When discussing the pitfalls of high-stakes standardized testing, critics often point out the enormous pressure put on individual students.
Perhaps we should hone in more on the pressure felt by each school’s administration. Apparently, some have to cheat to handle such anxiety.
In order to make the “proficient” mark under No Child Left Behind standards, numerous schools in Washington D.C. did not take students best guesses on standardized tests to chance.
They decided it was best to simply change the answers from wrong to right.
A USA Today investigation into the matter found that more than half of D.C.’s public schools surpassed erasure averages “at least once since 2008”. (Testing lingo — Erasure: to change an answer on a testing sheet that leaves behind a smudge mark.)
One school focused on in the investigation displays the level of cheating which took place. In 2006, Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus had only 10 percent of students performing at the “proficient” or “advanced” benchmarks in math; two years later that number was 58 percent.
Unsurprisingly, Michelle Rhee, a then up-and-coming School Chancellor in D.C. hailed the school as a “shining star.”
But USA Today tells the truth. Reports in 2007-2008 showed “six classrooms out of the eight taking tests at Noyes were flagged … because of high wrong-to-right erasure rates.”
Additionally, a seventh-grade testing classroom at the school had over 12 erasures per student, while the average for all D.C. students during that testing period was less than one.
Certainly, some students are indecisive during tests, but at least a few students trust their first instincts more than that.
The fact that the education community has not been rocked by such reports is telling. With so much at stake, cheating is not surprising to them.
If schools want to remain open and receive federal funding and those administrators want to keep their jobs, a school must make Adequate Yearly Progress on test scores.
During Rhee’s tenure, D.C. schools were rewarded with $75 million in the Race to the Top competition largely due to improved test scores.
The benefits of better test scores are felt at the micro level as well. According to USA Today, a few teachers at Noyes were rewarded with bonuses of $8,000 while the principal received one of $10,000.
The dangers of merit-based pay, anyone?
Standardized testing is needed, and one district or school’s unscrupulous actions do not deem it a failure. Yet, one cannot help asking if students are being used as pawns in a game of high-stakes funding for districts and schools.
President Barack Obama recently gave hope to antagonists of standardized testing at a town-hall style meeting last week.
According to The New York Times, Obama “denounce[d] how standardized tests had narrowed the curriculum and led to teaching to the test.”
The challenge is then to find a system in which we hold students, teachers and administrations accountable for student progress without putting unfair standards on any group in particular.
We can start with letting student’s intellect speak for itself.
Tell Zach why you were right all along at zlevinep@asu.edu
