Erica:

Thank you for sharing this with us. I can't help but wonder how some of these folks sleep at night. Their hunger for a quick fix and undeserved praise shows a real contempt for the kids in the Atlanta Schools and what they think they are capable of.

This is happening in every city though; the targets are unrealistic everywhere...NCLB and all the local unrealistic district expectations. This is happening without tying pay/ performance evaluations to test scores. It's just going to get worse until district leaders are realistic about the impact of high stakes testing on teaching and learning.

The problem is not linking teacher pay and test performance; the problem is not insulating the teachers from the test. It's like letting law students grade their own bar exams. There is a reason you don't do that.

i am not surprised a bit at the cheating scandal in Atlanta schools , my experience with federal and state offices has been of observing extreme levels of corruption, nepotism, indifference...
i think that the root cause of the rot is affirmative action. It teaches peopel that integrity initiative intelligence hard work do not matter.

I am from Atlanta. This is "UNBELIEVABLE" No wonder we are having so much teen pregnancy, crimes,drop-outs,and saggy pants!!!! Can we say EBONICS!

Ugh! It's bad enough that the "comments" sections are full of racist posts. Can something be done about the posts from "Bobbie Bukacera" and "Stephanie"? Please.

I see the racists are out in full force. Lack of integrity spans all races. See the wall street meltdown for reference. What happened in ATL was inexcusable and may have really hurt children who needed support. It will be a long time before the district recovers from such deeply rooted problems. I only hope they can do so quickly and completely and that those responsible (regardless of race) will be help fully accountable.

Who is to say that it's not as wide spread in Baltimore? Perhaps in Atlanta they just did a better job of uncovering the mass cheating.

@Stephanie
"No wonder we are having so much teen pregnancy, crimes,drop-outs,and saggy pants!!!! Can we say EBONICS!"
Glad you are not from Baltimore. So the teachers who are the ones cheating are wearing saggy pants in Atlanta? The teachers drop out & are pregnant teens? It's the teachers/administrators cheating, NOT the kids!!

-I approved that by mistake. No, I don't promote racism.-EG

Wow, out of six comments we've only got three openly racist ones? Jeez, Baltimore, you're letting us down. And to think that each comment has to be approved by the blog author. I guess that means she wants to inject racist invective into the public discourse. I.F. Stone would be so proud.

In all seriousness, scholastica has it exactly right. When you put this much pressure on teachers to test, test, test, and put their jobs on the line with those tests, this is what will likely happen. Not because they're particularly bad people, but because they're terrified people, with mortgages to make. And few good options.

If teaching to the test is a problem, the problem is with the test, not the concept. Design a test that measures what the children should be learning, and teaching to it will be the same as teaching the curriculum.

MSPAP was designed by Maryland's business community over a period of several years. Teaching to it was teaching to what businesses said our children need to know to be successfully employed. Yet we heard the exact same arguments when anti-accountability people got going--our schools were wasting time teaching to the test.

Now that we have returned to multiple choice, pencil in the dot testing, we hear the same complaints.

And what about the cheating that is on going and pervasive? In Atlanta, and in DC, a majority of schools have been shown to be engaged in cheating. Only Maryland, and in particular, Baltimore City, seem to be taking concrete steps to catch and punish the cheaters.

Accountability cannot be avoided. Make sure the tests actually test what we want our children to know, make sure no one is cheating. Then get on with it.

Jonathan Inskeep
jonathaninskeep@verizon.net

“In many of my school visits, I go into classrooms where there are Teach For America teachers, and I’m always impressed with them. I think Teach For America is having an impact in more ways than we probably even realize right now.”

Dr. Beverly L. Hall
Superintendent, Atlanta Public Schools

Does anyone really think that this isn't taking place in our county schools? Our accountability system is crushing the edcuation that our kids are receiveing. Any intelligent teacher is going to simply teach to the test in order to stay under the radar. My kid sat in a GT Amer Gov't class for 4 weeks doing practice HSA test items!! Is this really what we want for our kids from our schools and talented teachers? What is the point of requiring teachers to demonstrate that they are "highly qualified" if they are going to be limited to practicing for assessments? Schools are facing more challenges now than ever in our history. We should be thinking about ways to engage unmotivated kids and communities with innovative instructional practices and not prepping for low level easy-to-score assessments. Once pay is attached to test performance, things will only get worse - achievement gaps will widen and we will lose another generation of kids who have had to suffer the consequences of the politicians driving education.

@Jonathan Inskeep

Your point only holds if we narrow the purpose of school down to something so small I don't want to do it anymore.

the problem is we can't make tests that teach everything we want kids to know:

like citizenship, integrity, the ability to act maturely in all sorts of different situations, the flexibility and social control necessary to cooperate with others, a deep and active ethical thought process, the knowledge and ability to think deeply about world problems and address them creatively ...

I became a teacher because I wanted to have a hand in shaping the future leaders of our world-- in helping them to learn how to really think about what they believe is right, and stand up for it effectively. To fight for justice, peace on earth, the end of poverty. I wanted to be one of the people who would help them learn how to live well and prosper, mentally, emotionally, physically.

I wanted to inspire future leaders who could create the Eden we strive for, who have curiosity and creativity and a deep social consciousness.

I became a teacher to give others the childhood memories I have-- of school plays I learned lines for, of concerts I practiced for, of art projects my mom put on the refrigerator, of class field trips to places I'd never been, and hard teamwork with others that produced surprising things I could have never produced alone.

This stuff takes a lot of discipline and effort and serious higher level skills on many fronts. it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and planning.

When the goal becomes 'what our business community needs,' or 'first in the world' (first in what?) or to 'read and write and cypher,' or-- God Forbid-- to pass a bubble test that will decide whether I get to keep my job doing the other stuff-- it becomes a contest of time between the good stuff and the necessary. You do what it takes to stay in the classroom because that's the only way you can keep doing what you came for. But as the bubble tests become more and more central, (especially to my job) what I came for gets pushed off the table very quickly.

I don't believe in cheating on tests, but I also don't see how bubble tests actually measure very much of what I am really trying to teach. And it is hard to hear that I will not be recognized for the extreme effort I put into my classroom because none of it will show up on a bubble test I don't really believe in.

It's also extremely understandable that administrators tear their hair out and berate staff over test scores, and institute policies that insure teaching to the tests-- their job is on the line long before mine is. The scandal in Atlanta is horrific. But you don't need a cheating scandal to see that Baltimore is also in trouble: 70% of principals have left in the last 3 years. And what is the rate of turnover of regular teachers? I think less than 50% make it past year 5 in this city. The number could well be lower. It takes years to learn how to do real teaching or to create a real school community, as our principals are charged with doing. If we are losing people at this rate, Baltimore cannot possibly be doing its job.

Robin - you rock! Nailed it!

@Robin Bingham

Amen to that. Very well said.