feh...
Posted on 11/07/2011 5:40:59 PM PST by 68skylark
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.
The teachers came from 23 schools and 21 districts — an unprecedented number that has raised alarms about the pressure California educators are under to improve test scores. In the worst alleged cases, teachers are accused of changing incorrect responses or filling in missing ones after students returned answer booklets.
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.
"One teacher has personally confided in me that if her job was on the line, she indeed would cheat to get the higher test scores," one Los Angeles-area instructor said. "The testing procedures haven't been secure over the past 10-plus years. Some of the 'most effective' teachers could be simply the 'most cunning.' "
None of the accused teachers contacted by The Times were willing to be identified. For the most part, even their colleagues declined to be interviewed, saying that any comments about their schools would only continue the ignominy.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
But the LA Times says that moral view is oversimplified. I need to recognize that teachers feel stress -- indeed, the stress they feel is overwhelming.
"'The current system sets it up so students and teachers must succeed on a multiple-choice test, but it does not provide the resources to do so effectively,' said one administrator who did not want to be identified."
If we gave more "resources" to public education, the cheating wouldn't happen.
You don't think maybe, just maybe it could be... TRUE?
For years in my neck of the woods they have only taught the TEST nothing else just the test!!!
The incompetent feel threatened by actually being responsible for teaching. The sooner they leave teaching the better. Screw tenure and teachers unions.
feh...
Likewise, you could be excused for killing the students because they didn’t learn ... you know, the stress and all.
If cheating doesn't work, I hope she'll really go out on a limb and try something wild . . . like teaching effectively. No fluff, no diversity, no sensitivity, and no multicultural perspectives, just facts, skills, and genuine useful knowledge. It's not common in schools, but it might work almost as well as cheating, perhaps better than laziness and dishonesty, after a few years of practice.
So-called “educators” like this loser should quit and go on welfare. What an incompetent fool!
Is that a bad thing? I mean, as long as they are teaching the test, then the test scores should be really good. And if the tests are reasonably well designed, good test scores mean that students knows what they need to know.
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