You can pay them more, but they still have the same reactions to incentives and punishments - if you can't win by trying, cheat.
The gist of the matter is that an assistant principal altered thousands of MC answers of the Regents Integrated Algebra test given this past June so more students would get a passing grade.
"What a maroon," as Bugs would say.
Essentially, the State made a correlation between the erasures and the answers - too many erasures to correct answers, not enough to incorrect ones. The red flags went up as well when students' answers on individual questions didn't match his ability levels on other similar questions or match his overall score. Very hard to spot individually, but the discrepancies show up in the large numbers.
When will people learn?
On a similar topic, but unrelated to this story:
If you're the numbers type, the raw-score to scaled score conversions are interesting.
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The whole thing (includes a video):
City Finds Bronx H.S. Cheated On Regents Exam
By: NY1 News
An investigation into a Bronx high school has determined there was tampering with a Regents exam given this past June.
A report released by the city's Special Commissioner of Investigation on Wednesday says the assistant principal at the High School of Contemporary Arts altered multiple choice answers to the Integrated Algebra Regents exam so more students would get a passing grade.
The report says there are irregularities on answer sheets such as thousands of erasures and changes in 94 percent of the passing exams.
Department of Education officials said in a statement, "We have reassigned Assistant Principal Ruth Ralston and we are seeking her termination."
Ralston has been at the school since 2006.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
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This is the result of merit pay and administrators fearing for their jobs because of poor scores.
ReplyDeleteWe are told to teach what they can learn to get them to pass.