse and has in turn encouraged cheating throughout the system, ending with the student.

In conclusion, the government, teachers and schools, and parents are all encouraging cheating in some form or another. If this cheating goes unchecked, the moral fiber and future knowledge of our nation will decline. Alice Newhall, a George Mason High School student, sums up a common view amongst students when she says, “The better you do, that’s what shows. It’s not how moral you were in getting there.†(Slobogin 1) What we should be aiming for is what novelist John D. MacDonald believed when he wrote, “Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat then you know he never will.†(Tagliere 1-2) When cheating is encouraged by parents, teachers and schools, and the government, what does our nation learn? How can our country grow? We are forgetting the student sitting behind the desk and the implications of how the examples that are being modeled by authority figures are going to affect the future of our nation. Is our moral compass broken along with our integrity? With cheating being encouraged, as it is, how can students say, “No�

Works Cited

"A Cheating Crisis in America's Schools - ABC News." ABCNews.com: Breaking News, Politics, World News, Good Morning America, Exclusive Interviews - ABC News. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://abcnews.go.com/primetime/story?id=132376&page=1

 

"How Teachers Cheat: Other Local Cases, Allegations | Cincinnati.com | Cincinnati.com." Cincinnati.com | Cincinnati Local News, Sports, Business, Community, and Entertainment | Cincinnati.com. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20110305/NEWS0102/103060378/How-teachers-cheat-Other-local-cases-allegations

Gillum, Jack, and Marisol Bello. "D.C. 'shining Stars' Are Studied in a New Light." USA Today [boulder County] 28 Mar. 2011: 10A-11A. Print.

 

Kennedy, Robert. "Cheating - Cheating 101 for Private Schools." Private Schools - Data and Information About Private Schools. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://privateschool.about.com/cs/forteachers/a/cheating.htm.

McClure, Robin. "Do You Do Your Child's Homework?" Www.about.com. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

Professay.com. "Buying a Custom Essay Is NOT Cheating | Custom Essay Writing, Custom Written Essays, Term Paper Help, Research Paper Writing Service." Custom Essays, Essay Writing Help, Custom Written Essay Paper, Term Paper Help, Research Paper Writing Service. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://www.professays.com/info/is-buying-a-custom-essay-cheating/.

 

"Q & A with the Authors of Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do." Interview by Wiley Blackwell. http://Http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/PressRelease/pressReleaseId-56517,descCd-release_additional_material.html. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

 

Slobogin, Kathy. "Confessed Cheater: 'What's Important Is Getting Ahead'" Editorial. Survey: Many Students Say Cheating's OK 5 Apr. 2002: 1-2. Print.

 

Spellings, Margaret. "Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening The No Child Left Behind Act." http://Http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/nclb/buildingonresults.pdf. U.S. Department of Education. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

 

Tagliere, Julia. "Making The Grade At Any Cost." Editorial. Cheating Among U.S. Students: 1-2. Print.

 

I was really impressed by this. I'm going to share the link with one of my friends who teachs ethics at the college level in MA.

[jenbrdsly]

My 14yo ds wrote an essay on cheating in schools this past year (for a Brave Writer class that was AWESOME!). He was shocked at the cheating that is taking place in schools by the students, teachers, administrators, and government. After his research, ds felt that cheating was actually being encouraged and decided to write his essay on that point. The Atlanta and Washington D.C. test scandals were a big part of his essay.

 

Please keep in mind this is an 8th grade paper, but I was very impressed with the amount of research he did on this. His thesis statement needed to be something shocking and a bit controversial and I think he backed it up pretty well in his paper. We were both amazed and shocked at the information and he was actually saddened by it.

 

Ninety-five percent of high school students have cheated in some form. This stunning statistic was the result of a nation-wide study conducted by Donald McCabe of Rutgers University in 2008. Unfortunately, most students believe that this type of behavior is acceptable, and the general response is, “Everyone does it.†The Rutgers study also polled students regarding the reasons why they cheat. Academic pressure was the top reason cited for cheating, but the second most common answer was the poor example that the adult world is setting. Professor McCabe has an opinion regarding this and says, “I think kids today are looking to adults and society for a moral compass and when they see the behavior occurring there, they don’t understand why they should be held to a higher standard.†(Slobogin 1-2) In fact, there have been many examples recently of poor behaviors by people and entities with authority, both intentional and unintentional. Whereas cheating by students has always been perceived as unethical and immoral conduct, cheating is currently being encouraged by parents, teachers and schools, and the government.

