Patterico's Pontifications

11/7/2011

L.A. Times: Teachers Are Cheating. The Fault Lies with . . .

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:10 am



. . . the teachers? No, silly! The focus on standardized testing!

This front-page story is a fascinating display of blame-shifting, starting with the headline:

Focus on standardized tests may be pushing some teachers to cheat

The number of California teachers who have been accused of cheating, lesser misconduct or mistakes on standardized achievement tests has raised alarms about the pressure to improve scores.

The story continues the theme:

The stress was overwhelming.

For years, this veteran teacher had received exemplary evaluations but now was feeling pressured to raise her students’ test scores. Her principal criticized her teaching and would show up to take notes on her class. She knew the material would be used against her one day.

“My principal told me right to my face that she — she was feeling sorry for me because I don’t know how to teach,” the instructor said.

The Los Angeles educator, who did not want to be identified, is one of about three dozen in the state accused this year of cheating, lesser misconduct or mistakes on standardized achievement tests.

Whose fault is it?

Many accused teachers have denied doing anything wrong. But documents and interviews suggest that an increasing focus on test scores has created an atmosphere of such intimidation that the idea teachers would cheat has become plausible.

No blame for the teachers here!

Look: there are valid reasons to question a focus on standardized test scores. But there is pressure everywhere. All kinds of jobs have pressure.

That is not an excuse to cheat — and teachers, who help mold our children’s attitudes, should know that better than anyone.

This is rather typical of the L.A. Times: when it comes to a battle between personal responsibility and picking a scapegoat, personal responsibility loses out every time.

84 Responses to “L.A. Times: Teachers Are Cheating. The Fault Lies with . . .”

  1. They really should be redistributing the good grades.

    AZ Bob (37ebf6)

  2. public service monkeys in thuggy thuggy unions are prone to corruption

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  3. IIn Idaho teachers & administrators get a bonus based on standardized test scores. The administrators get 20% more than teachers. Look for administrators to also be involved in cheating.

    Dos Equis Guy (32b81c)

  4. The system is broken!

    If we did not try to hold teachers accountable for their performance they would obviously not have to cheat.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  5. Student test scores will obviously improve if you just pay all teachers more.

    Just look to past experience as a guide.

    Trust me on this.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  6. If we would just give in to union demands for tenure, THEN the teachers would perform better. After all, with all of the pressure to do their best removed they, of course, will respond by doing their utmost for the students.

    Flawless logic!

    Icy (bd2739)

  7. No surprise. Telling people they’ll be punished if they don’t do X will always result in some number of the people who can’t or won’t do X cheating to avoid the consequences.

    This doesn’t mean that X is bad, just that you have to expect some amount of cheating and thus be on the lookout for it.

    steve (369bc6)

  8. And also the way to improve our schools is to destroy any method of actually measuring their success.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  9. Great post. It’s great to start the day reading a take-down of the LA Times.

    Maybe the principal was right and the teacher doesn’t know how to teach. I bet the students know the truth, and now she’s taught them the way to handle failure is to cheat.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  10. Sad but true, DRJ.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  11. “I bet the students know the truth, and now she’s taught them the way to handle failure is to cheat.”

    DRJ – Actually the teacher taught the students a very valuable lesson. She did it wrong. She got caught.

    It’s not cheating if you don’t get caught is the lesson the students were supposed to learn.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  12. No way…………….next thing you’ll tell me Gloria Allred is a lying cheating dillweed.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  13. Now, what forces reporters to be dishonest?

    Kevin M (563f77)

  14. AMG Patterico….look at the stats.
    in the past decade the US has fallen to 25th in science and 30th in math in global standing.
    Do you understand why?
    NCLB funds schools based on standardized test results.
    So either schools teach to the test or cheat.
    Now the rest of the world doesnt take America’s test.
    QED.

    wheeler's cat (9f8c21)

  15. How about:

    “Focus on grades may be pushing some students to cheat”

    for an article about students cheating?
    It’s not the poor students’ fault, you know – it is the system’s fault.

