Los Angeles Schools Cheating Scandals: Virgil Middle School The Second To Be Penalized

A second cheating scandal has hit the Los Angeles Unified School District, this time at one of the district's most promising campuses.

Virgil Middle School, located in Koreatown, is the latest LAUSD school to be penalized for misconduct or cheating by a teacher.

Here's what an unnamed algebra teacher is accused of, according to the Los Angeles Times:

Officials have accused her of scanning the test into her computer, then preparing a review sheet for students based on actual test questions, according to documents submitted to the California Department of Education.

The teacher decided to retire rather than be dismissed from her position.

The Academic Performance Index (API) of Virgil Middle School has been steadily rising in the past few years. In 2008, it scored 641, and its score this year would have been 714. The statewide performance goal for API scores is 800 out of a possible 1000.

Schools across the nation are grappling with the pressure to raise test scores and improve standards, and several school administrators are responding by cheating.

Earlier this month, test scores from both the LAUSD's Short Avenue Elementary School and Animo Leadership Charter High School were thrown out when several irregularities were found on completed tests. At Animo, there were too many suspicious erasures, reports the Daily Breeze. At Short, the test booklet of a student who left several answers blank was found to be completed for her, according to the Los Angeles Times. Both of the schools' Academic Performance Index scores were withheld as a result. California Watch has more on the fallout for these schools:

The two schools cannot receive any special achievement honors from the state for two years because of the infraction and won't meet state and federal annual progress requirements, said Eric Zilbert of the state Department of Education.

In New York, a decision to conduct "erasure analysis" on completed scantrons (despite the lack of funding for this investigation) has revealed at least 64 possible problems at 62 different schools, reports the New York Times earlier this week.

Comments

[ZombieAnts]

04:12 PM on 10/03/2011

Is cheating by school admin becoming more rampant? Just read about the principal of Park City High School in Utah was accused of helping students cheat on tests.

http://pestcontrolseo.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/principal-accused-of-helping-students-cheat-union-cover-up/

"Tech Cheating".... of course there is the argument that tech is part of the real world today so why not?

[Madbunny]

12:29 PM on 09/30/2011

The problem in a nutshell is that tying standardized performance to funding is a recipe for cheating. In any model where they pressure is up high enough there will *always* be some that cheat to get an advantage.

How is this any different than say, Texas classifying all of their students with low test scores as special ed? (special ed students are not counted, and thus do not impact the scores)

The problem with this is that as another person put it: "wherever you work, your evaluation is revamped so that you're evaluated and possibly fired based on the job performanc­e of someone else, someone you can't fire or meaningful­ly discipline­, and someone who is expected to meet a goal that's statistica­lly unlikely in order for you to keep your job."

This creates an impossible dynamic and rather than fixing the problems inherent in our system we just add more meaningless garbage on top.

[Ariel Bonzai]

01:32 AM on 10/17/2011

However, College Board exams like SAT and AP exams are very difficult to cheat on. Maybe a student can do it wipith some techno scam, but I rather doubt it. Why these tests are not administered with more integrity is a very good question considering what is at stake. Believe me, the students will not cheat on these tests because only CAHSEE has any buy in for them. Yet every year a coach drops off a bin full of test materials months before the testing days. It never even occurred to me to look at these :& my students get in the closet and have never even touched the # 2 pencils . I know that coaches, admin and a select group of cronies work late every night while we are testing. I know they report many students more than there are taking these exams. I also know that as long as data from that test meets a certain goal, the school gets millions in grant money.

[Marx Twain]

03:40 PM on 09/29/2011

Who do these teachers think they are, AIG executives? Cheating is totally un-American, unless you work in high finance! We should punish her like we did to corporate america, with mild admonishments and a big fat taxpayer provided bonus!

[edenooch]

10:35 AM on 09/29/2011

why does this only happen to school in the hood?

[eceresa]

10:39 AM on 10/02/2011

Because the test scores are much more affected by parental factors than they are by anything that goes on in the school.

Students in wealthy suburbs have educated parents and stable homes. Statistically speaking, they're going to do well on the tests regardless of the quality of teacher in those districts. Nobody has to cheat.

Students in poor areas have unstable home lives and less educated parents. Statistically, they're going to bomb the tests in large numbers even if they've got stellar teachers. The schools are left with a choice of cheating or being subjected to government-mandated "fixes" that make things worse.

