do I really have to say it???
Posted on 02/12/2012 2:59:17 PM PST by Libloather
Principal encouraged cheating, staffers say
By Kristen A. Graham and Dylan Purcell
Inquirer Staff Writers
Posted: Sun, Feb. 12, 2012, 6:35 AM
Teachers got the message in meetings and during visits to their classrooms in the days before they were scheduled to administer state exams.
Multiple staffers at Cayuga Elementary said they were instructed by principal Evelyn Cortez to do what they had to do in their rooms to get good scores.
Cortez, reached Friday night, was emphatic: "I disagree with these allegations."
The school, in a tough Hunting Park neighborhood, produced strong test results for several years running, and Philadelphia School District officials noticed. They've rewarded Cayuga with increased flexibility in curriculum and budgeting and public pats on the back.
But teachers, a former staffer, parents, even a student - say those scores were achieved in part by cheating.
And a state-commissioned review of 2009 PSSAs found a suspicious pattern of erasures on Cayuga's fourth-grade reading tests, with the odds of them occurring naturally greater than 1 in 100 million.
"My son came home one day and said his teacher kept telling him to erase his answers and write different answers," one parent said.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
"...because this will completely mess up my pension."
With any test that affects a public employee’s job, pay, or potential for promotion, the test should never be administered by anyone under the control or influence of the person who would be affected by the test.
Evelyn Cortez - since there is no picture of this person - I will assume she is Amish.
The principal then announces over the PA system that there will be a drug search the following day.
And, believe it or not, no drugs are ever found at the high school.
The teachers pretend to teach, the students pretend to learn, and the parents pretend that the teachers are teaching and that the students are learning.
It's a perfect system, and almost impossible to break, because everybody's happy.
I doubt it will mess up his pension. I hear that in some states that even molesting the kids won’t lose you the pension.
This type of thing is nothing new. When my daughter was in high school in the eighties, in Orange County, CA, the principal used to order all the kids that teachers thought would not take the testing seriously, or who were just not good students, to the library for the testing days and keep them there.
The testing rules allowed a 20% absence rate, so the school required 100% attendance and picked the 20% to be marked absent.
The school funding was based on the results of the tests, so the administrators justified this as necessary.
This type of thing is nothing new. When my daughter was in high school in the eighties, in Orange County, CA, the principal used to order all the kids that teachers thought would not take the testing seriously, or who were just not good students, to the library for the testing days and keep them there.
The testing rules allowed a 20% absence rate, so the school required 100% attendance and picked the 20% to be marked absent.
The school funding was based on the results of the tests, so the administrators justified this as necessary.
School website show a photo of a Black middle aged woman named Evelyn Cortez, Principal.
They want to stay on the plantation. So they can stay.
As long as massa keeps supplying the grub and puts a roof over their heads, everyone's happy.
Cheaters never prosper?
Yeah, I had a principal “ask” me to pass students in order to improve her AYP.
It’s bulls***.
do I really have to say it???
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When there is a government school with high test scores I conclude:
1) Cheating by the principals and teachers.
2) The parents of the children are doing the heavy lifting by afterschooling and expensive tutoring.
3) All of the above.
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