Seattle Times Wants Rule Breakers Punished
In an editorial published on Friday, "Starting with Beacon Hill, school officials must stop cheating before it spreads", the Seattle Times editorial board demands that district officials aggressively investigate and crack down hard on whoever altered test booklets at Beacon Hill International Elementary School.
Funny how the Seattle Times wants district officials to come down hard on anyone found to have cheated on the MSP but they aren't concerned about all of the other rule-breaking in Seattle Public Schools.
They aren't concerned about violations of IDEA. They aren't concerned about how the District can't comply with the federal laws regarding Native American education. They aren't concerned about violations of the chaperone rules. They aren't concerned about violations of the field trip rules. They aren't concerned about violations of Title IX. They aren't concerned about violations of the sexual harassment policy or procedures. They aren't concerned when district officials break their promises to students and communities. They aren't concerned about the routine violation of district procedures, board policies, state regulations, or federal laws that happen every day throughout Seattle Public Schools - violations that cause real harm to students - but they care so deeply about someone messing with a few standardized tests. This act, they believe, requires an immediate and severe response. They want whoever did this found and they want an example made of them.
That's why no one takes the Seattle Times editorial board seriously in education issues. They're just too intellectually dishonest and their focus in on numbers instead of kids.
Funny how the Seattle Times wants district officials to come down hard on anyone found to have cheated on the MSP but they aren't concerned about all of the other rule-breaking in Seattle Public Schools.
They aren't concerned about violations of IDEA. They aren't concerned about how the District can't comply with the federal laws regarding Native American education. They aren't concerned about violations of the chaperone rules. They aren't concerned about violations of the field trip rules. They aren't concerned about violations of Title IX. They aren't concerned about violations of the sexual harassment policy or procedures. They aren't concerned when district officials break their promises to students and communities. They aren't concerned about the routine violation of district procedures, board policies, state regulations, or federal laws that happen every day throughout Seattle Public Schools - violations that cause real harm to students - but they care so deeply about someone messing with a few standardized tests. This act, they believe, requires an immediate and severe response. They want whoever did this found and they want an example made of them.
That's why no one takes the Seattle Times editorial board seriously in education issues. They're just too intellectually dishonest and their focus in on numbers instead of kids.
Comments
CT
The high stakes testing culture is horrible, but adults who cheat in the midst of it are weak and/or unethical.
--enough already
They are the ones who want teachers to get bonus pay (like principals).
They are the ones who railed against the Legislature for not tying teachers scores to teacher evaluations (and therefore losing the NCLB waiver).
And Charlie's right? Why do they only show concern for this one episode? Because the district doesn't have a pattern of this (although the Times does point out that the internal auditor did point out that the district needed to have better oversight of test booklets). But those booklets are going away now with on-line assessments.
No, it's just one more brick in the wall that - from within and without - is being built to have mayoral takeover of SPS.
I even heard that some cynical legislators are going to try to tie McCleary enactment to passing legislation that would allow such a takeover.
It has been disheartening to see the labored efforts of the Republicans who want(ed) to undermine President Obama at every turn. The backlog of appointments - even for Surgeon General as we struggle with the Ebola situation - shows that.
Undermine our country for political ends.
Undermine our district for..something. But there are people out there working on this right now.
Education Lab Q&A
Gary
I don't see any reason to believe that. Whoever changed the test answers changed them all to perfect. He/she/they must have known that would be completely suspicious and get the test results thrown out, which is what happened.
I think it's more likely that whoever it was just wanted to make the testing culture look foolish and get possibly low test scores thrown out.
NEmom
Analogous to that, I don't think we can presume that the cheater was trying to get the test scores thrown out as obviously altered when it is more likely that the cheater is just a very bad liar.
A good liar - an experienced liar - puts forward a plausible story. A bad liar puts forward a fantastic one. These test scores were a fantastic lie and therefore most likely the work of an inexperienced liar.
A more thoughtful protest against the test, designed to get the scores thrown out, would be to change all of the answers to wrong answers. Then there would be no confusion about the purpose of the act.
This was not a protest.
I think either someone wanted to hurt someone (the principal was the target?) or yes, someone is just not that bright.
I'm divided on whether this was a protest or an actual attempt at cheating. Was this the first time that this specific test was given to students? I have difficulty believing that someone at the school, likely a teacher, wouldn't know what typical scores for students would be.
On one hand, if the person were trying to actually cheat, s/he was unbelievably stupid. On the other hand, if this was a protest, the person did a bit of a sloppy job on it. If it were a protest, I think that someone would have made it clear that it was a protest.
So far consequences for adults who break the rules appears to be nil.
Ben