Friday’s indictment of 35 Atlanta educators for a massive
testing scandal should give pause to all people who care about the future of
education and our children.
The indictment by a Fulton County grand jury charged the
former superintendent Beverly Hall with racketeering, theft, influencing
witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements. She could face up to 45
years in prison.
The underlying story behind this scandal is that when school
“success” is reduced to data-driven standardized test scores, the consequences
are devastating. Cheating is only the tip of the iceberg. An even more troublesome consequence is
that the very definition of education is hijacked. Learning is narrowed,
dulled, and reduced to measurable data bits. Teaching as a craft and profession
is redefined as script-following and data collecting.
During Superintendent Hall’s decade of being superintendent
in Atlanta test scores rose and she became the darling of Arne Duncan who
hosted her at the White House. Duncan’s policies have coerced state
legislatures to increase standardized testing and to tie educator evaluation to
test scores.
According to Friday’s indictment, “Principals and teachers
were frequently told by Beverly Hall and her subordinates that excuses for not
meeting targets would not be tolerated.”
One teacher, who turned a state’s witness, told officials
that teachers were under constant pressure from principals who feared they
would be fired if they did not meet the testing targets.
The New York Times
reported that Hall “held yearly rallies at the Georgia Dome, rewarding
principals and teachers from schools with high test scores by seating them up
front, close to her, while low scorers were shunted aside to the bleachers.”
The New York Times
also noted “Cheating has grown at school districts around the country as
standardized testing has become a primary means of evaluating teachers,
principals, and schools.”
Time to Ask Questions
While some policy makers and test-obsessed school “reformers”
may dismiss such cheating scandals as exceptions, these scandals should serve
as a wake up call to anyone concerned about the future of our schools.
We need to ask some basic questions.
We need to ask some basic questions.
- Should our children be subjected to endless test prep and hours of narrow skill-driven curriculum? Or instead should they get a well rounded education like what President Obama’s daughters receive at the Sidwell Friends School or what Arne Duncan received as a child at the Chicago Lab School?
- Should students of color and those from economically disenfranchised families be subjected to narrow, test-driven schooling while children in the most affluent communities receive well-resourced, well-rounded education with much less testing?
- Why should transnational textbook/testing companies and corporate-backed philanthropic organizations determine the curriculum for our schools?
Time to Act
Increasingly parents, teachers, principals, and even school superintendents are speaking out on the over use and negative impact of mass standardized testing.
The courageous teachers at Seattle’s Garfield High School not
only started a boycott of the MAP tests, but also allied parents and community
groups to their cause.
Principals in New York spoke out against the use of
test scores to evaluate staff and schools.
Parent organizations across the nation have stepped up,
recognizing that using tests to declare public schools as “failing” is part of
a larger plan to close public schools and replace them with privately-run charter schools.
Let’s use scandals like that in Atlanta to continue to push
to change the national narrative on school accountability. Let’s unite with
progressive school board members to hold community reviews on impact of testing
in our schools and to examine reasonable alternatives.
Let’s do what’s right for our students.
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Some good resources on standardized testing:
- Debunking the Myths of Standardized Tests, by the Chicago Teachers Union's.
- Pencils Down: Rethinking High Stakes Testing and Accountability in Public Schools by Wayne Au and Melissa Tempel (Rethinking Schools).
- K-12 Testing Resources, FairTest
