What the data are telling us, like it or not, is that cheating is best understood as a symptom of problems with the priorities of schools and the practices of educators.
-Alfie Kohn
For every Atlanta teacher thrown in jail for cheating so to should one Secretary of Education.
If you don't understand why, you need to read Collateral Damage by David Berliner & Sharon Nichols.
And this post by me and this post by Alfie Kohn.
It's a bit like throwing all the investors in Madoff's pyramid scheme in jail and letting him complain that people didn't follow the rules correctly. The issue is corrupt leadership. Period. As long as standardized schools are the norm, cheating will be the norm as well.
ReplyDeleteReally, throw the Sec of Ed in jail? I just don't see that. Yes, the responsibility of cheating (since it is clear that it was systemic) needs to fall on leadership. If a teacher "serves time" on this then so must the leaders who condoned, knew of, or even required the cheating. What really upsets me is that cheating on behalf of the kids only hurt the kids...ie they don't qualify for the support/resources they need.
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