Under
"No Child Left Behind Act," public schools whose students consistently fail standardized tests can be shut down. To protect their jobs, teachers and principals are now under intense pressure to cheat — to fudge test scores and report cards to fool parents and school administrators.Myron Lieberman, author and former high-school teacher, listed some of ways public schools can “cheat” in his book “Public Education: an Autopsy”:
1. Poor students were excluded or discouraged from taking tests
2. Teachers assigned tests as homework or taught test items in class
3. Test security was minimal or even nonexistent
4. Students were allowed more time than prescribed by test regulations
5. Unrealistic, highly improbable improvements from test to test were not audited or investigated
6. Teachers and administrators were not punished for flagrant violations of test procedures
7. Test results were reported in ways that exaggerated achievement levels
In December 1999, a special investigation of New York City schools revealed that two principals and dozens of teachers and assistant teachers were helping students cheat on standardized math and reading tests.
Andrew J. Coulson, in his brilliant book, "Market Education: The Unknown History," sites an example of how public schools deliberately lie to parents about their children’s academic abilities:
“Consistently greeted by A’s and B’s on their children’s report cards, parents of Zavala Elementary School had been lulled into complacency, believing that both school and its students were performing well. In fact, Zavala was one of worst schools in district, and its students ranked near bottom on statewide standardized tests. When a new principal took over helm and requested that statewide scores be read out at a PTA meeting, parents were dismayed by their children’s abysmal showing, and furious with teachers and school officials for misleading them with inflated grades.”