    John Galt (ba19b2)

  16. This LA Times “headline – conclusion – solution” seems to offer endless possibilities for mocking.

    Here we have: test scores – teachers cheat – eliminate test scores.

    Here’s one:

    Focus on winning pushing athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs.

    “game scores – athletes drugs – eliminate scores”

    LAT “solution” is to eliminate all game scores. Baskets and touchdowns and goals do not count, as it’s all for entertainment anyway.

    Here’s another:

    Focus on Tour de France placement pushing bikers to use performance-enhancing drugs.

    “race results – athletes drugs – remove finish line”

    LAT “solution” is simple: eliminate the finish line.

    jim2 (6482d8)

  17. I smell something like affirmative action here. Someone has been promoted all along and told they’re doing just fine. Then the real hard objective world meets them, and they can’t cut it.

    Some 40 odd years ago my old 40 lawyer law firm introduced computerized billing. I had a very good legal secretary. She had worked for me for about a year, and handled all of the routine stuff in a commercial litigation practice just fine. But part of her duties included preparing monthly bills. When we introduced computer billing, she had to use our computerized system. Most of the secretaries in the firm struggled with the system for the first two months. By the third month, most of the other secretaries could get the bills prepared and out the door in about 3 business days time. After four months, my secretary was still needing three weeks to get the bills done. That didn’t leave much of her time to do the actual secretarial work needed in my practice.

    I let her go. She went on to another law firm in town–which didn’t have a computerized billing system–and did just fine.

    The reality in the world is that we will all occasionally meet something that we either just can’t do or find to be very hard. When that time comes, you need to learn to do it or decide to do something else.

    Comanche Voter (0e06a9)

  18. “Do you understand why?”

    You got some splainin’ to do nishi.

    It’s all about a test?

    LULZ. OMG!

    2digit twit.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  19. Other countries do not use standardized tests, or at least America’s version!!!!!!!

    ZOMG!!!!!11ty!!!!!!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  20. A valuable teaching moment. I hope the kids learn from this.

    I wonder if the students caught cheating will now be able to use the pressure of achieving certain test scores as their excuse? After all, the “focus on test scores has created an atmosphere….”

    Jim (24a875)

  21. Every other profession but education has metrics that measure results and provide for rewards according to merit. I have never understood why teaching should be an exception. As for teaching to the test; why not if that results in students who are at least literate and numerate? The only educators I know of who are held responsible for results are athletic coaches.

    BarSinister (5a3146)

  22. Taiwan and the U.S. certainly have differing views on how important and necessary standardized tests are, and we can see that each of their educational systems produces different results. U.S. students tend to study a significantly less amount of time and seem to have less stress than their Taiwanese counterparts do; perhaps this is due to less high-stakes testing. In addition, Taiwanese students seem to be much more motivated and hardworking than their American peers, which might have resulted from having to prepare for many standardized tests. Perhaps the reasons behind these differences in standardized testing root from differing cultural values regarding academics. Although both countries greatly contrast from each other, in the end, each of their systems have both positive and negative consequences, thus balancing out these different approaches to standardized testing.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  23. We need feel more “feel good” solutions to the issue of low test scores.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  24. Nice to see that the resident troll/griefer/hapless serial braggart and prevaricator holds forth on…education.

    I don’t have to say it. You all thought it when nishi posted what she did. Besides the eternal question of who stole her punctuation marks, and what did she do with them?

    Fact is, look at the history of the SAT, specifically the multiple “recentering” events. Ask why they needed to take place.

    Whether drug-addled lunatics want to admit it or not, education has been going down the tubes, standardized test wise, since the 1960s. Why? Ah…now that’s an interesting question!

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  25. LOL. Because other countries don’t use standardized tests, of course!

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  26. Face Palm.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  27. People who don’t know how to teach the subject attempt to teach to the test…and fail.

    It is important to know taaht the test is not the subject. The easiest thing to test are unrelated to each other objective facts, but these details are not the most important things to know, and such bare bones details are not the way to organize a subject.

    Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb)

  28. Anyone else note the disconnect between receiving “exemplary evaluations” for years, and being “unable to teach?”

    May I have a heaping helping of WTF, please?

    wildbill41 (1478ad)

  29. Greetings:

    I went to a Catholic high school in the Bronx from September 1961 to June 1965. Each October, the whole school would report on a Saturday to take the Iowa Test of Educational Development. It was a 3-hour or so test. The scores would be available for parent-teacher meetings in early November.

    In the spring of sophomore year, those who wished to took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test followed by the actual SATs in junior and if desired senior year.

    There were also New York State Board of Regents tests that had to be taken and passed in order to receive a “Regents’ Diploma” then thought to be the highest level high school credential in the state.

    As far as I know, there were no teacher or student suicides during that period.

    11B40 (cc98e8)

  30. This is one of the primary reasons California is failing. The teachers are just not that good and for the most part simply go through the motions in order to collect their union negotiated over priced salary, benefits and pensions. The kids, and what taxpayers that are left, are being terribly cheated out of their futures. If you get a chance go and read some of the comments the LaTimes story. They are truly sad.

    scr_north (9ce014)

  31. Attica Attica Attica Attica Attica Attica Attica

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  32. Does nishi have a point? (other than the one on the top of her head?)

    Icy (bd2739)

  33. Well, dammit, you can’t expect people, especially teachers, to work well UNDER PRESSURE.

    I suggest they allow bongs into the classrooms, so these poor teachers can get all mellow ‘n’ stuff, and then they won’t be forced to cheat.

    Right?

    A_Nonny_Mouse (57cacf)

  34. nishi made the point that NCLB does not seem to have helped America’s laughably sub-par public schools

    happyfeet (a55ba0)

  35. “Now here you are with your faith
    And your Peter Pan advice
    You have no scars on your face
    And you cannot handle pressure ”

    I have met schoolteachers who did not fit the lyric above, but all but one of them worked for private schools.

    C. S. P. Schofield (e6ca01)

  36. “nishi made the point that NCLB does not seem to have helped America’s laughably sub-par public schools”

    Mr. Feets – How would you grade her sh*tty reasoning?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  37. Scholastic achievement, or lack of same, seems to track on an inverse relationship the Federal Government’s involvement in Education, and has so for decades pre-dating NCLB (“Why Johnny can’t read”, etc.).

    If this (LAUSD) were an isolated instance it would be of concern, but since it is but a Pattern & Practice of many large urban districts across the country, it is another devastating indictment of the culture within the Educrat Establishment.

    …and nishi is still a fool!

    AD-RtR/OS! (fc5a11)

  38. Mr. daley I’m not in any position to defend NCLB. I think America’s schools suck ass for numerous reasons, not just cause of NCLB. But I think NCLB’s neurotic emphasis on testing has probably created an environment where the testing regime is not very respected by anybody – including normal regular people and students and union whore teachers and journalists and also the cafeteria ladies.

    happyfeet (a55ba0)

  39. Funny. Not surprising since most folks who I knew who became Teachers were the truly mediocre and uninspired in High School. B to C students who could not do anything rigorous so they went into “education.”

    Sad part is they are paid like private sector superstars. I can not stand most of them.

    ODB (0f13a8)

  40. How would the LAUSD teach to this test?
    (sorry, I’ve lost the link and am forced to post it in its’ entirety)

    This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas , USA . It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

    8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS – 1895
    Grammar (Time, one hour)
    1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
    2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
    3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
    4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of ‘lie,”play,’ and ‘run.’
    5. Define case; illustrate each case.
    6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
    7 – 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
    Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)
    1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
    2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
    3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?
    4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
    5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton.
    6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
    7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per metre?
    8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
    9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
    10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt
    U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
    1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
    2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus
    3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
    4. Show the territorial growth of the United States
    5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas
    6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
    7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?
    8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.
    Orthography (Time, one hour)
    1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
    2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
    3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals
    4. Give four substitutes for caret ‘u.’ (HUH?)
    5. Give two rules for spelling words with final ‘e.’ Name two exceptions under each rule.
    6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
    7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
    8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
    9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
    10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.
    Geography (Time, one hour)
    1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
    2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
    3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
    4. Describe the mountains of North America
    5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspin wall and Orinoco
    6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
    8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
    9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
    10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

    AD-RtR/OS! (fc5a11)

  41. I’d be surprised if they teach any of that today.

    Kevin M (4eb9c8)

  42. It is food for thought, isn’t it?

    AD-RtR/OS! (fc5a11)

  43. nishi made the point that NCLB does not seem to have helped America’s laughably sub-par public schools
    Comment by happyfeet — 11/7/2011 @ 10:27 am

    — She’s in favor of abolishing the Dept of Education?

