August 20th, 2012
01:31 PM ET
Suspicious test results in Philadelphia public schools
(CNN) – In Philadelphia, a community news organization reports 53 schools were flagged for cheating across multiple grades. As in Atlanta, many of the cheaters aren't students; they're educators – teachers and principals. CNN contributor and educator Steve Perry tells Soledad O'Brien that he has a solution using technology that could limit this kind of cheating.
We want to hear your solutions – how can cheating by educators be stopped?
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language arts...bud, coors, miller...weed,dope.meth...
math... nickel, dime, quarter
Teachers just want to get the losers out of school knowing these kids have no skills to help our nation or even themselves, so why flunk them year in year out.
The country's educational system is run by POLITICIANS, who feel that the way to motivate a school in trouble is to cut their funding, and then legislate how to teach. Let teachers teach and cut out the politicians.
Exams and major standarized testing should be scored by teachers from other locations without them knowing where the exams where from so its done objectively.
Well you know what gave it away they all passed....We know that's not happening in Philly
An honor system should be implemented in schools both public and private. Embracing and living the ideals of never lying, cheating, stealing, or tolerating those who do will fix the system. A single sanction system can quickly fix problems for students and teachers.
I wish it was that simple. Unfortunately, No Child Left Behind left us with administrations focusing on testing and money more than the kids. Teachers can't adapt lessons to the kids' needs because it won't fit the curriculum. Kids are given two week long tests in some districts every year from second grade. That isn't what education should be. It shouldn't be focused on test scores, it should be focused on learning. With NCLB teachers are so busy teaching to the test so that the schools get high enough scores to make ends meat that they don't have enough time for learning to happen. If we fix NCLB and take the school focus off of grades for money, we can get back to helping our kids learn and schools won't feel the need to resort to cheating in order to keep financially stable.
The simple solution is to remove the incentive to cheat – money, promotions, tenure, even job security create incentive to cheat. But what if Teacher A teaches the students and Teacher B (preferably from another school, grade or discipline) proctors, handles and seals the tests....better still, computerize testing and keep human hands out of it entirely. then with two proctors (one an independent observer) in the room during testing, there's far less likelihood of manipulation
society is quickly becoming a joke...
Society is not the problem, but it can be the solution. There is far too much apathy and finger pointing and too few solutions offered. If you aren't willing to offer a solution – why even comment?