Investigate standardized tests in public schools
Posted: Thursday, April 14, 2011 12:00 am
For several years, ever since the No Child Left Behind Act took effect, students, teachers and school districts have felt the pressure that comes from living in a nation that uses standardized tests as its sole method for measuring student proficiency.
When too many students at one school perform poorly on these tests, teachers can be been fired, principals replaced and schools closed. Hundreds of teachers were fired in DC schools because of poor performance by students on test. The stakes are high. But no one would have guessed that the pressure would lead to alleged cheating on these exams.
An investigation by USA Today into drastic test score turnarounds at Noyes elementary, a Washington, DC public school, revealed that seventh grade students in one classroom at the school each had, on average, nearly 13 wrong answers that were erased and changed to