The Achievement Racket
An inspirational sign greeting students and teachers at a struggling Massachusetts elementary school.
Here’s a dirty little secret for you. You know that word ‘achievement’? While it used to have something to do with heroic deeds and accomplishments, today achievement refers to one thing and one thing only: test scores. And schools across the country are taking increasingly desperate measures to raise them. Today we visit some schools where students are under virtual test-prep lockdown, practicing the art of test taking week after week in hopes that their scores on the looming high-stakes test will increase enough to prevent state intervention or worse, hand-off of the school to a private operator. In this twisted tale of testing run amuck, there is one clear winner: the consulting group that earns as much as $25,000 per school to help boost “achievement.”
The first stop on today’s achievement racket tour is a public elementary school in an unnamed Massachusetts city. Because students here, many of whom are still learning English, have failed to increase their “achievement” over the past three years, the school will likely be