The
Pennsylvania Department of Education recently released test scores
from the 2009 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exam. A
statistical analysis of the scores, according to the Pa. DOE,
indicates a possible cheating scandal.
The
PSSA is Pennsylvania’s version of the federally mandated,
state-implemented standardized tests that determine the amount of
federal money school districts will receive. This alleged incident
comes on the heels of a similar incident in Georgia. In Atlanta,
nearly 200 teachers have been accused of changing student answers,
from wrong to right, on the federally mandated standardized test in
order to boost test scores.
The
situations in Pennsylvania and Georgia are indicative of a growing
national trend. The so-called education reform movement has rapidly
fostered a climate of fear and anxiety over the last decade.
George
W. Bush’s No
Child Left Behind
and Barack Obama’s Race
to the Top
have facilitated a fierce competition for federal funds, tightly
linked to standardized test results, among school districts.
Federal
funds are taking on a particularly important role in education as
numerous state governors have made astronomical cuts to their
education budgets. The stakes have never been higher. When a school
“underperforms,” students must face the insanely backward reality
of having to “succeed” with fewer resources. Reduced funding
means, among other things, that workers at the schools most in need
of educators face the prospect of losing their wages and benefits.
This
kind of funding system encourages cheating. Despite the failing
system, it is the teachers who have been vilified. Atlanta’s
interim superintendent, Erroll Davis, sent 178 teachers accused of
altering tests a callous memo telling them to resign by July 20 or be
fired. The school district, government officials and the mass media
have placed the blame solely on the backs of the teachers. Nothing
has been said of the difficult situation imposed on educators and
students by the insane
damaging educational policies of both Democrats and Republicans.
The
federal government produces a seemingly unending flow of money for
corporate handouts and wars of conquest, while schools are forced
into a competition for meager scraps. It is time for us to rise up
and demand a political and economic system that invests in real
freedom—the freedom to have quality housing, the freedom to have
quality health care and the freedom to have a quality education.
