Birmingham cheating: Artilce #4 - Blame the Victims

[Anne Nonniemouse <ShopMathEdu@AOL.COM>]

Dear FairTest list folks:
This article shows how low one can sink when they are caught cheating.  Close
to the end of the article one of those interviewed challenges us to spend one
day in class with those were pushed out.
We spend many days in class with these wonderful souls and we shall now
respond accordingly.
Any ideas which y'all have out there, would certainly be appreciated
===============================
Teacher defends actions of Woodlawn principal
By EVAN WOODBERY
BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD
Woodlawn High School's principal wasn't cheating when he dropped 115 students
in the weeks before a crucial standardized test, one of the school's teachers
said Thursday.
He was just making it safe to walk the hallways again, said Jessie Sims, 58,
a science teacher at the school for six years.

Sims rejected allegations made Tuesday by Birmingham school board member
Virginia Volker that some schools cheated on the Stanford Achievement Test by
suspending poor-performing students before the exam was given in April.

On Wednesday, Woodlawn Principal Allen Lewis conceded he had dropped 115 of
the school's 1,140 students from the rolls, but said it was because of the
students' behavior and attendance problems.

Sims was joined Thursday by other teachers and one student at Woodlawn in
defending Lewis. Sims said Lewis restored sanity to an out-of control school.

"We can walk out into the hall without being afraid," Sims said.

Sims said she kept a journal to record the violence she saw every day.

"I documented days that we were in jeopardy of losing our lives in the school
building," she said.

Sims counted 22 fires set in the school in a three-month period and blamed a
band of students who would roam the halls, disrupting classes and causing
trouble.

Linda Tharp, a 19-year veteran of the Woodlawn social studies department,
said she was frustrated by the accusations of cheating.

"No one is trying to be cruel or unfair, but they were making it hard for all
the others to learn," she said of the students who were removed from the
rolls beginning in February.

Tharp said she noticed an improved atmosphere in the school after the
students were dropped.

"The main thing is there's not as much noise in the halls, not as many fires
and fights," she said.

Both teachers said they never heard anyone speak of a plot to get rid of
students less likely to score well in order to improve test scores.

Woodlawn is on academic alert status, which means if test scores don't
improve, the state will take over the school.

The state will release how various schools performed on the test next week.

Julian Arrington, a student at Woodlawn, said Lewis sometimes talked about
getting rid of troublemakers, but not in order to improve test scores.

Arrington, whose mother is president of the Woodlawn Parent-Teachers
Association, said he likes Lewis and "has come to love" Woodlawn.

Gloria Gant, who lives about five blocks from the school, has known Lewis for
years. Her youngest daughter is a student at Woodlawn and another daughter is
a first-year teacher at the school.

"Mr. Lewis is about as fair a person as you can meet," she said.

Lewis could not be reached for comment Thursday. Sims said the problems at
the school before the suspensions caused her and fellow teachers to seek
transfers to other schools.

"It was totally chaotic," she said. "The management team was doing the best
they could, but the kids were out of control. I wrote a letter to personnel
and asked for a transfer and said I would like to go to a school where I can
teach. I have not gotten a response."

Sims said she bears no ill will toward Volker, but suggests the school board
member "walk in my shoes" and spend a week at school with the 115 dropped
students. "They have made a choice," Sims said. "They have decided that
school is not what they like."
================end of article================

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