Cheating on standardized tests

[Miulang]

First it was announced that students at Waianae Intermediate School were coached and given extra time to complete standardized tests which are used to determine whether a school is in compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act.

Now there are additional revelations that some testing improprieties may have occurred at other schools.

Whatever possessed the school administrators into thinking they could get away with tactics like this? What did they think they would gain for their schools? Exemption from being taken over by the State?

The standardized tests are one way to measure the performance of each student and the school which is supposed to be teaching them, but fudging in this way only hurts the students. First, because it means that no one really knows for sure how each student is really doing; second, it's teaching kids that it's OK to bend the rules to suit your needs.

The DOE again needs to stress that the tests need to be administered accurately in order for it to know which schools need additional assistance. And the DOE again needs to stress, just as it did when it announced the list of schools that would be taken over by the State, that the teachers were not going to be punished but given additional assistance so they could help their students.

Standardized tests should not be perceived as punitive tools but rather as a way to track improvements.

Miulang

[cezanne]

Re: Cheating on standardized tests

While it's wrong for what happened, I kinda feel for the teachers. I mean they are already super-underpaid and now with the No Child Left Behind thing (which is a good thing), to be a teacher at a school that is put on the knock list probably demoralizes them more... like it's as if they're not doing their job.

[scrivener]

Re: Cheating on standardized tests

Hawaii is definitely not the first place this has happened. A school in Detroit was discovered a few years ago to have encouraged some students not to come to school on the day of testing.

The teachers here should have known better and should be ashamed of themselves. The idiotic No Child act is a misguided attempt to put some accountability in schools, and I'm convinced it needs to go; however, the way to bring about such change is not to circumvent the rules, but to abide by them and to work within the system to affect change. Professional standards should trump any other motivations, however noble they may be.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Cheating on standardized tests

A teacher friend of mine told me that at her school, the faculty were circulated a list of students who, based on prior testing, were just below the borderline between one category and the next. They were strongly encouraged to focus their efforts on coaching those students, as they would give the school the most "bang for the buck" in their test scores. While I understand the reasoning there, I can't help but feel that it didn't sound very ethical.

[alohabear]

Re: Cheating on standardized tests

Everyone who works for the DOE knows not one Admin. has EVER gotten more than a "slap on a wrist" . They never fear the what will happen if they break rules.

I agree with Gov. Lingle, make principals non-union employees ...then we'll see a different school system.