[Ariel Bonzai]

01:47 AM on 10/17/2011

Because the parents in hoods are products of an Lausd education. They are conditioned to accept this. for Hispanics INS and cultural values hinder student success as defined by these NCLB paradigms. Since these schools are Title one, the funding is massive attracting the parasites who exploit the situation for personal gains while enjoying immunity from their White chalk crimes thanks to state legislation designed to protect schools from lawsuits. And because those with an education who have the power to make a difference do not care about public schools or students in them, even though they pay for them and are effected by the social issues they perpetual on our community. . They send their chldren to private schools but forget we all pay for this intentional failure. Welfare moms, GR, unemployment, drug treatment, prisons, food stamps, medical, housing projects, reform programs, crime, and high taxes to support these marginalised sectors of humanity ( not latino, black or pygmies, but poor people , many working poor) and the excessive bloat of bureaucrats

[lawdetective]

10:46 PM on 09/28/2011

You're surprised by this? With the economy being the way that it is and if students fail the teachers lose their jobs?! I can pretty much assure you that this is something you will see more of if the conditions in school do not change.

[SoCalifTeacher]

08:40 PM on 09/28/2011

Poor test security at the school site. The teacher should not have had access to the test until the morning of the test and then turned it back in to the testing coordinator as soon as her students finished. California clearly outlines how tests are distributed and handled.

[Madbunny]

12:34 PM on 09/30/2011

Also pointlessly stupid of her, considering she could just use sample questions.

http://starsamplequestions.org/starRTQ/search.jsp
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/css05rtq.asp
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/resources.asp

Then again, are we supposed to be teaching these kids how to take tests, or how to think for themselves?

[Ariel Bonzai]

01:54 AM on 10/17/2011

Either she was lazy or she didn't know any better. I am not sure which is worse. Funny how one teacher generates headlines for a rather benign crime and none of the media is really focused on the recent revelations about LAUSD's failure to serve it's " minority" populations. Moreover, why isn't anyone demanding the Feds do more than this pretense of punishment by stating they'd be sort kinda checking up on those fools at Beaudry at some later date.

[MissMichelleP]

08:25 PM on 09/28/2011

In New York, these tests don't really have any "teeth" as far as the students are concerned. They could fail miserably for years. I have yet to see a school that takes test scores into consideration when retention is being considered. Heck, at my school, "not child left behind" translates into "every child moves forward." If students don't have the basic skills be the end of 3rd grade, they will be behind forever.

All that these tests do is hold money over schools' heads. I know that I, personally, have never cheated while scoring any tests, but I know teachers who are very liberal graders. Those are usually the teachers whose jobs might be at risk if their grades aren't high.

I've seen suggestions of having different schools grading each others' tests. I see that as a chance for a little mutual back scratching. As long as there are high stakes tests, there will be people cheating.

[Ariel Bonzai]

01:59 AM on 10/17/2011

Oh more likely , back stabbing at LAUSD. Notably there are a lot of disparities between scores and grades, cheating requires some effort, usually more than this teacher made to do it,so I tend to feel hopeful when kids care enough to cheat,they dont bother on these tests. We profit them and our most demanding duty is keeping them awake.

[hgus]

06:39 PM on 09/28/2011

Thank goodness we aren't leaving any "Child behind". Since we have moved to funding based on standardized test we no longer have to worry about that. Now we just leave ALL children behind.

[Warren Albee]

05:11 PM on 09/28/2011

These numbers are meaningless.... and everyone working in the school knows it. The only folks who dont seem to get it..... are the folks in the state capital, working off of a generous DOE grant in a nice office, writing these exams, the politicians, the media, the parents, and the community. The kids get it......many of them gave up on giving a damn about these POINTLESS assessments their Freshman year, and who were nevertheless forced to sit for several dozen more of these exams..... before being handed a Calif. HS diploma at age 19. NCLB Exams written in English .... knowingly administered to students who know perhaps 100 words in English? Algebra 2 exams .....administered to students who missed 50 days out of 180 for Algebra one the previous year, failed the class...where 40% was a passing grade..., and who were nevertheless enrolled into Algebra 2 the following fall ? No wonder teachers are tempted to cheat the system.... the system is immoral, fake, dogmatic, and IMHO...borderline child abuse. It is IMPOSSIBLE to maintain ones personal integrity and morality in a system that is corrupt, fake, and self serving and self perpetuating...to the detriment of children.

[corwin]

05:37 PM on 09/28/2011

I blame the people pushing 'standards". If no one had to reach goals,teachers wouldn't be forced to cheat.Even worse,many LAUSD teachers are forced into this 'border line child abuse"
No wonder they miss the days when they were hotel/motel custodial engineers

[eceresa]

06:04 PM on 09/29/2011

I certainly hope that, wherever you work, your evaluation is revamped so that you're evaluated and possibly fired based on the job performance of someone else, someone you can't fire or meaningfully discipline, and someone who is expected to meet a goal that's statistically unlikely in order for you to keep your job.