Many parents play the first and most direct role in encouraging their children to cheat. These acts may be intentional or unintentional. According to About.com, Ask.com completed a survey regarding parents doing their child’s homework for them. This study showed that of 778 parents, an astounding 43 percent did their child’s homework for them to bring back to school (McClure). Stephen F. Davis, co-author of “Cheating in Schoolâ€, said, “Parents, in the normal quest to help their children live better lives than they did, may inadvertently encourage cheating or at least not discourage it.†(Blackwell) More lucrative jobs, keeping up with the Joneses, admission to better colleges, better lives, higher grades, and lack of time are all reasons parents gave for encouraging cheating. Not only do these unethical behaviors encourage the same behavior in the children, when the parents do the work, but the child also does not gain the knowledge from the material.

Equally important is the role teachers and schools have in encouraging cheating. Cheating by teachers and schools is caused by the pressure found in high-stakes standardized testing and the pressure to show improvement. Teacher’s tenure, merit pay, and job security are linked to student achievement and scores from the standardized tests. This puts extreme pressure on the teachers. All of this pressure creates situations like the Washington D.C. erasure scandal and the Atlanta erasure scandal where principals erased wrong answers on tests and put right answers in. Incidents of scandals like these are increasing as “No Child Left Behind†progresses. The Washington D.C. erasure scandal involved ninety-six schools and seventy-five percent of the classrooms as the newspaper, USA Today, stated in their news article, “Testing the System.†(Gillum 10A-11A) In instances such as the Washington D.C. erasure scandal and the Atlanta erasure scandal, where students see their educators and schools cheating, It makes them wonder why they should be held to a higher standard.

Finally, the government is encouraging cheating through the implementation of several laws and acts, including President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act†and President Obama’s “Race to the Top Act.†These ideas, while enacted with good intentions, did not work as intended and have placed intense pressure on schools to meet and exceed the stated goals. Federal law makers felt pressured themselves to address problems such as those stated by Margaret Spellings in her report entitled, “Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening The No Child Left Behind Actâ€. The report indicated the dismal academic rating of the United States among developed countries. As an illustration, fifteen year olds in the United States are ranked twenty-fourth out of twenty-nine in math computation. (Spellings 3-4) It would seem the solutions that government has implemented to address these problems have resulted in making them worse and has in turn encouraged cheating throughout the system, ending with the student.

In conclusion, the government, teachers and schools, and parents are all encouraging cheating in some form or another. If this cheating goes unchecked, the moral fiber and future knowledge of our nation will decline. Alice Newhall, a George Mason High School student, sums up a common view amongst students when she says, “The better you do, that’s what shows. It’s not how moral you were in getting there.†(Slobogin 1) What we should be aiming for is what novelist John D. MacDonald believed when he wrote, “Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat then you know he never will.†(Tagliere 1-2) When cheating is encouraged by parents, teachers and schools, and the government, what does our nation learn? How can our country grow? We are forgetting the student sitting behind the desk and the implications of how the examples that are being modeled by authority figures are going to affect the future of our nation. Is our moral compass broken along with our integrity? With cheating being encouraged, as it is, how can students say, “No�

Works Cited

"A Cheating Crisis in America's Schools - ABC News." ABCNews.com: Breaking News, Politics, World News, Good Morning America, Exclusive Interviews - ABC News. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://abcnews.go.com/primetime/story?id=132376&page=1

 

"How Teachers Cheat: Other Local Cases, Allegations | Cincinnati.com | Cincinnati.com." Cincinnati.com | Cincinnati Local News, Sports, Business, Community, and Entertainment | Cincinnati.com. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20110305/NEWS0102/103060378/How-teachers-cheat-Other-local-cases-allegations

Gillum, Jack, and Marisol Bello. "D.C. 'shining Stars' Are Studied in a New Light." USA Today [boulder County] 28 Mar. 2011: 10A-11A. Print.

 

Kennedy, Robert. "Cheating - Cheating 101 for Private Schools." Private Schools - Data and Information About Private Schools. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://privateschool.about.com/cs/forteachers/a/cheating.htm.

