Why Teachers Cheat And How To Deal With The Problem (AUDIO)

The teacher cheating scandal in Atlanta that was uncovered this year has rocked the country and cast a national spotlight on educators and standardized testing. It has also opened the investigations of several other questionably similar incidences in schools from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia while expediting a national conversation on the country's testing and teacher evaluation system.

Georgia issued last week its first sanctions against teachers involved in one of the nation's largest cheating scandals, in which 180 educators across 44 Atlanta schools were implicated for test tampering that inflated students' standardized test scores. Eight teachers and three school administrators in the Atlanta Public Schools have lost their licenses as the Georgia Professional Standards Commission moves on to handle the other cases.

In Connecticut, 12 teachers who were involved in a cheating scandal lost 20 days pay and must serve 25 hours of community service through tutoring as punishment. The district superintendent is calling for the teachers to be allowed to keep their licenses.

In response to the profusion of cheating scandals surfacing across the country, The Washington Post in July created a digital roundtable of experts to discuss their views on what the best approaches are to measure and compensate teachers.

Yesterday, American Public Media Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal talked to Freakonomics Radio's Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt about why teachers cheat and how to deal with the issue.

LISTEN:

Comments

[montanasian]

11:53 PM on 10/21/2011

44 out 56 schools had some participant in the cheating or coverup. So please tell me is this an aberration? There seems to be too many facilitators, excuse makers, rationalizers, and defenders of the simple fact there was collusion to distort the childrens test scores. Let me repeat: THE CHILDRENS TEST SCORES! So, does this help the children or hurt them? No red herrings please.

[GlennWatson]

09:38 PM on 10/24/2011

It hurts the kids but I want to see administrators go down for this as well as, even before, the teachers.

[carleronn]

11:53 AM on 10/20/2011

The only good thing about NCLB was the utilization of tests to measure students progress. Since the progress was abysmal proving that the NEA/AFT members are primarily concerned with soft areas like enviromentalism, politics, recycling, sex ed, etc real learning was not occurring . The solution? Cheat. Make the programs look better than they were. Take the easy way out. CYA !!!

[sfsunst]

12:04 AM on 10/20/2011

The demand for high performing schools, teacher performance grading and pay based on such has caused a big problem. It is not understandable how the powers that be feel that a test will be the proper yardstick for measuring a student's achievement. There are too many variables. Basing teacher pay on their students' results on a test is irresponsible and unproductive.

While I don't condone what they did I can understand why they did it. If there is such a push to hold the teachers accountable for learning let's make sure we include the parents, administrators and state education departments in that equation. The blame cannot lay solely on the teachers' shoulders.

[Gupdiver]

09:53 AM on 10/20/2011

You are correct that the blame cannot solely rest on the teachers, education starts at home. If the parents aren't involved and don't push their children to study you can't expect a teacher to create miracles. However you also need teachers to perform, unions achieved tenure for most teachers that has actually hurt the public's opinion of teachers. They see teachers as now having no motivation other than achieving tenure for job security and then the heck with the profession and our children.

[sfsunst]

02:05 AM on 10/21/2011

After working in the schools for many years in various school support capacities I want to share my observations and the motives of the teachers I see doing their job. I can count on one hand teachers that fit the profile you mentioned. The majority of teachers don't seek to hide behind the union. That's so far down the ladder on the list of their priorities.

Rather, they are trying to figure out how to teach students with problems no one could ever imagine and deal with some parents who treat them not as part of their child's educational support system, rather there to demand they implement certain educational philosophies that they garnerd through the internet no less! Worse yet, you have the parents that don't even bother to show up for conferences. Then they have to deal with some administrators whose only concern is how they will look if students do not perform as the public expects all the while without having enough books or other important learning manipulatives. I liken it to being a computer programmer without a computer!

Before anyone passes judgement on teachers and how they have no motivation, please go spend a day in a classroom volunteering or just observing. You'll be surprised at what you see. I am in awe of these dedicated and selfless people. There are very few people that have the soul to be a teacher. After working for many years with them, I know I am not one of them.

[raechel]

05:41 PM on 10/19/2011

Teachers and their supervisors cheat for the same reasons students do. It's easier than putting in the time and effort, they think they can get away with it, and they are in an environment that doesn't value ethical behavior. There is nothing special about a cheat -- they exist in every profession, every trade, every walk of life. They need to be out, period.

[eceresa]

08:43 PM on 10/19/2011

The assumption inherent in your post is that, if the teachers in poor areas just did their jobs really well, the kids would do well enough on the tests that cheating would be unnecessary.

That's actually not true.

[raechel]

06:17 PM on 10/20/2011

Au contraire.

The assumption in your post is that it's ok to cheat as long as you can't get what you want without cheating. I don't want you in my child's classroom.

[carriedaway]

09:48 PM on 10/19/2011

You have certainly asserted a lot in that post. I would like to question the idea that the teaching environment doesn't value ethical behavoir. I disagree.

[raechel]

06:19 PM on 10/20/2011

You have wildly over-generalized my point.

I don't believe all teachers cheat, and certainly don't believe all schools fail to value ethical behavior.

On the other hand, there are plenty that apparently fall in this category. You have only to read down and up the comment stream to see that.

[Dede Eagleburger]

02:08 PM on 10/19/2011

This is why I am so glad that they've set it up here, in my state, where we have no contact with the tests before or after they are taken. I wouldn't cheat, but I don't want there to be any doubt!!

[Allthosewhowander]

03:01 PM on 10/19/2011

Sadly, with public opinion of our profession at an all time low, there will be some that believe this kind of thing happens everywhere because of the media attention these incidents receive.

[carriedaway]

09:46 PM on 10/19/2011

So true. :(

[Geelee]

12:31 AM on 10/20/2011

Same in Kansas. If there is cheating it would have to be at the very highest levels. They walk the standardized tests to the classroom door the day of the test and in our district they are shrink wrapped and opened in the classroom and immediate distributed. and pick them up at the time they are supposed to be complete. They often use support staff to go into rooms and help the teacher administer them so there are always two adults in the room who would most likely not have consorted to cheat. And the principal circulates around the buildign peeking into rooms through the entire testing period. The tests are pick up by downtown before the end of the school day. For a teacher it feels like a total sense that THEY do not trust you and it is a slap in the face of majority of teachers who are ethical. But it is a protection as you say that they could hardly say you cheated if your kids did well. What it does to kids is inhumane, though. They are terrified that they won't do well and their school might be shut down or all thier teachers set away. I have seen second graders throw up from the pressure. Thank you George Bush and Senator Kennedy :^(