Saturday, July 16, 2011

Taking The Fall


Ricochet's post about the Georgia test scandal and the teachers being blamed reminded me of an incident I heard about last year. Tests were graded but too many students failed.  The supervisor, a young ambitious person new to the job was worried the abysmal scores would cost him/her the cushy assignment.

No one knows what really happened, but on Friday, too many  failed.  By Monday, the passing rates had gone up remarkably.  The teachers who signed off on marking had nothing to do with this change.  If anyone checked, they would be responsible.  Their names were the only ones on the papers.

4 comments:

Ricochet said...

That's what I am afraid of.

We don't grade our tests - the district or the state does. But that doesn't mean that someone couldn't come through and change the marks.

I am not going to - don't care if they all fail. (OK I do care, but I won't change the tests). But once I collect them and turn them in - who the hell knows.

High school (eoct) is different from the CRCT as the latter is done in middle and elementary and you usually have just your own kids. But still, what is to stop some ambitious principal from ruining someone's life?

Anonymous said...

Yes, I know of the incident. Thanks for reminding me just the same. Imagine how scores will increase with the elimination of some exams and teacher evaluations on the line! Do administrators tenures' rest on testing results as well?

Schoolgal said...

Did u read how a teacher was forced to go under the desk at a staff conference because the principal wanted to embarrass her. Can u imagine Suit or AP trying that with you???

The blame here has to be shared with the teachers for allowing this intimidation to go on. This is why unions have to be strong both with leadership and within schools. They have to know the meaning of solidarity and strength in numbers. Speaking for myself, I would never allow any admin to do that to me. And if another teacher did it, I would be the first one to tell them to get the hell up. This is beyond harassment.

Anonymous said...

But the "newbies" don't support unions. This will become a BIG problem.