Monday, October 17, 2011
David Gottschalk, Standardized Tests and Cheating
In "Atlanta Public Schools test cheating an NCLB byproduct" (July 31, 2011), Sandra Nichols, a retired public school teacher, claims that an increased anxiety to bring up standardized test scores has resulting in cheating all throughout the country. Nichols backs up her claim by providing specific instances where laws and regulations on standardized test scores have led to cheating in entire school districts. She blatantly points out flaws in the regulation of standardized testing in order to show her audience how easy the decisions to cheat really is. Nichols addresses her audience, the readers of the "Education Matters", and other adults associated with public school systems by using her pessimistic tone about how cheating to "get ahead" will actually hurt the country in the future.
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, cheating is a better life skill than taking standardized tests. You can use it in the work place, high school, and college. However, you will only have to take standardized tests in high school. Cheating however, can get you into the job you want in later life. For example, you could plagiarize or falsify a resume, and if you don't get caught, you just advanced your career. Standardized testing doesn't promote cheating. It promotes poor cheating, sloppy cheating, looking over your shoulder cheating. This is unacceptable. Real cheaters should never get caught by their peers or proctors. This type of cheating would help you all throughout life, more than a basic knowledge of Shakespeare, in my opinion. This is just my opinion as I have never cheated as the risks are too great and its not necessary with adequate studying but if I would, you wouldn't know it. Just remember, cheating only hurts you if you get caught or can't live up to the lie. For example, cheating on an exam for a pilots license would be illogical as one day you would have to fly and if you don't know how then you would be doomed.
ReplyDeleteI agree and disagree, good sir. I agree that standardized testing is quite useless beyond high school, yet I disagree on the classification you give for cheating. I agree that cheating is something that people should know how to do well - as a life skill. However, I think that it should be used very rarely, and only under the proper conditions. You should not cheat on a resume nor on anything else unless it is immoral or inhumane to do otherwise. When you cheat, you lie. When you lie, you lose. The lie you spit out will be blown back into your face by the wind of Truth. You say "cheating only hurts if you get caught or can't live up to the lie". To live up to a lie is to devote your life to it, and any life lived for a lie is a life that becomes a lie. Then you lose yourself.
ReplyDeleteThe editorial clearly states that the cheating that takes place is largely due to money and bonuses that the teachers and school districts receive with high test scores. Though, I do agree with both of you that the tests are fairly useless, I still believe the cheating is wrong. I believe this because the teachers are cheating to gain money. This practice is highly unethical. There are many teachers that work extremely hard to get good test scores that don't even come close to the ones that the cheating teachers get. The hard working teachers never see a single cent of that money. Maybe cheating does get you ahead in life but in the end, it always leaves a more deserving person in the dust behind you; a place where they should not be.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the standardized test cheating is wrong because it gives the United States a false identity of how smart we really are. The cheating is slowly covering up a problem that keeps getting worse and worse. We think we are catching up to the other countries when in fact we are actually at a standstill.
Dan that "wind of truth" metaphor was a beautiful one. I really don't see the point in cheating, not in a classroom taking a vocab test or in the workplace on a resume, not ever. It is lying and therefore only hurting the cheater in the long run. What I got out of your argument, Tyler, is that you find more value in learning life skills than in learning little details that we will never use in our lives. I have no Idea if that's what you were trying to say, but I agree with that thought. I think tests that tempt students to cheat are pointless, if kids have to resort to that then there is a flaw in the system. This is why I think standardized tests are a big issue and should go away forever. In respect to just plain old school, disregarding SATs and CMTs, I think the work ethic and problem solving skills we learn are invaluable. And to bring that back to the article, standardized tests do not represent those learned skills and if cheating is the learned skill students have to utilize, then these tests are corrupt and hurting students more than helping them. The notion that 'using cheating to "get ahead" will actually hurt the country in the future', is one I am fully supportive of.
ReplyDeleteDave...you beat me and posted that four minutes before I did, and I therefore couldn't respond to your comment. In response, I agree with absolutely everything you just said.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that the author of this article, Sandra Nichols is incredibly correct in her assessment that cheating will damage our country later on. If students are having the idea that success can only be found within the numbers we receive in exchange for our hard work and effort, how are we ever to find peace with ourselves? As cliche as it may sound, if students become cognoscente of the idea that success is a relative term, and that each person is valuable in their own way, cheating would not necessarily be such an issue. If standardized testing were emphasized less, and a love for learning were encouraged, students could really find a curiosity within themselves to carry them throughout the entirety of their lives. By cheating on standardized tests, students really do only harm themselves in the long run. If undeserving students are being admitted to top tier institutions and being provided a top education that they are not necessarily capable of utilizing, it has been wasted.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the author of this article, Sandra Nichols is incredibly correct in her assessment that cheating will damage our country later on. As cliche as it may sound, if students become cognoscente of the idea that success is a relative term, and that each person is valuable in their own way, cheating would not necessarily be such an issue. If standardized testing were emphasized less, and a love for learning were encouraged, students could really find a curiosity within themselves to carry them throughout the entirety of their lives. By cheating on standardized tests, students really do only harm themselves in the long run. If undeserving students are being admitted to top tier institutions and being provided a top education that they are not necessarily capable of utilizing, it has been wasted upon them. I absolutely agree with Cailene that the work ethic we attain throughout our schooling is absolutely vital to our continued success. The standardized tests which we are all but forced to encounter really provide no measure of true talent or capability; they simply assess baseline knowledge. If students are being pressured into cheating, this work ethic really is immediately dissolved and schooling if left devoid of one of it's major functions-- creating ethical, moral, and curious individuals for tomorrow's world.
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