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Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Who’s Winking and Nodding?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cheating on the CRCT. I’m not saying it happens often, but given the stakes it seems foolish to assume it doesn’t happen at all. That said, a teacher writes:
“Here is a scenario that plays out with regularity in Georgia schools (maybe it’s not common, but it sure isn’t uncommon): The teacher gets threatened with possible job loss if ‘test scores aren’t up.’ The one doing the threatening? The principal, who gets threatened with possible job loss if ‘test scores aren’t up.’
So, testing time comes and the teacher’s career depends on the mental state of an eight-year-old child, an eight year old subjected to ten HOURS of testing. The child may very well be a discipline problem, and the teacher feels she gets no support from home or the administration. You think it might be just a little tempting to ‘offer a little help?’
Add to that, guess who is monitoring the testing? Yep, the very same principal who’s acutely aware that both their butts are on the line if we don’t get Junior’s test score up to par. So the principal walks in and drops hints as subtle as atomic bombs (‘Have him look over #23 again’).
But wait, aren’t there other monitors? Yes, but they are all from WITHIN the school system. Talk about ‘wink wink, nod nod’. And where is the state Dept. of Education? Nowhere to be found, for in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they have admitted that they don’t “red flag” test scores, unless a teacher or administrator complains (like that is going to happen).
If you don’t think this is routinely going on, and you prefer to think that facade (excuse me, reform) is really working, ask yourself this: Why are the scores improving on the CRCT, but we are still dead last in SAT scores? When you compare the safety measures to prevent cheating on the SAT, to how the CRCT is conducted, then you have your answer.
I hate to sound like Fox Mulder, but ‘the truth is out there’.”
Any experiences with or thoughts on cheating on the CRCT to share?
Cheese Sandwiches as Discipline
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Monday I attended a presentation by The Eagle Academy for Young Men, an all-male high school in the Bronx. The event was held at Atlanta Public Schools’ headquarters as they are turning a middle school into two single-gender schools. (I’m working on a story about this, so please save your single-gender schools comments for later…)
David Banks, Eagle Academy’s principal, made many interesting points. Among them, he said he uses cheese sandwiches as discipline. When a student gets a detention, the detention is served at lunchtime not after school, because parents will often try to get a child excused from an afternoon detention because of a legitimate or bogus scheduling problem.
So the student reports to detention at lunch time. He gets a cheese sandwich, not a hot lunch. “We used to give peanut butter & jelly, but they liked it. It wasn’t a deterrent,” the principal said.
How about it folks? Would cheese-sandwich discipline work with your child or at your school?
