Atlanta teachers should have been cut some slack
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Eight teachers in Atlanta, Georgia’s school system were sentenced last week to one to seven years in prison. One got off easier with what amounts to a year of in-home detention and five years’ probation, according to National Public Radio. Still another got six months of weekend-only jail time and five years’ probation.
Were these gun toting educators who, tired of low pay, formed a gang and started robbing convenience stores during their off time? Educators reading this are probably thinking, what off time?
No, these teachers decided the only way to preserve their careers was to cheat on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) standardized tests. NCLB required states to annually test students in reading, math and science. Results of these tests needed to demonstrate proficiency and make yearly progress – or else. The “or else” was the threat of teachers getting fired and schools being shut down due to lack of performance.
The original legal umbrella under which NCLB resides was enacted in 1965 as part of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. As such, it was designed to improve educational equity for poor students.
The federal government can be a great source of irony and this story is awash with it. More on why in a minute.
As far as the Atlanta school system is concerned, all it did was build up an untenable amount of pressure like water against a dam too weak to hold it. After years of working feverishly to get their young charges to live up to the testing standards, cracks began to appear in the dam and it, metaphorically speaking, broke.
Do I condone cheating? Absolutely not. But there are factors here that were not taken into account by the judge or his assessment of the case being “the sickest thing that’s ever happened in this town,” would have been softened considerably.
Diane Ravitch, one of America’s foremost education authorities and former U.S. assistant secretary of education, predicted this would happen years ago in her book “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.” How could it not? NCLB put teachers in an impossible situation. The reason? In a word: poverty.
In her book “Reign of Error,” Ravitch makes no bones about it. Every test, including SAT, ACT, state tests and others, all demonstrate that rich kids tend to have the highest scores, poor kids the lowest. Poor children’s IQs aren’t lower. They just don’t get the same educational opportunities outside of school of those from more privileged households.Atlanta teachers should have been cut some slack - The Ada News: Columns: