Are Teachers Cheating to Boost School Rankings?
The debate over the No Child Left Behind Act and its repercussions on school rankings continues ad infinitum, with proponents and opponents of the bill utilizing deafening amounts of lung power either criticizing the bill or extolling its virtues. In the midst of all this uproar, a quiet and disturbing phenomenon has crept into the school system. School staff members have been caught manipulating test scores in an effort to boost their school rankings. Instances have been reported from New Jersey and Westminster; and although one hopes these are just isolated manifestations of teacher’s attempts to keep their schools from closure due to failing school rankings, you can’t help but get a sneaky suspicion that this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In New Jersey efforts are already underway to flag schools that suddenly record a rise in school rankings based on standardized test scores and New York is considering similar measures.
