Sadly, the city of Atlanta is corrupt at many levels - so it's not a surprise. What will be interesting is what happens to the school superintendent during those years, because she won a national award for being the best. Now it's clear that it was mostly politics, not achievement. What's really sad is the impact this will have on good, hard-working, honest teachers in the Atlanta school system, because they will be tarred with the same brush. It will really hurt morale.
Believe me, I do NOT advocate such dishonest actions. But when our entire system is set up to penalize teachers/schools for students who don't test well, what the heck do you think is going to happen!????
Dead on with everything being based on test scores. It's just ridiculous to think that scoring well on a test will make you a successful member of society. My grandparents' generation had no tests to decide how much they were learning and look at the wonderful things they accomplished. When everyone is pushed to fit in the same mold, society suffers at all levels. Thanks to standardized testing, that is exactly what we're seeing today. Young people don't want to be challenged and just expect everything to be spoonfed to them. So sad
Agree. There's also an outcry to make teachers responsible (and punishable) if the kids don't do well. Which means.. teachers have to contend with the no-child thing, and if they don't manage (because.. surprise! Kids aren't all the same at all), then they could be fired. I wouldn't even want to be a ps teacher right now- they are caught in the middle. btw- at this point I don't know they are firing teachers who don't 'make it' on the test scores, but in the crunch to 'fix' schools, I don't see that far off on the horizon.
Several local schools lost federal funding this last year because of poor test scores. I'd be willing to put money on the fact that the teachers who suffered from "cut backs" in those districts were mysteriously related to the poorly performing students.
From what I have heard it is very difficult to fire a teacher. Poor teachers should be fired IMO and not be pushed off to another school due to tenure. I agree that standardized tests may not be indicative of a teacher's performance, but they should be considered.
I know someone who was a first year teacher this past year. She taught math to three grade levels (middle school) and she said some of the students weren't beyond a 1st or 2nd grade level. Most had come out of a large city public school system that is in "academic emergency" and has a 50%+ drop out rate. Two of her classes did quite well on the standardized tests considering where they started at the beginning of the year. The third group only had a 39% passing rate and she was immediately fired. They told her that all teachers who did not attain at least a 50% passing rate would be fired. She said that she had told her supervisor early in the year that the teaching methods and curriculum were not working well for the one class and she was not allowed to change it.