    Icy (bd2739)

  44. now what’s that smell? f*ck!
    something fishi ’bout nishi
    colonel just sayin’

    ColonelHaiku (ad6eba)

  45. Um, yeah, I’m a social studies teacher. I have students (yes, plural) in my 9th grade class that cannot read at the 3rd grade level. And you want to tie my pay to their test scores.

    Do you see a problem here? Oh yeah, those test scores don’t really correspond with my ability to teach. I have plenty of students that get A’s on these tests, so obviously I can teach, but that doesn’t matter if 30% of my kids come from families without a legitimately literate adult in the household.

    There are leaches in the school system, yes. Nobody wants to see them weeded out more than a good teacher, because I have to deal with the negative impacts of those teachers on students. But some of us bust our asses. Don’t lump us all in one boat, especially when we point out epistemological problems with correlating testing results with teaching ability.

    Oh, and for a conservative site, the responses here have been pathetic. Not a single comment about a parent’s influence on their child’s education. Way to completely abandon your roles as upright citizens that are not completely dependent on the state.

    I’m all for you paying me based on my abilities (I’m still trying to find a permanent job and watching a lot of older teachers not do their jobs because they are safe via the LIFO system). All I’m asking if that you actually assess my ability as a teacher, not student family incomes, drug use, lack of literate parents, lack of parents period, and every other variable that influences student performance. I can’t do anything about those things. Don’t punish me for it.

    Aaron (11f738)

  46. And yes, there’s a typo up there. “All I’m asking is” rather than if.

    Aaron (11f738)

  47. For years, this veteran teacher had received exemplary evaluations but now was feeling pressured to raise her students’ test scores. Her principal criticized her teaching and would show up to take notes on her class. She knew the material would be used against her one day.

    Used against her in what possible way? Tenure and union rules protect her absolutely against any charges of incompetence. Her job is only at risk if she sexually molests a child – and then she would be assigned to a rubber room at full pay for an indeterminate number of years.

    And “For years, this veteran teacher had received exemplary evaluations…” is yet another sign of how broken our school systems are. In the last week or two the results of a national standardized test were released. As I recall, CA students in 4th, 8th and 12th grades all scored about the same: English proficiency (at grade level) in the mid-30 percentile range, and in the upper-30 percentile range for math. Hard to imagine LAUSD students scoring above the state average. So, why shouldn’t a teacher be fearful for her job based on her demonstrated inability to teach children the basics? Only in teaching and government jobs are incompetent workers protected against firing and rewarded with gold plated retirement benefits based on decades of mediocre results.

    in_awe (44fed5)

  48. “Um, yeah, I’m a social studies teacher. I have students (yes, plural) in my 9th grade class that cannot read at the 3rd grade level. And you want to tie my pay to their test scores.”

    Aaron – The post is about teachers cheating, not a comprehensive treatise on the education system and influences on how kids learn. I see nothing wrong with holding teachers responsible for test scores. If you do it consistently over time, you probably won’t have as many ninth graders reading at the third grade level by the time they get to your class. Accountability has to start somewhere.

    Nobody here has any interest in throwing good teachers out with the bad. Stick around.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  49. Aaron,

    Every public school 9th grade teacher has students who can’t read at a 9th grade level. The problem is that their third grade teacher didn’t teach them how to read and promoted them to the fourth grade when they weren’t prepared for the fourth grade. Then every teacher after grade three also promoted them even though they weren’t prepared to move to the next grade. Those students should never have been promoted to the next grade until they showed proficiency in their current grade.