[Ariel Bonzai]

02:09 AM on 10/17/2011

H aren't these teachers going to the houses of students to wrestle promises out of their parents about attendance? Why don't they work harder to make sure all 200 kids have personal attention and bring food for the hungry, supplies for the forgetful and love to spare for all the orphans? These teachers just don't do enough. How hard can it be controlling 40 teen agers wired to ipods & cell phone and always high on weed? so what if they are 7 grades below grade level when they show up to class? Just because their parents are working three jobs and don" t speak any English doesn't mean that aren't college bound. It doesn't matter if they want want to go to college or not. These teachers are responsible for making sure they go to a univerisity. Anything less, and they have failed. Of course, the worst thing I jphave ever done as a teacher is inspire some dumb kid to follow in my foot steps.

[Warren Albee]

05:11 PM on 09/28/2011

Daily disruptions within each classroom slow instruction to a crawl. Students who routinely miss 2 classes per week , and thus become completely lost as far as the subject matter... most often become behavior problems that destroy the possibility of a quality learning environment for those students who do take learning seriously. Many of these "at risk"students routinely fail every teacher prepared quiz or test all year long. To then have these same students sit for a statewide exam, covering material they have never been exposed to, let alone learned .....is beyond absurd. The testing process is a farce, a lie. The scores that then result from these NCLB exams do not count on the students transcript or factor into their semester grade, and they know it . I have often seen many students mark C,C,C all the way down a 50 multiple choice answer sheet, flip it over and do the same for questions 51-100, never even opening the exam booklet, and then put their heads down and go to sleep. I was shocked speechless. And the teachers and the school itself are ranked ...evaluated...based on these averaged scores? Are you kidding me?

[Warren Albee]

05:10 PM on 09/28/2011

Having taught public school in California, and having administered these NCLB tests, I have a few comments about these tests... They are written by academic types using state content standards that are way, way over the heads of many of todays public school students. These exams are appropriate for private school students who have perfect attendance records, a willing attitude, and a prepared mind.They are also appropriate for those few public school districts that have exclusive home prices,well funded and award winning schools, etc. There is no way that urban charter school kids who have all sorts of educational deficiencies.... due to high absence rates, frequent school transfers, ESL issues, serious poverty, teenage pregnancy, drug, violence and other homelife issues... can perform well on these exams. Furthermore, the conditions that prevail within these urban schools prevent teachers from delivering even one half of the expected academic content ...to those students who sincerely wish to learn the material.... during an academic year. In order to score well on these NCLB content exams, students would have to have a stable and supportive homelife, parents that monitor and encourage homework,clean and safe school facilities, schools staffed by experienced and professional teachers, schools with an intact and rigorous discipline system that removes students with behavior problems from the classroom, etc..The fact of the matter is that few if any of these supports exist for many urban kids in public schools.

[guendy]

07:56 PM on 09/28/2011

Well said. Many students in inner cities are on survival mode: they don't know when their next meal will be, they are latchkey kids, and school is the only safe place where someone actually acknowledges them. Perhaps if NCLB addressed poverty before it addressed test scores.

[Ariel Bonzai]

02:59 AM on 10/17/2011

Reformer assume the public will not become hip consumers, but we are so conditioned to be
In this role we will catch on to the growing availability of options. As customers rather than beneficiaries of a free public education, Americans will demand service & quality . Online schools for example, cater to students: free computers, teacher access conferences and individual pacing plans with rigiorous coursework in safety of our homes as well as open schedules. no bullies, uniforms , lock downs , pedophiles or contagious maladies other than computer viruses. Free enterprise is what it is. We may forsake Democracy but we want what we pay for & file lawsuits when we feel dont get it Private is not protected.

[Ariel Bonzai]

02:57 AM on 10/17/2011

NCLB puts kids behind. It may be overt attempt to undermine progress affirmative action provided. But I think it evolved into this. Because Bbush just isnt this clever.While I believe effective programs like AA eventually become obsolete even detrimental if not administrated very astutely, as politically correct fascists illustrate in the public sector, it is clear standardised tests diabolically usurp social progresseven if slapped together & thrust upon us by greedy good old boys who ain't proficient in academic English either. They created an lucrative "industry"-- greed will take full advantage of holes in this pretence of quality control.

Removing real competition kids of color present in college & workplace is gravy as rich assure their kids have every advantage at expense of poor. Fortunately, privatising schools will be an astonishing failure for those who push it through failure of schools that are overcrowded and dysfunctional. firing teachers, cutting arts and fascist methodology drives students off.

. Kharma .

[CTDFalconer]

04:32 PM on 09/28/2011

Forget the dang testing. It's clearly getting us nowhere. The answer lies in better teachers not test-oriented teaching. Teaching needs to be an ennobling, sought-after profession. We need to hire more teachers and pay them about twice as much. With greater pay, a higher caliber of professional knowledge will be called for. It will make schooling more expensive in the near term, but it will pay off by matriculating a more worthy citizen, which will pay off abundantly in the long term.