McClure, Robin. "Do You Do Your Child's Homework?" Www.about.com. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

Professay.com. "Buying a Custom Essay Is NOT Cheating | Custom Essay Writing, Custom Written Essays, Term Paper Help, Research Paper Writing Service." Custom Essays, Essay Writing Help, Custom Written Essay Paper, Term Paper Help, Research Paper Writing Service. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://www.professays.com/info/is-buying-a-custom-essay-cheating/.

 

"Q & A with the Authors of Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do." Interview by Wiley Blackwell. http://Http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/PressRelease/pressReleaseId-56517,descCd-release_additional_material.html. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

 

Slobogin, Kathy. "Confessed Cheater: 'What's Important Is Getting Ahead'" Editorial. Survey: Many Students Say Cheating's OK 5 Apr. 2002: 1-2. Print.

 

Spellings, Margaret. "Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening The No Child Left Behind Act." http://Http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/nclb/buildingonresults.pdf. U.S. Department of Education. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

 

Tagliere, Julia. "Making The Grade At Any Cost." Editorial. Cheating Among U.S. Students: 1-2. Print.

 

 

I just had a thought... You should got to my free copyright.com and copyright this, just in case. http://myfreecopyright.com/

[ereks mom]

It's been going on for years in Georgia in different counties. Every year it's a matter of who gets caught. Some schools have 4 day school weeks because they can't afford 5.

 

:iagree: There was a scandal in my county (in central GA) a few years ago, and I know teachers who lost their jobs as a result.

[MtnTeaching]

I just had a thought... You should got to my free copyright.com and copyright this, just in case. http://myfreecopyright.com/

 

Wow, I never even thought about that. Having to copyright an 8th grade essay - it just proves the point doesn't it? Thank you!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Thanks for sharing! Your blog was very insightful. I wish more people would understand the pressures placed on teachers.

 

Any teacher no matter how good can guarantee all students will produce perfect scores on test, nor should they be expected to. There are many circumstances beyond a teacher's control. I am concerned that teachers will not want to continue teaching in bad districts or underperforming schools. Who could blame them? They are threatened with lower saleries sometimes.

 

I am not fond of teaching to the test. Students are the ones missing out.

 

I was getting my education masters degree back when NCLB was being debated. Virginia had just brought out its Standards of Learning and was instituting testing on that basis. Even then, teachers were complaining about the testing pressure. One of my acquantances (who had just earned her PhD in Education) ended up leaving teaching because her 5th grade class was spending the majority of the year reviewing 4th grade topics to prep for the test.

 

And yet, it doesn't seem so unreasonable to me to say that the goal of a school should be to bring students to a place of literacy, mathematical ability and a core of historical and scientific knowledge. Of course there will be students who are behind or who never master these topics. There will be special education issues and family life issues that hold them back.

 

But lots of enterprises are held to an outside standard, from restaurants that have to pass health inspections to bus companies that have to maintain a certain safety record to manufacturing plants who have to follow OSHA and EPA regs and that often try to meet ISO certification. I don't find it so outrageous that a school would be measured on its ability to educate.

 

As someone who pays for local schools and who might be considered a potential customer, I found it odd that so many schools don't seem to be able to educate even half of their students to moderate levels. Either something is wrong with the school system we are using or with the society we are building or both. Making the tests go away isn't going to educate the kids either.

[twoforjoy]

And yet, it doesn't seem so unreasonable to me to say that the goal of a school should be to bring students to a place of literacy, mathematical ability and a core of historical and scientific knowledge. Of course there will be students who are behind or who never master these topics. There will be special education issues and family life issues that hold them back.

 

But lots of enterprises are held to an outside standard, from restaurants that have to pass health inspections to bus companies that have to maintain a certain safety record to manufacturing plants who have to follow OSHA and EPA regs and that often try to meet ISO certification. I don't find it so outrageous that a school would be measured on its ability to educate.

 

Evaluation isn't unreasonable. Expecting 100% of students to be testing at or above grade level is. We don't live in Lake Wobegon. ;)

 

The only way for a school to get by in such a situation would be to dumb down the requirements for each grade level so that all students would hopefully pass. For anybody who wants to see high standards in schools, this sort of testing is exactly what they shouldn't support. States that lower their standards and have easier tests get higher passing rates. States are rewarded, basically, for lowering standards.

 

Plus, I don't think you can truly assess how good a job a school is doing by student outcomes. There are just too many other factors involved. Even the best teacher in the world is not going to get good results if there are enough other factors going on in the child's life working against that. And, a terrible teacher who is in front of a room full of students with engaged parents, a foundation of basic skills, and a supportive community is probably going to end up having her students do all right no matter how bad her teaching is.

