Cheating in Texas

The Dallas recently published two articles alleging cheating in several Houston schools on the Texas state tests. It appears that teachers gave students cues so they would score higher on the tests. When these students moved to middle school, suddenly their scores were much lower. Former teachers report that they were told to give their students more help.

At a few Milwaukee elementary schools, there is a similar decline in sixth grade, but it appears no one has examined the reasons.

Part of the problem is that for some schools, principals, and teachers, high test scores become an end in themselves. Rather than looking at the tests as a measure of what students are learning and using them to improve learning, teachers come to look at the scores themselves as the goal. It is then a relatively small step to look at anything that improves the scores as a good, even if it does not improve student learning, and in fact gives a false impression of learning.

Perhaps that cultural shift helps explain why such cheating can go on for years.