    Forget about blaming parents. In 1991 there was a Catholic school that would only take students that the public school system had failed to teach. These students were called unteachable. While they did no better than public school students in the catholic school, they did just as well. They did not have participatory parents. It’s what and how you teach that matters.

    Since you’re no different from other teachers in that you’re given students unprepared for their grade, why should you be treated differently?

    Tanny O'Haley (687722)

  50. BTW, the Catholic school was in New York City.

    Tanny O'Haley (687722)

  51. I teach. I do not cheat. On the other hand, no. wait. There is no other hand. They have no excuse.

    FWIW, there are great teachers and terrible teachers. The basic system is flawed. Cheating won’t make it better.

    This also happened in Atlanta recently.

    http://news.yahoo.com/americas-biggest-teacher-principal-cheating-scandal-unfolds-atlanta-213734183.html

    ukuleledave (d58f66)

  52. daleyrocks-

    My kids have grown up with even more testing than before (all are NCLB kids). Not only has more testing not helped, it’s actually hurt. Teachers are not actually the most important factor in educating children; parents are.

    If parents and their kids (who often take their cues from their folks) don’t care, there isn’t much teachers can do. Teacher ability is not the only factor being tested when students take tests. In fact, it may not even be the predominate factor.

    Local parents need to know what is going on in a classroom rather than waiting for test results. A much more local and holistic approach would be more accurate in assessing teacher ability.

    My biggest beef is that teaching to the tests takes away from teacher creativity and improving student ability to think independently.

    I had some thoughts on all of this the other day, inspired by a quote from The First Circle. It sums up my thoughts: http://upstateupstart.blogspot.com/2011/10/school-as-first-circle-of-hell.html

    Anyway, there are dedicated people who wish to instil a respect for liberty and independence teaching. Just trying to avoid friendly fire against those who do give a damn like myself but often get lumped in with admittedly useless people gaming the system.

    Aaron (11f738)

  53. Aaron, I don’t buy the nonsense that testing hurts. Its crap. Yes bad parents are more determinative than your work but that is not an excuse not to test. As for creativity when your students have learned the required material then you can be creative.

    SPQR (5ad90b)

  54. Tanny O’Haley-

    Ok, where did I suggest that I should be treated differently? Teachers should be assessed for the teaching ability, not a student’s test taking ability. Those are not identical. Should I measure your IQ by the number of oranges you can jungle blindfolded?

    Yes, a lot of kids get pushed through. Often there is parental pressure to do that.

    There is no variable larger in a child’s life than the parents. None. So no, I’m not going to let parents off the hook here. I get kids for 43 minutes a day alongside 28 other kids. That gives me roughly 1.5 minutes I can focus on any particular child a day. The parents get 18 hours in that same day. The parents can take some accountability here.

    Aaron (11f738)

  55. SPQR-

    Mansa Musa.

    Go.

    Aaron (11f738)

  56. SPQR-

    I never said not to test. I said don’t tie my pay to a test that isn’t of my ability to teach.

    Reading comprehension is a good thing.

    Aaron (11f738)

  57. My BS-meter is spiking.

    JD (318f81)

  58. I think we should tie Aaron’s pay to how he feels about how he is doing.

    JD (318f81)

  59. ________________________________________________

    This is rather typical of the L.A. Times: when it comes to a battle between personal responsibility and picking a scapegoat, personal responsibility loses out every time.

    The sour whipped cream on top of the rancid sundae that is Greece/Mexico/Argentina/France/Venezuela (aka California) is that growing percentages of students in this state’s schools come from families and a culture where education isn’t highly valued—even if teachers in the classroom are honest and ethical.

    As for the rotten cherry on top of that putrid whipped cream? That’s newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, which are seeing a continuous erosion of their readership and support base—which was occurring even some time ago, before the Internet had become so pervasive and the economy started to really tank.

    I wonder if there ever will be a time when people in various enclaves of this society — such as those within workplaces like the LA Times, or throughout the “Golden State” in general — can be truly upbeat and optimistic about the future?

    Mark (411533)

  60. Aaron is the same dousche who thinks Clinton is a messiah.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  61. Wow.

