Standardized Tests | A Breeding Ground For Cheating

Originally Posted: 11 May 2011 12:26 PM PDT There have been numerous accounts of cheating on standardized testing nationwide. A quick Google search revealed a system set up to encourage cheating--not by students but by teachers! In a piece titled Teachers Manipulate Standardized Test Scores, Jenya Godina has this to say: "The problem is particularly pressing in Colorado, where the sweeping legislation ofSenate Bill 10-191 significantly altered the tenure system by placing additional emphasis upon standardized test scores. Colorado's Teacher-Evaluation Bill, according to Stephanie Banchero of the Wall Street Journal, "would make it tougher for Colorado public school teachers to earn tenure and easier for them to lose it." In another piece titled Teachers, School Systems Cheat on Tests, Phil Ebersol points out: "President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind program created financial penalties for public schools with inferior test scores.  President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top program creates financial rewards for public schools that achieve superior test scores. The predictable result:  Widespread cheating on tests by teachers and school administrators.  In Washington, D.C., the system winked at teachers who erased wrong answers and substituted correct answers.  In New York City, the tests themselves were dumbed down so as to make it easier to generate higher scores." The cheating was so systemic in Washington, D.C., a YouTube video was produced to describe it:

I've long thought our education system, in its current form, is broken. Millions of our tax dollars are being wasted on things that pay lip service to elected officials, but don't actually enhance education in any meaningful way. Is it time to wipe this slate clean?