Test Pressure Inspires Cheating, Stifles Real Learning

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

TEST PRESSURE IS GETTING TO OUR SCHOOLS: IT'S INSPIRING CHEATERS AND 
STIFLING REAL LEARNING

Dallas Morning News Editorial Column -- July 28, 2006

When I was teaching sophomore English in 1998, one of my students, a 
stocky 16-year-old football player, came up to me one day after class to 
say he wanted to transfer out. His last English teacher, he said, spent 
much more time preparing her class for the state's standardized 
assessment test, mostly by having students bubble in sample tests. He 
had decided my class, where we analyzed poetry and wrote essays 
constantly, wasn't going to help him pass the test.

"If I fail, Miss, it's going to be all your fault," he told me.

He wasn't the only one afraid. Many other students, as well as my 
colleagues, were, too.

Today, in this "no child left behind" culture, less than 10 years after 
my year teaching public school, the stakes are even higher and the fear, 
I suspect, even more rampant. There is just so much riding on this test: 
For the kids, advancing to the next grade and, ultimately, graduating 
from high school. For the teachers, their salaries and job evaluations. 
For the school districts, public money and the right to stay open.

These days, the only acceptable way to measure progress seems to be 
through these tests, and they're completely changing the way teachers 
teach and students learn. Practice-test drills are common, teachers tell 
me, and they also complain they have to suppress their creative juices 
as supervisors demand they play it safe with dumbed-down, rigid 
curriculums.

Our students no longer are having to pass a test to prove they've 
learned. Now they're learning tricks just so they can pass a test.

But something even more troubling than these misplaced priorities is 
happening in our schools – a growing culture of cheating. And it's 
contaminating not only students but also teachers, principals and 
higher-ups. Across the country, from New Jersey to Florida to 
California, school districts have investigated charges that testing 
administrators are not only slipping answers to students, but also 
changing the exam sheets after they've been turned in.

Texas, sadly, is hardly immune to the trend. As The Dallas Morning News 
recently reported, a state-commissioned study found suspicious scores in 
more than 609 schools and 702 classrooms across the state. That's about 
8 percent of Texas' public schools. But according to The News' own 
analysis, this list left out at least 167 campuses with testing 
irregularities – mostly high incidences of erased answers and unusual 
response patterns.

At first, the Texas Education Agency, which paid more than a 
half-million dollars for the report, seemed unable or unwilling to 
investigate the allegations. It appeared to be content with limiting the 
investigation to the few schools already accused of other testing 
violations. The agency also would not release the names of the campuses 
on the list, not even to the school districts in question.

Only after reporters pressed for disclosure under the state's 
open-records law did TEA decide to investigate. Actually, its solution 
was to ask school districts to examine the campuses accused of 
suspicious behavior – a sure invitation to half-hearted inquiries or, 
worse, cover-ups. Soon after, TEA flip-flopped and announced it would 
begin its own investigation, starting with 14 schools that, under a new 
state incentive plan, are to receive $60,000 to $220,000 each for 
improving test scores.

To be fair, many schools on the list of suspected cheaters no doubt 
deserve to be cleared. But it's safe to assume many others have done 
wrong. If TEA ends up blowing off this investigation, expect next year's 
list of suspects to grow. With little accountability, those too scared 
to fail may well be tempted to cheat again.

I was scared, too, in those months before my students took their test 
back in 1998. But I still refused to teach the test, and that's what I 
told the football player. Somehow, I convinced him to stick it out in my 
class, and he ended up passing both the reading and writing sections 
that year. No doubt, schools must be held accountable, but it must not 
come at the expense of learning.

Macarena Hernández is a Dallas Morning News editorial columnist.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-hernandez_28edi.ART.State.Edition1.1bfcdfc.html