 

Another part of the issue is that the students have pretty much no stake in these tests. They are extremely high-stakes for teachers and school districts, but essentially meaningless for students.

 

I certainly think assessment of schools and teachers is a good thing, but I don't think relying on the standardized test scores of students is a valid way to do that.

[Paige]

The pressure about the tests in GA is crazy!! I know kids who the teachers wanted to retain a grade simply because they thought the children wouldn't test well and the next year was a testing year. These are kids who were ahead of grade level in most subjects, at grade level or only a month or so behind in 1 or 2 subjects, with good behavior. But- they didn't test well on their AR tests, they would rush through the questions to be done, would get anxiety and simply mess up, or the teachers saw that they tested below their classroom performance. It is horrifying. Also, our district was enduring so many budget cuts that things were getting ridiculous. Instead of substitute teachers, classes of an absent teacher were divided and sent to other classes! In the meantime, class sizes had already been raised, so when the extra kids were added, the number of kids per class was staggering. Additionally, they took out parapros and teachers had to monitor lunches themselves and their planning periods were eliminated. My favorite teacher left mid-year, just 2 yrs short of retirement because she couldn't take it anymore. But, the test scores must go up!! The school already had over 90% meeting proficiency with more than half the school minority and about 30-40% on free lunch, but it was never good enough. :confused:

[jenbrdsly]

Wow, I never even thought about that. Having to copyright an 8th grade essay - it just proves the point doesn't it? Thank you!

 

 

This is what my friend who teaches ethics said about your child's paper:

 

I am mostly in awe at the fact that the student cited multiple works. I pull teeth to get a citation out of them (and just don't bother with the fact they are wrong about their citations).

 

Re his thesis, I disagree that setting high standards for students "encourages" cheating (take responsibility for your choices!), but I do agree that some teachers actively assist in cheating to get better test results, as do parents. It's incredibly unfortunate how the world has evolved (or maybe I was just naive as a student).

[jenbrdsly]

I was getting my education masters degree back when NCLB was being debated. Virginia had just brought out its Standards of Learning and was instituting testing on that basis. Even then, teachers were complaining about the testing pressure. One of my acquantances (who had just earned her PhD in Education) ended up leaving teaching because her 5th grade class was spending the majority of the year reviewing 4th grade topics to prep for the test.

 

And yet, it doesn't seem so unreasonable to me to say that the goal of a school should be to bring students to a place of literacy, mathematical ability and a core of historical and scientific knowledge. Of course there will be students who are behind or who never master these topics. There will be special education issues and family life issues that hold them back.

 

But lots of enterprises are held to an outside standard, from restaurants that have to pass health inspections to bus companies that have to maintain a certain safety record to manufacturing plants who have to follow OSHA and EPA regs and that often try to meet ISO certification. I don't find it so outrageous that a school would be measured on its ability to educate.

 

As someone who pays for local schools and who might be considered a potential customer, I found it odd that so many schools don't seem to be able to educate even half of their students to moderate levels. Either something is wrong with the school system we are using or with the society we are building or both. Making the tests go away isn't going to educate the kids either.

 

 

I wasn't quite ready to put this up on my blog yet, but here goes: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/ravenswood/fire-code/ I can finish revising it later. It goes along with: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/ravenswood/when-the-bell-rings/

 

I really, really, really want people to know that there are some absolutely horrible school districts out there, and that when you see a school with 30% results on standardized tests that there can be all sorts of other factors besides teachers not doing good job.

Edited July 11, 2011 by jenbrdsly

[twoforjoy]

I really, really, really want people to know that there are some absolutely horrible school districts out there, and that when you see a school with 30% results on standardized tests that there can be all sorts of other factors besides teachers not doing good job.

 

It's kind of amazing to me that that even needs to be said.

 

I have friends who've taught in both the Detroit public schools and in suburban public school districts. Their suburban kids score much higher on standardized tests. They are the same person in both settings. In some cases they were even using the same materials. But, the results of their teaching were very, very different. There are so many factors that go into how students perform on these tests that have nothing to do with an individual teacher and not even much to do with the public school system in an area as a whole that it just seems extremely unfair to judge teachers based on it.

