Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« Retail sales unexpectedly increase(*) 1.2% in May | Main | Miss Me Yet? Bush's "Inaugural Address" On Facebook »
June 11, 2010

Students Cheat Like Hell On Standardized Tests
Wait, Did I Say Students? I Meant Their Teachers

Doin' it because they love it.

The staff of Normandy Crossing Elementary School outside Houston eagerly awaited the results of state achievement tests this spring. For the principal and assistant principal, high scores could buoy their careers at a time when success is increasingly measured by such tests. For fifth-grade math and science teachers, the rewards were more tangible: a bonus of $2,850.

But when the results came back, some seemed too good to be true. Indeed, after an investigation by the Galena Park Independent School District, the principal, assistant principal and three teachers resigned May 24 in a scandal over test tampering.

The district said the educators had distributed a detailed study guide after stealing a look at the state science test by “tubing” it — squeezing a test booklet, without breaking its paper seal, to form an open tube so that questions inside could be seen and used in the guide. The district invalidated students’ scores.

It's a national phenomenon -- investigations in a bunch of states point to this sort of cheating by teachers.

Fair Point! Dagny writes:

Of course they are cheating. They are being offered money if their students get the right answers? And nobody thought they would cheat? I'm super ethical but even I would have trouble not trying to see the questions and cover them in class. Duh.
That's a very fair point. It's true that if you create huge incentives to cheat -- or, more generally, to game the system as far as welfare benefits, tax loopholes, etc. -- and little downside, ethics is generally going right out the window.

It's like a store owner who makes absolutely no effort to detect or deter theft. He's practically telling people, "It's okay if you steal from me."

A lot of times our stupid government just doesn't take basic human failings into account, and drafts laws and implements policies on the theory that we are a nation of angels.

We're not.

In this case, as Obama would say, the school bureaucracy "acted stupidly" by circulating the tests prior to their administration. They should have been delivered the night before the test, like the SATs.

At some point, such glaring encouragement of cheating -- of doing just what the teachers did here -- looks less like teacher malfeasance and more like a winking conspiracy by the bureaucracy.



digg this
posted by Ace at 11:27 AM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
ShainS -- Blood-Bath-and-Beyond angel investor [/b][/i][/s][/u] : "I bought a MAGA hat from the Trumpster, I was gett ..."

Tamaa the Drongo Bird: "THE WEATHER STARTED GETTING ROUGH,THE TIN ..."

The Grammar Nazi Who's Bad At Grammar: "Yeah, but ranked choice voting and excuse-free/100 ..."

Catch Thirty-Thr33: "291 Have I mentioned voting straight ticket R like ..."

chatgpt: "221 [i]So "people aren't buying the lies" is now c ..."

Tamaa the Drongo Bird: "Florida is Not New York or California the ..."

Piper: "Speaking of things Biden has done, I am off to get ..."

old chick: "Who is saying that? Posted by: Archimedes 194 ..."

Lady Who Always Has a Burning Question: "Oops. Sorry. You said "this fall". ..."

Braenyard: "281 I liked the part where the Black man asked her ..."

mrp: "240 Go tell MA. Posted by: Axeman at March 28, 20 ..."

Wyatt Earp : "Philly will still try to avoid this. As always. ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64