    I try to point out that tests do not measure teacher ability (a whole lot of other factors beyond a teacher’s control are included in the results).

    Nobody has shown that the above statement is false. It’s a massive validity problem. You are not measuring what you think you are measuring.

    Analogy: you are all saying human action is completely responsible for global warming. I’m saying the Sun has something to do with it; in fact, it probably has the biggest impact. You’re saying yes, but we’re still blaming human action and not take the Sun into account.

    (Parents=Sun, in case you didn’t know. My 43 minutes a day with kids is kind of small compared to the 18 hours parents get)

    Within hours, I’m accused of being a Clinton lover. Nevermind that I explicitly said a more local rather than federal approach is required. Nevermind that I’m the only person here saying personal responsibility of parents to know what is going on in a classroom is preferable to state quantification.

    You can continue to believe state tests actually measure teacher ability. I’m going to go do my job.

    Aaron (11f738)

  62. I don’t get why Aaron has been so presumptuous and pedantic.

    JD (318f81)

  63. The problem is that their third grade teacher didn’t teach them how to read and promoted them to the fourth grade when they weren’t prepared for the fourth grade. Then every teacher after grade three also promoted them even though they weren’t prepared to move to the next grade. Those students should never have been promoted to the next grade until they showed proficiency in their current grade.

    While this is true, you need to take it further: those students should never have been promoted to the next grade until they mastered their current grade level and although many teachers recommend not passing a student on to the next grade, there is, in many districts (especially struggling ones), pressure from principals to pass those students because there’s a pressure on those principals from administration at the district level to make every effort to keep the numbers of promotion up rather than down. It’s unfortunate on so many levels but the worst part of course, is the immense disservice done to the students themselves.

    It’s more complicated than people realize. Also, the person upthread is correct: The very system itself is very broken.

    As far as the post itself, the last thing anyone who is responsible for children needs is their local rag publicly giving them a built-in excuse for failure and/or dishonesty.

    Dana (4eca6e)

  64. I’m gonna go do my job and indoctrinate my students in hoxhaism.

    FIFY Aaron.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  65. Why are they always talking about cutting the jobs of teachers when there are so many redundant bureaucrats occupying the budgets of School Districts? These non-productive managerial and secretarial types need to be thinned out, so that classroom size is not further
    increased to the degree desired by the assholes who run the system.

    Benjamin Franklin (5d7551)

  66. Taiwan and the U.S. certainly have differing views on how important and necessary standardized tests are, and we can see that each of their educational systems produces different results. U.S. students tend to study a significantly less amount of time and seem to have less stress than their Taiwanese counterparts do; perhaps this is due to less high-stakes testing. In addition, Taiwanese students seem to be much more motivated and hardworking than their American peers, which might have resulted from having to prepare for many standardized tests. Perhaps the reasons behind these differences in standardized testing root from differing cultural values regarding academics. Although both countries greatly contrast from each other, in the end, each of their systems have both positive and negative consequences, thus balancing out these different approaches to standardized testing.

    I don’t think the value of parent hands-on involvement in their child’s education and subsequent continued reinforcement of its intrinsic value ever be underestimated. In some cultures, this view is standard practice, such as in Taiwan. However, in our country, while that may have been common practice at a previous time in our history, our current culture is ragged and fragmented with different communities not valuing education, or simply see school as nothing more than free babysitting.

    Dana (4eca6e)

  67. JD, the only pedantic people I see here are those who wish to hold teachers to numbers that don’t reflect teacher quality. Like you.

    Here are some statistics, by the way:

    http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/acrossstates/Rankings.aspx?ind=5125

    Note how the kids from poor families tend to do much worse than those from better off families. Please explain how teacher quality, which is a constant in the class between rich and poor kids, would lead to such diverse results.

    Or am I the only one here who knows anything about statistics? Sure looks it.

    Can you make a coherent argument, JD, or did you only study for the test? Good news is, I’d hold you back in my class, because you sure as hell haven’t mastered the fundamentals of philosophy, politics, stats, or common sense! The system certainly did fail you…though you also failed yourself.

