We have seen
much in the media in recent years about cheating scandals conducted by both
students and educators. Perhaps a 24-hour
news cycle and its pressure to attract an audience with sensational stories is
behind a perceived increase in such stories. On the other hand, perhaps some changes in the
world of education are contributing.
In the last
couple decades we have seen an expansion of the testing culture. More and more kids are taking AP classes and
exams, needing top scores to get into the college of their choice. The SAT test has been revamped and both the
ACT and SAT tests are perceived to be a larger and larger part of the college
admissions process.
Colleges and
universities have used marketing to increase their applications without doing
anything to expand their incoming classes, thereby lowering the percentage of
students admitted and increasing their supposed prestige, exclusivity and
status.
We have told
our high-performing students that they have to be number one to be successful,
all the while knowing everyone cannot be number one. We have put them under amazing pressure.
And with No Child Left Behind we have seen the
testing culture expand into the lives of all students from early in grade
school to high school, for students of all abilities. As we have tied school funding and teacher
evaluation to the test scores, we have put awesome pressure on all our students.
We have done
the same to teachers. As strictly
limited, objective measures are used in teacher evaluations, teachers have done
what they can to protect their livelihood.
Some might say that teachers simply have to teach their students more
effectively, thereby helping them achieve higher test scores. But teachers certainly don’t choose their careers
so they can teach to a test. As
educators, they realize that there’s so much more to an education and to their
students’ development than test performance.
Tests can only be one, limited, imperfect measure.
I certainly
don’t support or encourage cheating. It
is simply wrong. But imagine if your
career is at stake. Consider feeling as
though anything short of admission to Harvard or Stanford was failure. Consider believing that nothing short of fives
on all 12 of your AP exams was failure.
Consider if your ability to put food on the table for your family were
at stake as your students took a single exam.
We need a
more humane approach to student achievement.
We need a broader, more thoughtful approach to teacher evaluations.
I explain to
my students that a test is a snapshot.
Nobody looks great in every picture.
No student is always at their best.
They will not, must not be judged by a single performance. A teenager comes to school as a product of
their family, community and experience.
Furthermore, teens are emotional roller coasters; we never know what we
are going to get. Their mother is
running late, their clothes don’t feel right, they don’t like the way their
boyfriend looked at them, they woke up late, they didn’t have a good breakfast
or sleep well, it’s raining, …and all these things can impact their readiness
and confidence when taking a test. And
then we want to judge them and the teachers based on this very singular
snapshot?
So when the
stakes are too high, whether it is Enron, Peter Stuyvesant High School, Harvard
University or Atlanta Public Schools, cheating starts to looks like a viable
option. We must bring back some common
sense, some reason, and some balance to the process and to raising our
children.
Here’s some
compelling reading on the subject:
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