Cheaters! : I'm Sounding Off

I read this article in the New York Times this morning, about the standardized testing cheating scandal in Atlanta. This case opened about about 5 years ago when almost 200 employees of the school district were accused of wrongdoing. Yesterday, 11 educators were convicted on racketeering and various other charges connecting them to the scandal. The superintendent implicated died before the trial concluded, as did one of the other suspects. One teacher was exonerated and several people took pleas to avoid going to trial. That's the brief summary. You can click the link to read the full article.

Photo Credit: New York Times

I'm just blown away by this whole thing. I'm pissed off. I hate when there is negative press about teachers. I hate that some of the bad seeds make the rest of us all look like a-holes. There. I said it. One of the educator FB pages I follow posed this question in response to the article:

What do you think about this case and the consequences?

I thought, there's no way I could wrap all my comments into a FB comment, so here I am. What do I think? I think I am outraged. For two reasons. If not, more. There are so many problems with standardized assessments right now, this case could easily have us all distracted by the bigger problems, which I will get to later. But first, the immediate problem: dishonesty and cheating.

Have you read my blogs? Do you know me personally? If the answer to either or both of those questions is yes, then you know how I feel about the standardized testing movement. I'm not going to back story this post anymore than I need to, because I want to get to the point, which is this. It is NEVER OK TO CHEAT. Period. I am disgusted by these educators who are bound by a code of ethics (In our state we are, so I am assuming they are too.) and are charged with setting an example for our young people. How dare they? How could they? The pressure? The mandates? I call B.S!

I have administered more of these tests than I care to count (Though I can tell you this year alone, I have already administered 11 test sessions in less than a month.) I have walked the classroom linoleum. I have scanned the room and the students' tests to be sure they were on the right section, taking great care not to look too closely because we're not allowed to read what they're reading or writing. I have watched 9-year-olds stress about making it to 4th grade and 10th graders agonizing over meeting cut scores for graduation. I have test prepped. I have learned new tests and taken trainings. I have lectured students about the importance of doing their best, and staff about keeping the test room secure to avoid invalidations, and maintaining quiet hallways. I have locked up, boxed up, and stressed over secure materials. I have lost sleep, fallen down on other job duties, and disrupted entire agency schedules to administer standardized tests. I have watched more minutes tick away on the clock, counted more ceiling tiles, and conjured up more ways to occupy my mind to make testing minutes pass as quickly as possible. And I. Hated. Every. Minute.

But you know what? I never cheated. I never even thought about cheating. I operated every minute of each of those test sessions explicitly to prevent and avoid cheating, and to keep the room and tests secure for all those in the room and beyond the walls. And you know what else? Had a principal, testing coordinator, or even the superintendent directly asked me, hinted to me, or suggested to me that I should cheat, I would refuse. Don't tell me I don't know what I would do unless I was in the position, because I do. I would say no, even if my job was threatened. And another thing? I'm pretty sure every one of the teachers I know and have worked with over the past 15 years, would do the exact. same. thing.

So what do I think about the case and the sentence? I think it's disgusting and shameful. I think they violated their code of ethics and their responsibilities and teachers. I think if the prosecutors established there were laws broken, they should all be sentenced accordingly. Shame on them.

Now, the bigger picture. The test craze in this country is shameful as well. Mind you, I reiterate this is no excuse for the wrongdoers. Ultimately, every individual has free will, choice. They chose to put their own needs and wants in front of what's right. But, we can't ignore why they were driven to make such decisions. The pressure for students, schools, districts to perform on these tests, and the implications for the results are asinine. From the mounting evidence many of the tests are neither valid nor reliable, and they are designed for a significant rate of failure among testers, to the money making operation that drives the whole never ending cycle, to the almost impossible to avoid teach to the test curriculum that has ensued, and finally to the absurdity that one test can give a big enough picture of what a student knows. Something has to change.

In the meantime, educators have to stand strong. We have to continue to live honestly. We must not feel desperate enough to compromise our sense of right and wrong. We must comfort our students through the testing nightmare, but speak out where and when we can. It seems there is really a movement building. People are really fed up. It's not just teachers anymore.