    Anyway, I think ya’ll are funny. “The system is flawed, but we’re holding your pay to the flawed system that we don’t care to fix because that would take work…but don’t cheat!” Weird how that isn’t working. Maybe if you OWS types cry about it more, things will magically get fixed.

    You guys can’t come up with a good way of holding teachers accountable that doesn’t end hitting them with a lot of shit that isn’t there fault. We teachers can’t help it you suck at basic statistics and we’re not overly interested in losing pay because of your ignorance. So come up with a better accountability system that actually has validity or keep crying. Boo hoo, ya’ll!

    Aaron (11f738)

  68. Ah shit, their, not there. Time for bed. Anyway, you are all driving a lot of teachers who want to fix things into apathy with your friendly fire. Good thing this next election won’t be close or anything. Driving people into apathy in an election year, great plan!

    Also, if you don’t like how things are done, take your kids out of school. Do it yourself.

    Aaron (11f738)

  69. Dana – the in-laws expectations in education for their kids is/was remarkable.

    JD (318f81)

  70. It’s sad to see the Obama Administration offering waivers on NCLB. Remember the grand bargain that got Teddy Kennedy to a Bush signing ceremony? Testing for a huge increase in federal money I(from memory I think Bush offered something like $10 billion with half for testing and half for addressing problems and Kennedy wanted something like $50 billion and they settled on about $50 billion…..though Bush shaved a few billion in the first year budget and Ted was ‘outraged, outraged’ on the floor of the Senate a few months later).

    So after the grand bargain Obama is going to cut the testing? Doesn’t that mean there should be huge education cuts now that the Dems have decided to renege on the grand bargain? Where is the media on this? As a resident of California I’m concerned that I’ll no longer have a benchmark like the STAR test (alongside my own observation and school grades) and will instead have to trust a union that puts teachers, rightly given the purpose of a union, above students (alongside my own observation). But I’m willing to compromise on this IF the Dems cut the spending.

    East Bay Jay (19f566)

  71. So you have a bunch of dumb asses who refuse to hang up the phone or stop texting and their stupidity is your fault because you can’t teach? How about they refuse to learn.

    kansas (4f41af)

  72. “Nobody has shown that the above statement is false.”

    Aaron – Conversely, you have not proved your statement to be true.

    You claim to want to be compensated based on your teaching ability – how would you suggest people evaluate that?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  73. Anyone that thinks Gloria Allred tells the truth is a feminazi……..no amont of spin can change the fact I’m right.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  74. Trust him ^^^ on this, because he’s used to spinning the the wheel and placing his comments wherever the pointer lands.

    Icy (9fe857)

  75. The creative teachers are the ones that actually succeed in teaching the required material, no?

    Icy (9fe857)

  76. This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas , USA . It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

    Snopes has a purported refutation of this claim, but it’s about as half-hearted and unconvincing as some of the allegations against Cain.

    Milhouse (f8511c)

  77. If Palin gets into office in 2016 and blows up Iran what will the left say? These people would say she is so stupid she will blow up America.

    By the way Gloria Allred has no credibility.

    Bialek was never paid off.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  78. the NRA is not Herman Cain.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  79. The liars are saying Cain paid off Bialek but if that were true she wouldn’t have been all nicey and cheery and all fangurl when around him.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  80. Dude the WAPO is sexually harassing me.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  81. One solution is to have the tests run by the outside testing contractors, like Sylvan Prometric, who administer technical certification tests for Microsoft and others.

    Oh, let’s not forget that at least 25% of California’s K12 test-takers are non-native-English-speaking, ill-educated illegal aliens. The pro-open-borders, pro-sanctuary, anti-Prop-187 teaching establishment wants their numbers expanded without limit. The teachers brought their testing difficulties on themselves.

    J Reece (0bee41)

  82. You claim to want to be compensated based on your teaching ability – how would you suggest people evaluate that?

    Sounds like showing up every day and paying his union dues is grounds for a gold star and polished apple.

    [note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]

    &empty: (721840)

  83. test

    &empty: (721840)


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