 

I also think this kind of "accountability" does nothing but making working in inner city, rural, and other resource-poor school districts undesirable. Who, if they could find another job, would be willing to teach in one of those districts when, on top of everything else you'd have to deal with, you are constantly being evaluated by the performance of your students on high-stakes tests that they are going to do worse on, as a group, than their more affluent peers?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Evaluation isn't unreasonable. Expecting 100% of students to be testing at or above grade level is. We don't live in Lake Wobegon. ;)

 

The only way for a school to get by in such a situation would be to dumb down the requirements for each grade level so that all students would hopefully pass. For anybody who wants to see high standards in schools, this sort of testing is exactly what they shouldn't support. States that lower their standards and have easier tests get higher passing rates. States are rewarded, basically, for lowering standards.

 

Plus, I don't think you can truly assess how good a job a school is doing by student outcomes. There are just too many other factors involved. Even the best teacher in the world is not going to get good results if there are enough other factors going on in the child's life working against that. And, a terrible teacher who is in front of a room full of students with engaged parents, a foundation of basic skills, and a supportive community is probably going to end up having her students do all right no matter how bad her teaching is.

 

Another part of the issue is that the students have pretty much no stake in these tests. They are extremely high-stakes for teachers and school districts, but essentially meaningless for students.

 

I certainly think assessment of schools and teachers is a good thing, but I don't think relying on the standardized test scores of students is a valid way to do that.

 

I agree that we don't live in Lake Wobegon. And as I mentioned, there are always going to be subsets of students who don't care, have medically based hinderances or who aren't getting support at home.

 

But I'm not sure that this is ample explanation for the scores that you see in some areas. We lived for a time in Hawaii. The percentage of students performing on grade level was dismal. As in it wasn't uncommon for a school to have only 50% meeting math standards (or far worse). In my mind, that is a school that is failing its students. Or families failing the students, or both. And I'm not talking about ghetto schools, but rather the local schools to where we lived.

[JudyJudyJudy]

Wow, I never even thought about that. Having to copyright an 8th grade essay - it just proves the point doesn't it? Thank you!

Yes (and he did a great job :)). People outside the school systems are no better than those within the systems. If you get bored sometime, go to a Wikipedia article and copy a sentence, put it into Google with quotation marks around it, and see how many people have copied the article or part of the article verbatim. This doesn't just apply to Wiki, either. People do it with news articles, blogs, information from health sites and government sites, and more. It's often difficult to determine which was the original source.

[JudyJudyJudy]

As someone who pays for local schools and who might be considered a potential customer, I found it odd that so many schools don't seem to be able to educate even half of their students to moderate levels. Either something is wrong with the school system we are using or with the society we are building or both. Making the tests go away isn't going to educate the kids either.

As someone who taught in public schools both before and after NCLB (but not during the transition), I can tell you that children were getting a better education before the push for test scores.

[JudyJudyJudy]

There's too much to quote by jenbrdsly and twoforjoy, but I agree with pretty much everything they said.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I wasn't quite ready to put this up on my blog yet, but here goes: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/ravenswood/fire-code/ I can finish revising it later. It goes along with: http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/ravenswood/when-the-bell-rings/

 

I really, really, really want people to know that there are some absolutely horrible school districts out there, and that when you see a school with 30% results on standardized tests that there can be all sorts of other factors besides teachers not doing good job.

 

Well I will agree that there seems to be parts of our country where children are growing up feral or under conditions that would easily induce PTSD. There are families who don't seem to put much thought into whether they are living in a situation that is a good place for a kid to grow up.

 

But I also think that we are naive to think that all schools (or all teachers) are performing at similar levels or at adequate levels.

 

Am I blaming teachers for every poor test score? No. But I also think that measuring whether or not students in a particular school or district tend to graduate without knowing how to read is not all that unreasonable.

 

I think that there are a whole boatload of flaws in NCLB. And there are plenty of problems that the schools aren't going to be able to fix (single parenthood, drug abuse, child abuse, criminal activity and incarceration).

 

But teachers aren't saints. There are more than a few who are just going with the flow and marking time. (I'm sure you could tell me which ones you remember.) And there are some who are worse. (I remember a time in the 90s when it seemed that every Dallas ISD head left with criminal charges for fraud hanging over them.)

 

Maybe being around DC too much has made me cynical. I remember one heralded reform in the late 90s when it was discovered that the DC school district was paying teachers who hadn't been teaching (in some cases, because they were dead). That is the sort of systemic failure that needs correction.

