Light On Dark Water

Surprising, Yet Predictable?

You know how sometimes you run across a news story that is simultaneously surprising and not surprising? You can't quite believe people could do wrong so boldly and persistently, and yet on some level you aren't really surprised. Well, the story of Atlanta teachers cheating on their students' standardized tests is one of those for me. I'm sure some will say it's a logical outcome of the over-emphasis on tests, but that's just an excuse. Teachers? Teachers?  I've known a few cynical and unworthy teachers, but this seems to involve most of the people, from the top down, in a very large metropolitan system.

“In sum, a culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation permeated the APS system from the highest ranks down,” the investigators wrote. “Cheating was allowed to proliferate until, in the words of one former APS principal, ‘it became intertwined in Atlanta Public Schools … a part of what the culture is all about.’ ”

I'm tempted to draw some broad conclusion from this, something about the direction of our society, but I'm not sure that's justified. Anyway, it's appalling enough on its own.

Maclin Horton

13 responses to “Surprising, Yet Predictable?”

  1. Louise

    It might just say something about the Public School System.

    Reply
  2. Paul

    By coincidence I’ve just been reading a book called Practical Wisdom which suggests that the sorts of standardized testing that a lot of American school systems have adopted in recent decades assume that teachers are well-meaning idiots (rather like my computer). The effect is to de-skill and demotivate teachers (assuming they were skilled and motivated to start with) and “incentivize” various forms of cheating. The problem the book was addressing was that the best teachers actually have to cheat (by the lights of the system) to do any worthwhile teaching at all, so I can well imagine the worse ones cheat in other ways.

    Reply
  3. Mac

    From what I know, it’s actually even worse than that. I don’t have time to say much right now, but, briefly, there are nationwide standardized tests, and everything the schools do is judged by students’ scores on those tests. So “incentivize” is probably an understatement.

    Reply
  4. Francesca

    I don’t find it surprising. Since the introduction of the testing Paul mentions, and the ranking and funding of schools by reference to how well the students do on the tests, teachers have very commonly ‘taught to the test’. They are instructed to teach to the test by their superiors. I am describing what happens in British schools. I don’t know yet about the USA.
    Of course, ‘teaching to the test’ is not morally equivalent to cheating on the test results. But it’s a germ of corruption. It’s a minor lie about what teaching, testing, and grading are for, and, as they say, ‘o what a net we weave when we practice to deceive’.

    Reply
  5. Francesca

    We see in the Wire, actually, in the Season on the Schools, the teacher (the ex cop), effectively being told to teach to the test. As I said, I don’t think teaching to the test is morally identical to faking the kids’ test results, but it’s on the same spectrum

    Reply
  6. Mac

    It’s exactly the same here, or so I understand from news stories, hearsay from teachers, etc., including the phrase “teaching to the test.” What makes this shocking is the extensive and organized scope of it. It’s one thing to find that a couple of local policemen are selling confiscated drugs on the side, another to find that the whole force is a complete racket organized by the chief, with mandatory participation. But then if the performance of the police were measured exclusively in revenues produced, it might be less surprising.

    Reply
  7. Mac

    And I think this is one of many examples of the way a society that no longer has the will to practice certain virtues tries to command them by legislation. Unsuccessfully.

    Reply
  8. Francesca

    Maclin: What makes this shocking is the extensive and organized scope of it.
    Like what they are saying about News Corp today – none of the politicians dared curb him or even dared fail to court him, because the the Murdoch press backed their politician-courtiers

    Reply
  9. Mac

    That’s reminiscent of the old days of yellow journalism. I haven’t been following this very closely–has it been established that the reporters who did the phone break-ins etc. were acting with the knowledge of (or at the command of) the top people?

    Reply
  10. Paul

    another to find that the whole force is a complete racket organized by the chief, with mandatory participation
    Something very like that actually happened with the Amsterdam drugs squad, in the 1980s, as part of a “sting” to identify those high up in criminal organisations. One wonders how the leading police officers reacted when it turned out it was them. (I remember watching the parliamentary enquiry on the telly, but I’ve no idea what the ultimate findings and recommendations were.)

    Reply
  11. Mac

    I think there have been similar things in the U.S., though maybe less…comprehensive.

    Reply
  12. Paul

    This brought the conversation to mind again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGA11A340Ck

    Reply
  13. Mac

    “which is up?” heh. That’s great, albeit too close to the truth for comfort.

    Reply

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