Well--this is an interesting situation...

Just read this story--and first of all I have to say a big:

DUR!!!!

What did people think was going to happen? Base people's job on an unfair assessment of a child's skills, demand "perfection" which is not even possible, and people cheat.

DUR!!!

Now--I'm not justifying that cheating is okay--cause it's not.

But, this is the quote I think makes my point:

"Virtually every teacher who confessed to cheating spoke of the inordinate stress the district placed on meeting targets and the dire consequences for failure," the report stated. "Dr. Hall articulated it as: 'No exceptions. No excuses.' If the principals did not meet targets within three years, she declared, they will be replaced and 'I will find someone who will meet targets.'"
The report went on to say that "data can be properly used as a tool to assess academic progress. But data can also be used as an abusive and cruel weapon to embarrass and punish classroom teachers and principals or as a pretext to termination. After hundreds of interviews, it has become clear that Dr. Hall and her staff used data as a way to exert oppressive pressure to meeting targets."

As someone who has seen this first hand--experienced this type of abuse myself--and have seen administrators (including principals) mistreat others in order to either make themselves look better, or make the school/students "look" better....

I say "DUR!!!"

This is why it does not work people!! This is why basing teacher pay, teacher's jobs, and teacher's livelihoods, and student's futures completely and utterly on test results--on numbers...on BUBBLES FILLED OUT ON A SCAN TRON is WRONG, and only leads to problems!!!!!!!!!

Education is the job of PEOPLE--not making mini-machines. Our product are not objects--they are breathing, thinking people--CHILDREN. Yes--assessment should occur--but if the point of the assessment is only to use it to judge, punish, mistreat, and manipulate--failure and/or breaking the rules becomes people's only options.

Failure should never be the only option in a school--both for the students, and for their parents. If you want to promote a positive LEARNING environment--a positive TEACHING environment has to be promoted as well.

Oh--and I love Sec. Duncan's statement--don't know if it will do anything to the stalemate which is the US Congress right now--especially with the ESEA bill--but at least he did something--beyond what he's done beforehand! OH--and can they please record his next meeting with Congress--cause I would LOVE to see this play out...LIVE :)

P.S. I'd truly love to see what this superintendent's test scores were of her students when she was teaching---but then that begs the question: has she ever actually taught in a classroom? For more than just a couple years? Ya--that begs an investigation on it's own in my opinion!!!

Here's the article: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700150206/Atlanta-teachers-arent-the-only-ones-cheating.html