How can you tell that national news has gotten lazy? They continue to bash education rather than going out and finding real news stories or answers to what they call a broken system. Tonight (11/28/11) on NBC’s Rock Center, Harry Smith rehashed the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) cheating scandal. It’s the same old story with zero twist. Public schools are either failing, or they’re over achieving and, therefor, must be cheating. Granted, APS’s school board members, principle, super intendant, teachers, and a teacher’s aid admitted to cheating on the tests, but I’m still tired of the story.
Don’t get me wrong. I frown upon cheating. I think it shows a lack of respect (blatant disrespect, in fact) to the students, teachers, parents, and community that such a level of cheating was even tolerated. Though, with the level of accountability of NCLB and state standards testing placed on teachers, principles, schools, and their inherent bureaucratic chains, I can’t say that I’m shocked. Educators are working to keep their jobs while testing rages out of control and accountability is wildly hurled at the lowest on the totem pole of public education.
My concern is not so much that more cheating is going to happen. The public sector is not alone in such scandals. In fact, public schools are not alone in cheating when it comes to public service. Have you paid attention to our politicians over the past two hundred or so years in this country? Cheating is nothing new. When we look to the private sector, it’s almost impossible to find an upstanding corporation. We’ve all heard about the imaginary islands on which bank accounts are magically sheltered, or the rights of workers in our own country are harshly denied in the name of saving the company. When workers demand “too much” pay (in order to support their families and get their children through school), corporations pack up and head to India, China, and any other country which will deny their employees of even more rights and safeties. Talk about cheating… oh, I apologize, that’s in order to keep the business above water, not so much to line the pockets of the corporate heads (right?).
The recent economic crash makes us all unfortunate victims of cheating, lies, and under handed businesses practices. Do I want my beloved field of education to follow suit? NO! But, do I understand the circumstances leading to our faults? Yes.
When pressures are placed on people who are already working much harder than they are given credit for and are held more accountable than what should be considered reasonable, we make mistakes. Sometimes we make mistakes which seem unforgivable at the time because we don’t have all of the information required to make fair judgements.
I’d like, for once, for a news crew to write or broadcast a story on the relevance of testing to learning and student achievement. Start with state issued standardized testing. Read the tests. If you, dear news team, would score below an 80%, then the tests do not accurately illustrate potential achievement (which is what education is about), they do not test for useful knowledge and skills (which is what education should be about), they do not reflect your specific strengths (which is what we as educators are trying to help our students develop), or you do not use a good portion of the knowledge standards force us to teach. Which one of those reasons is the fault of educators?
Once you’ve tested yourselves, look into Work Keys. Work Keys is a program instituted at the high school level (in South Carolina) to help students develop real work skills. First, it teaches real work skills in classrooms. Students learn communication, information seeking, and information application skills in every curricular area. Where they are strongest, they build skills, where they are weakest, they begin to connect in a real world way with knowledge. Then, students are tested on a seven point scale to earn one of four certificate levels which employers use to place qualified applicants into available jobs. The program is designed with representatives from education, the local business community, community leaders, and students to deliver the necessary skills to future employees and then to the employers they find careers with.
When we test skills, we do a far greater service to our communities than when we test for irrelevant knowledge almost no one connects with. As an example, I scored a 64 on my chemistry final in eleventh grade. Do I know how to balance a chemical equation to this day? NOPE. Yet, I write this blog, teach eight classes full of middle schoolers how to build their creative skills and work ethic, teach my fellow teachers how to use modern technology in new and exciting ways to engage their students, run a successful graphic design business on the side, won teacher of the year the first year I was eligible, own a brand new home, can fix most problems with my cars, am married to a gorgeous wife, and manage very strong friendships and family ties. How in the heck did that chemistry test matter in the course of my existence besides telling me that I suck at chemistry and should never be a chemical engineer. I hadn’t planned on doing that any way.
Skills and portfolios. Those are the answers to our “broken education system”. News teams, when you do your next cover of the horrors of public education, please find answers rather than filling the public’s mind with paranoid, suspicious drivel. There are answers and we can find them together.
It Takes a Community 
No Child Left Behind and high-stakes testing are a blanket for complex problems with education. Overall, I think American kids receive a great education. Could it be better? Of course, there is always room for improvement in just about anything. There will never be one solution. Education is a never-ending experiment because each generation is different as are the demands of the workforce they will be a part of some day.