Standardized test cheating by teachers?? This cannot be.

[MadImmortalMan]

Not gonna post the whole thing, it's too long. But anyway, who would have thought giving teachers large piles of cash for improved test scores could possibly go wrong?




http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-28-1Aschooltesting28_CV_N.htm

When standardized test scores soared in D.C., were the gains real?

WASHINGTON — In just two years, Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus went from a school deemed in need of improvement to a place that the District of Columbia Public Schools called one of its "shining stars."

Standardized test scores improved dramatically. In 2006, only 10% of Noyes' students scored "proficient" or "advanced" in math on the standardized tests required by the federal No Child Left Behind law. Two years later, 58% achieved that level. The school showed similar gains in reading.

Because of the remarkable turnaround, the U.S. Department of Education named the school in northeast Washington a National Blue Ribbon School. Noyes was one of 264 public schools nationwide given that award in 2009.

Michelle Rhee, then chancellor of D.C. schools, took a special interest in Noyes. She touted the school, which now serves preschoolers through eighth-graders, as an example of how the sweeping changes she championed could transform even the lowest-performing Washington schools. Twice in three years, she rewarded Noyes' staff for boosting scores: In 2008 and again in 2010, each teacher won an $8,000 bonus, and the principal won $10,000.

A closer look at Noyes, however, raises questions about its test scores from 2006 to 2010. Its proficiency rates rose at a much faster rate than the average for D.C. schools. Then, in 2010, when scores dipped for most of the district's elementary schools, Noyes' proficiency rates fell further than average.

A USA TODAY investigation, based on documents and data secured under D.C.'s Freedom of Information Act, found that for the past three school years most of Noyes' classrooms had extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests. The consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones.
Click to view documents

This is a series of documents obtained by USA TODAY through public-records requests. It details a back-and-forth between two District of Columbia agencies on test-score investigations.

Noyes is one of 103 public schools here that have had erasure rates that surpassed D.C. averages at least once since 2008. That's more than half of D.C. schools.

Erasures are detected by the same electronic scanners that CTB/McGraw-Hill, D.C.'s testing company, uses to score the tests. When test-takers change answers, they erase penciled-in bubble marks that leave behind a smudge; the machines tally the erasures as well as the new answers for each student.

In 2007-08, six classrooms out of the eight taking tests at Noyes were flagged by McGraw-Hill because of high wrong-to-right erasure rates. The pattern was repeated in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, when 80% of Noyes classrooms were flagged by McGraw-Hill.


On the 2009 reading test, for example, seventh-graders in one Noyes classroom averaged 12.7 wrong-to-right erasures per student on answer sheets; the average for seventh-graders in all D.C. schools on that test was less than 1. The odds are better for winning the Powerball grand prize than having that many erasures by chance, according to statisticians consulted by USA TODAY.

There's a ton more but you get the idea.

[DGuller]

The whole idea of having students take standardized tests is silly.  Aren't teachers much more suited for that task anyway?

[Caliga]

Cheating.... IN WASHINGTON D.C.?  Unpossible.

[Darth Wagtaros]

fucking bastards. I didn't see this coing

[Strix]

Hey, the idea is No Child Left Behind (and no teacher fired because of lack of funding when they don't meet required performance for their schools).

[Darth Wagtaros]

Yes.

[grumbler]

Not gonna post the whole thing, it's too long. But anyway, who would have thought giving teachers large piles of cash for improved test scores could possibly go wrong?

[dps]

The whole idea of having students take standardized tests is silly.  Aren't teachers much more suited for that task anyway?

The idea is to get the test scores up.  Having the teachers, rather than the students, take the tests would likely drive the scores down.

[Monoriu]

That's why in HK, standardized tests are administered not by the schools, but by an independent body that is set up specifically for that purpose. 

[Darth Wagtaros]

That's why in HK, standardized tests are administered not by the schools, but by an independent body that is set up specifically for that purpose. 

So do they lower scores to justifiy their existence or raise them when they get sufficient payoffs from the schools? Because that's what I'd expect to happen if it were in mAss.

[Monoriu]

That's why in HK, standardized tests are administered not by the schools, but by an independent body that is set up specifically for that purpose. 

So do they lower scores to justifiy their existence or raise them when they get sufficient payoffs from the schools? Because that's what I'd expect to happen if it were in mAss.

The exam authority has no incentive to raise or lower scores, because it is not responsible for educating the students.  They just administer the tests, that's it. 

[Monoriu]

There are many measures in place to prevent corruption.  Students are not allowed to write their names or the names of their schools on the test materials.  We can only write our student numbers.  Half of the test consists of multiple choice questions that are graded by a machine.  Also, students are not allowed to take the tests in their school.  The exam venue is assigned randomly by a computer so that each school ground hosts students from dozens of different schools.  The papers are then centrally collected, randomized (again), then assigned to different markers.  Each paper is graded by at least two people, one marker and one checker.  If they don't agree on the score, the paper is then reviewed by a third senior marker.  There are ultra rigid marking schemes that the markers have to adhere to.  For an essay type question, the marking scheme lists the points that the students must mention in order to score points.  The markers have almost no discretion in grading the papers. 

[jimmy olsen]

The exam venue is assigned randomly by a computer so that each school ground hosts students from dozens of different schools. 

That would only work in a crowded city with great public transportation.

[Monoriu]

The exam venue is assigned randomly by a computer so that each school ground hosts students from dozens of different schools. 

That would only work in a crowded city with great public transportation.

There are many other ways to do something similar in the US.  You can rent/borrow a "neutral" location.  That could be a university campus, a museum hall, whatever.  Or, you can assign students to nearby schools.  The point is don't let students take the tests in their own school.  I am not saying students in New York should go to venues in Colorado 

[Monoriu]

Alternatively, if students *have* to take the tests in their own school for logistics reasons, then simply change the school personnel.  Rotate the teachers for the tests.  Just don't let their own teachers have anything to do with it.