Ethics+with+Standradized+Testing

=__The Government Made Me Do It!!__=

The pressures of accountability in educational standardized testing has reached a spill over! Read the article below about a scandal in the Atlanta, Georgia School District. Teachers and administrators in 44 of 50 buildings either admitted to cheating or were discovered to have through investigations that go back back as far as 2005. Teachers and administrators were changing test scores. Apparently it was done to meet NCLB proficiency marks.

[|Cheating in Atlanta Schools]

IMPLICATIONS... - Students being passed on through grades without the skills needed. - Teachers and educators losing licensure and facing criminal charges. - Lack of trust from the public in Atlanta and nationally. - Lawsuits from students that were passed on without the skills of reading, math or science.

QUESTIONS... - Were teachers trying formative assessments to better scores? - Were building leaders promoting learning communities and providing strategies to improve the teaching? - Was data being looked at to form a direction for how to improve the reading, math and science skills? - With this being such a high profile situation what direction will this turn our NCLB process?

As a teacher in a SINA school I know the pressures of test scores and student improvement, but cheating? Really?. Weigh in with your thoughts, knowledge and expertise in this area.

[|Cheating in Atlanta Schools]