The 5 Most Shocking Public School Cheating Scandals

The country's abuzz with the news and subsequent unfolding of the nation's largest-ever public schools cheating scandal in Atlanta, as the scandal has undermined the seemingly straightforward deduction that higher standardized test scores signifies higher student, teacher and school achievement.

The discovery in Atlanta Public Schools has also led districts across the country, from schools in Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C. to take a second look at their own test sheets.

But this isn't the first time teachers have been caught in the middle of dishonest test-taking. Thanks to our friends at social action network Take Part, here's a compilation of the five most shocking public school cheating scandals in America. To read more about the individual scandals, check out TakePart.com.

5. Texas

• • • • • A preliminary analysis in 2006 found 699 instances of cheating in Texas schools. A nine-month investigation found obvious cheating in three of the schools, and the other 696 were exonerated. Principals and test coordinators at the implicated three schools had to go through exam administration training and had monitors oversee any other testing they administered.

Comments

[Joseph Schmoe]

10:12 AM on 07/27/2011

Stop focusing on that single rotting tree and take heed: the entire forest is ablaze.
And our children are in there.

[mlaiuppa]

11:21 PM on 07/26/2011

What about the cheating that NCLB was based on? I don't think that is the Texas incident you report as #5. I think that should be #1 since it is responsible for all subsequent cheating. It also gives Texas a twofer.

Please, no more presidents from Texas for a century or two.

[Angie Sullivan]

09:35 PM on 07/26/2011

If you start basing teacher pay on test scores . . . there is really only one variable in a student's learning that a teacher can control. . . the eraser on the pencil to make corrections to a test.

You set teachers up when you give them a room full of students. We cannot control whether they study. We cannot control whether the parents are literate and/or supporting schools. We cannot control poverty, first language, or home environment. We only really influence a student for a few hours a day. We do the best with what we have.

If you start dangling an "unobtainable" carrot in front of people who are not paid all that well to begin with. . . guess what is going to happen? I'm not saying it is right. . . but damn. . . how much can a teacher take?

[SeriesSeven]

07:03 PM on 07/26/2011

Yet another example of the teacher's unions trying to keep poor black kids chained to failing schools.

[verticallychallenged]

07:20 PM on 07/26/2011

Read much, SeriesSeven? The unions, i.e., the teachers, are AGAINST No Child Left Untested; it's the administration, the "decision makers," who are forcing this cheating because of the insane, unjust law.

[Hlynn]

01:05 PM on 07/26/2011

Those are bad, but the biggest one of all isn't even given a mention.

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/nclb_mirage1.html

NCLB was based on bogus data and lies and cheating and cooked books. It took ESEA to a whole new level never before intended. Then, Congress didn't fund NCLB making it even worse. And then Obama and Duncan took it to another level with Race to the Top, which is a very expensive experiment with no longitudinal research to back it up.

Those are the biggest ever public school cheating scandals because they are nationwide, over many years, and only getting worse.

[verticallychallenged]

03:34 PM on 07/26/2011

The article (which admittedly, I skimmed more than fully read) made no mention of the issues surrounding forcing most students eligible for special education services to pass the state tests - then punish their schools when they cannot.

[Hlynn]

05:39 PM on 07/26/2011

Not only pass the tests, but pass grade level tests. This never should have made it into the law. Students with IEPs should be evaluated either for progress on their IEP goals or be able to take an ability level test. My students who are in 5th grade and read at a 3rd grade level cannot understand and pass a 5th grade test, and it is wrong to subject them to the frustration of trying to understand something too difficult for them.

[mlaiuppa]

11:22 PM on 07/26/2011

That's the one that should be #1.

[Winkandanod]

12:25 PM on 07/26/2011

Let's all pretend that the 100 schools in DC with suspicious erasures is worse than the 46 schools in Atlanta. Lets' also pretend that there are only two culprits in DC, while in Atlanta there are almost 200. The stonewalling and obstruction in DC and the lack of coverage in the news is very interesting.