[MtnTeaching]

I think about the standardized testing contoversy a lot and (as much as I despise the testing) to a certain extent agree with "Sebastian" in a way. I do think that some way of judging how well our children are being educated regarding the basics is a good idea.

 

Unfortunately, I feel the standardized tests do not necessarily do this. The tests are more of a "Trivia Pursuit" type test with a huge "smattering" of questions that cover a very large range of knowledge. It would seem to me that the teachers feel so compelled to cram so much info into the kids in a short amount of time that the time needed to cement in the "basics" just is not there.

 

What do you think? Am I way off base?

[JudyJudyJudy]

Well I will agree that there seems to be parts of our country where children are growing up feral or under conditions that would easily induce PTSD. There are families who don't seem to put much thought into whether they are living in a situation that is a good place for a kid to grow up.

 

But I also think that we are naive to think that all schools (or all teachers) are performing at similar levels or at adequate levels.

 

Am I blaming teachers for every poor test score? No. But I also think that measuring whether or not students in a particular school or district tend to graduate without knowing how to read is not all that unreasonable.

 

This is actually where part of the problem with NCLB lies. It doesn't fix the problem; it enhances the problem. For example, if a teacher is teaching sixth grade, and she realizes that she has a student who can't even multiply whole numbers, she can't just start over from scratch with him and let him progress from there. Instead, she has to make sure he can find the volume of a sphere and things like that which will be on "the test." She can't worry about the basics because she has a book full of other objectives on which the child will be tested and on which she will be judged. If the child can't possibly really learn the stuff for the test, then she must teach him test-taking strategies that can fool "the test" so that she, the student, and the school look good.

 

I think about the standardized testing contoversy a lot and (as much as I despise the testing) to a certain extent agree with "Sebastian" in a way. I do think that some way of judging how well our children are being educated regarding the basics is a good idea.

 

Unfortunately, I feel the standardized tests do not necessarily do this. The tests are more of a "Trivia Pursuit" type test with a huge "smattering" of questions that cover a very large range of knowledge. It would seem to me that the teachers feel so compelled to cram so much info into the kids in a short amount of time that the time needed to cement in the "basics" just is not there.

 

What do you think? Am I way off base?

No, you're not off base. I posted about this on a thread in the Middle Grades forum. Even if it leaves gaps in kids' education, teachers skip over a lot of important topics because they don't have time to teach something that isn't going to be on "the test."

[Momof3littles]

In terms of assessment-

When we first decided to HS my friend, a public school teacher, laughed at me.

 

Fast forward, she had her own kids and didn't return to teaching. She was disgusted by the changes NCLB brought to education.

 

SHe taught middle school science, and was told she could no longer give essay tests. She had to give multiple choice as prep for standardized testing.

 

I thought that was very telling. I consider it critical to my children's education that they will be able to pull together ideas and write a coherent essay.

 

This was in a top-ranked SD, fwiw.

 

Fast forward some more, my husband went back to school and pursued an advanced degree. He was a teaching assistant in a science lab, and it became readily apparent to both of us that his students could. not. write. At all.

[MtnTeaching]

This is what my friend who teaches ethics said about your child's paper:

 

I am mostly in awe at the fact that the student cited multiple works. I pull teeth to get a citation out of them (and just don't bother with the fact they are wrong about their citations).

 

jenbrdsly -Please thank your friend for looking at the paper my ds wrote.

 

Regarding the comments - Does it strike anyone as interesting that a professor teaching Ethics at the college level is so impressed that multiple works were cited in the paper?? An ETHICS class not citing their works?

[jenbrdsly]

jenbrdsly -Please thank your friend for looking at the paper my ds wrote.

 

Regarding the comments - Does it strike anyone as interesting that a professor teaching Ethics at the college level is so impressed that multiple works were cited in the paper?? An ETHICS class not citing their works?

That's the least of it. She has had quite a few students turn in plagiarized papers. In an ethics class!!! That's why I suggested the copyright. Won't it be funny if a few months from now she was grading papers and came across your son's?

[MtnTeaching]

 

That's the least of it. She has had quite a few students turn in plagiarized papers. In an ethics class!!! That's why I suggested the copyright. Won't it be funny if a few months from now she was grading papers and came across your son's?

 

I definitely signed up and put a copyright on the paper! Thank you for letting me know about that site.

 

It is amazing to me that students would plagiarize in an Ethics class. It must be very frustrating for your friend.