[corwin]

05:42 PM on 09/28/2011

As you know (well,maybe not. HP seems pretty good at denial.) a recent study at U Missouri showed ed majors to have the highest GPA in their major of any group.And the lowest when they took courses in other fields.So,you seem to think paying mediocre (and I'm being kind) people higher wages will increase their competence ? And how will this keep them from cheating ?

[CTDFalconer]

05:55 PM on 09/28/2011

Ditching the test ditches cheating along with it. If you look at the highest performing public school systems around the world, they get good results not by making kids take more tests, but by creating an elite teaching corps. They come out of their rigorous training programs fully prepared for the classroom. If we pay our teachers more, we can justifiably demand better teachers...and better results.

[sobachka]

07:28 PM on 09/28/2011

I can't seem to find the part in that paper that says those in ed. depts. have the lowest gpa in other fields.
Furthermore, the author of that paper seems to not consider that (1) perhaps ed. courses are just easier than other courses ( I noticed that my ed. courses were considerably easier than my engineering courses), and (2) the instructors are just plain better in the ed. dept. (which makes a certain sense, as they are well, ed. majors after all).
Oh, and there are a number of grown-ups (such as me) who take undergraduate (and graduate)ed. classes for a second career. They may be more serious at studies than a typical college age kid.
My point is, I don't think the author considered all factors before jumping to the conclusion that ed. depts. inflate their grades/have lower standards.
But, if your statements are allowed (they may be true after all, I'm just pointing out some more issues), I don't think calling ed. majors "mediocre" is generous. They are in college after all, if not the brightest ones there. There were many in my ed. classes whom I would consider as mediocre. None as less than that.
Paying existing bad teachers more will not help, but with higher salaries, more talented people might be enticed into the profession.

[eceresa]

06:09 PM on 09/29/2011

You don't need to pay teachers more (though you certainly should; they're worth it), and you don't need better ones. The ones there are capable of giving an excellent education to any kid that shows up and does the work, and even if you were able to replace every teacher in the country with the best teacher imaginable, that would make little difference to the kids who don't show up or don't do the work.

Hiring more of them, however, would allow them to spend more time hounding the kids who DO show up but DON'T work, which would improve things marginally. But really, marginal improvements are all you're going to get by changing teachers or anything else in the school-part of the equation. If you really want to address the problems, you'd have to address the root cause: the kids' environment and role models before they enter school, and when they go home from it.

[Ariel Bonzai]

03:21 AM on 10/17/2011

Sure hope that is sarcasm or you been sipping wine this evening because we need more teachers to address class size and remediation in the hood. If we expect the parents to pitch then they will need instruction too. Good teachers, btw, do not have to hound students to work. They find relevant course work that engages the kids' interest ( I admit this can be a dangerous endeavour in this climate since kids grow up watching Family Guy and live in areas where sex, violence and other lurid topics are in their faces 24/7 and none of them censor themselves.( mixed blessings) ) Some will never actually buckle down and do the work because they have stubbornly abstained for reasons they probably don't really fathom. But take note because you will get the slackers attention when you remember audience and that , above all else, teaching is a performance art. The kids who flunk out still seek me out to offer fond regards and regrets, and admitting you were wrong is probably the most difficult lesson any of us ever learn.

[William J Unverferth Sr]

03:44 PM on 09/28/2011

umm why can't they improve by teaching the subject?

[eceresa]

06:10 PM on 09/29/2011

Because that's not what the tests actually measure. Mostly, they measure student ability and parental factors.

[Ariel Bonzai]

03:37 AM on 10/17/2011

These tests are rote, low level assessments that review skill sets on the lower end of Blooms Taxonomy. As one comment astutely noted, the academic language they are written in is culturally biased. They tests tend to be written like standards which are obtuse and um least to teachers who deconstruct them when preparing student objectives so the class can comprehend the dailty agenda and the reason for the lesson. For native speakers, it iss easy to memorise formulas and find the anwer in the question but between syntax and vocabulary limitations, EL and AA students quickly become frustrated with the test. Since they have no buy in, they give up quickly. The material itself is excruciatingly dull. But a kid who reads at grade level, assimilated English early in life and remains emmersed in it will have no trouble with the tests. Factor in the cultural differences that create the achievement gap in a system that negates higher level learning, like critical reason and creativity,abilities the average ghetto dweller has established her in life to survive and the discrimination, becomes all too clear. What sends this home is how well most Asians do in school. They learn English early on, go to school after school and on Saturdays and practice for SAT as soon as the hit sixth grade. It's a bit extreme, but it demonstrates how cultural values impact a child's education.