Corruption is inherent in every system. When corruption becomes ubiquitous and the norm, the whole system becomes liable to collapse. Our education system’s emphasis on high-stakes testing (in Massachusetts, we call it MCAS) has led to corruption and has helped fuel the cheating epidemic in our schools.
Let me give some historical perspective on cheating on exams. While in Vietnam, I visited the Temple of Literature in Hanoi.
The Temple of Literature in Hanoi
The Temple of Literature was a university where Confucian scholars were educated for government service. It was also a test center. Men came from all over Vietnam to take a civil service exam. Using the Confucianism of China as a model, the society was hierarchically based, and thus passing the exam was the key to status. So yes, in the 11th century, the test was critical to a person’s success and as a result, cheating was rampant.
The temple of Literature is still a site of cheating today. Students still sit for exams and they still try cheating to guarantee success. Competing for a limited number of seats in the public universities, the incentives are great; a university education leads to a better job, higher pay, and a better lifestyle. High-stakes testing leads to highly creative cheating in Vietnam. One student was found with a blue tooth device underneath a wig. Anti-cheating efforts have been increased and students are routinely patted down for cellphones or other electronic devices. (Time Magazine)
The Temple of Literature - testing site today and in the past
We have the same problem right here in Massachusetts with high-stakes testing; “you don’t pass, you don’t graduate”. And guess what? There is plenty of cheating going on. Students cheat, teachers look the other way, administrators pretend it does not exist. We all become complicit in corruption. The incentives and motives get all mixed up. Students’ incentives are easy to figure out. They want to graduate. Teachers often feel sorry for the students, especially the ones who try hard but due to a disability or limited English proficiency are at risk for failure. While teachers wouldn’t normally condone cheating, some hate to see an individual hardworking student fail. The administrators’ motives are, perhaps, less altruistic. A high percentage of students failing can get a school labeled deficient, and puts pressure on adminstrators to improve the numbers. When I have been in testing rooms, I’ve caught students writing answers down on their IDs to share with friends later. I’ve witnessed wandering eyes. I’ve heard about, but haven’t seen students entering with prepared answers on their cellphones. Then there is the extra time room. Because MCAS is an untimed test, students can finish their work in the extra time room. Most of the students are savvy enough to know that cheating is easy once you are out of the classroom setting. First, you get to walk over to the room with your friends. Once there, you are placed in a large room where cheating becomes quite easy. Not all students who are at risk for failing cheat, but we have no way of knowing how many students do cheat.
David C. Berliner, a professor of education who has published books about this problem writes:
“This exaggerated reliance on scores for making judgments creates conditions that promote corruption and distortion. In fact, the overvaluation of this single indicator of school success often compromises the validity of the test scores themselves. Thus, the scores we end up praising and condemning in the press and our legislatures are actually untrustworthy, perhaps even worthless. “
Or how about this story that I heard through the grapevine? A young woman, and a very weak student, cheated on the MCAS ( most likely with the help of a staff member) and received a relatively high score. Now this same student is being considered for special services for rather severe cognitive issues, but she can’t get those services. Her MCAS score shows that she has mastered basic high school concepts.
Again, according to Berliner, “Our research informs us that high-stakes testing is hurting students, teachers, and schools. …. we are turning America into a nation of test-takers, abandoning our heritage as a nation of thinkers, dreamers, and doers.”
A nation of thinkers, dreamers, and doers becomes upended by testing in which all the stakeholders within a system have an incentive to allow some level of corrupt activity. Our excuse is we don’t believe in the test. The result is compromising our own personal and professional integrity.
7 responses so far ↓
Jonathan Victor Hall // October 26, 2008 at 6:16 pm |
I agree with you about the ills of standardized testing. Cheating is a huge problem everywhere, and you didn’t even need to go into the problems of “teaching to the test.” But I am curious to know your thoughts on the alternatives.
The beauty of standardized testing, as you know, is that it provides a relatively objective way to rank schools and reward the good ones while punishing the bad ones. Without a standard, I would be concerned that entire schools could become worse and worse.
