Cheating in Georgia, exam extortion and our future

June 15, 6:46 PMAtlanta Democrats ExaminerDolly Purvis

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When I read published reports that staff, including principals, at four Georgia schools changed students’ answers on the Criterion Referenced Competency Test to make better No Child Left Behind marks, I gained a clearer understanding about why Georgia’s education system is 53^rd among the states and the District of Columbia.

The CRCT is the test elementary schoolchildren take to determine how well they are doing in schools as well as measuring how a school is faring with the No Child Left behind Act. Because it’s one of the so-called high “stakes tests,” low scores on the test could mean losing students and (in this educational climate) the almighty dollar should parents decide to move their kids to other, higher performing schools.

Can anyone remember when we lived in the heady days of education and not extortion?

Do these tests really determine what kind of students Georgia is educating and, for that matter, what Georgia’s workforce may look like in the coming years.

Would this cheating have made a huge difference in the schools? If you can cheat to get your way, wouldn’t this become an annual event just to keep an individual school afloat? If four schools were busted, how many more are out there doing the same thing? One can only wonder.

I’ve spoken about this issue with both teacher groups and local school board members. All agree that this kind of testing is bogus (amen) and puts a strain on school districts to teach to a test, not to the needs of the students. Representatives from both groups say the solution to the problem will be found with more and better teachers coupled with more intensive help from parents.

I suppose that we first have to pay for the sins of the past (better, higher paid teachers) and the reality of the day, a profound lack of parental involvement in the classroom, especially in the chronically underserved areas with schools that already lean toward failing.

Yet, is there a real solution to this too-real problem? If I figure it out, I'll pass it along. The State of Georgia (and ALL of its county and city school systems) certainly haven't figured out the answers.

I guess that question's not on the test.