One solution (the one that I am most familiar with) is to introduce competition. If public schools were funded based on enrollment, and if students had good private school options (perhaps because of vouchers), then administrators at public schools would have exactly the right incentives, i.e. to get kids to come to their school because they provide the best education. What are your thoughts? What are the other alternatives to standardized testing?
Best,
Jonathan
Mrs. M // October 26, 2008 at 8:01 pm |
While I agree that cheating is a huge problem everywhere, it becomes more of a problem when the test administrators have something to gain by the test takers doing well.
I didn’t get into the whole issue of teaching to the test, but I had written and deleted a whole section about the teaching time lost (by some counts over 30 days)to testing.
Right, standardized testing is fairly objective, but not necessarily unbiased or meaningful. And yes, we should have standards, but I can’t say my students now are any smarter than they were 10 years ago before high stakes state mandated standardized testing. The problem is that schools like mine end up spending a heck of a lot of time teaching to the test. A student who failed MCAS math and ELA for example, would end up taking English, math, MCAS English, and MCAS math. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for exploration of curriculum. It is no wonder that some of our struggling students become discouraged and leave school.
I get that there is a beauty to the world of competition in schools. But you have to be careful with this too. Recently, I read an article in the Globe about a small school in Boston that was trying to promote high standards for all students – so what was happening? The students who couldn’t/wouldn’t meet those standards would drop out at some point in their senior year and go to another school where the standards were less rigorous so they could graduate. I listen to what teenagers say, and sometimes their favorite teachers and best classes are the ones where they don’t have to do too much work. (surprise, surprise!)
An alternative to the test would be to introduce some sort of portfolio assessment or other forms of rigorous assessments and an oversight board to make sure standards are high. Some of the charter schools are already doing this. There are alternatives to state mandated high stakes tests that cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and that generally prove that kids who have only been in the US for a few months or a year will struggle mightily with an ELA standardized tests. I’m not sure what we’re really getting from all the money and time we spend on testing.
Courtney tatro // October 27, 2008 at 8:54 am |
well Mrs.thank you for the comment on my blog… and I disagree I am a HUGE DORK..! haha
lalalady // October 29, 2008 at 11:31 am |
Mrs. how has the mcas led to corruption?
Mrs. M // October 29, 2008 at 12:41 pm |
Cheating on the MCAS is not allowed, so if we (the school, the system) somehow allow cheating to happen, that is corrupt.
rightleftleftright // October 30, 2008 at 12:58 pm |
This is all so interesting and for someone in corporate America the question of evaluating the performance of the school and its teachers is much more perplexing. But I did want to mention the book I am reading “Serve the People” which takes place in China and also talks about cheating on a test to qualify as a chef. It was very prominent there as well, and not hidden at all from those teaching the class. It was almost expected. I enjoy your blog and I hope that your students appeciate all the extra effort you put into it to try to inspire them to reach their full learning potential. Perhaps the school adminsitrators need to come up with a fair method for evaluating teacher’s performance, taking into account the environment in which the school is located, among other factors. Most companies only give merit increases, yet school systems seem to operate differently. I may be wrong because that is not my world. Anywa, if there are any of your students out there who do not think you are an awesome teacher, well……
John Croes // November 10, 2008 at 10:16 pm |
I don’t object to standardized testing. I object to overdoing and overemphasizing it. Three days to test English language achievement? Two days to test math achievement? Some students who haven’t yet passed and need to retake the test end up taking the original test in the spring, two retest sessions the following year, two more the following year, possibly more in the summer, and potentially even more after taking community college courses focusing on the test. Meanwhile, they’ve had to take ELA and math tutorial classes to prepare them for the test, thereby lessening the other courses they could have been taking, broadening their liberal arts education and narrowing their experiences in high school.
Personally, I’ve seen an improvement in teaching since the MCAS requirement began. Teachers now teach more writing skills than before, for example. I think there’s more of an acceptance of the need to teach reading and writing skills across the curriculum in different content areas; however, content teachers may not have been taught how to teach reading and writing in their subject areas, and the curriculums have not been cut back to enable the time needed to teach these skills.
As to Jonathan’s point about punishing the “bad” schools, depriving them of money would certainly be punishment, but I don’t see it as a way of improving the schools’ performance, which should be the goal.