Common Core Caught Cheating in Philly

Something sparked my curiosity in the news this morning…

According to the New York Times, there is a cheating scandal in the city of Philadelphia. Three principals were fired last week following an investigation into standardized test cheating that has also implicated about 140 administrators and teachers. This has been an on-going investigation that has studied several years of standardized test scores in both reading and math from 2009-2011. According to the article,  “the investigation, conducted by the school district and the state department of education, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General, identified 33 schools — including three public charter schools — where an analysis of test answer sheets found a suspicious number of wrong answers that were erased and made right”.

Hmmm…. This sparks my interest. Teachers and administrators cheating?

Let’s see we have a state like Pennsylvania adopting Common Core Standards. Then the state is mandated to align common core standards to their tests. Then another mandate requires linking teacher and school evaluations to these tests. This high-stakes education is now leading to cheating in a large school district like Philadelphia making this one of the largest cheating scandals in the country.

What’s that saying–“cheaters never prosper”.

Perhaps, but while our federal government is taking over our public education system and common core is being mandated in nearly every state in this country, teachers and administrators are changing test scores because their jobs are on the line or their schools might be closed.  Meanwhile, large corporations like Pearson are profiting off tax dollars and no one has to hold them accountable for what they are teaching our children. Seems like a lot of prospering going on while hard working parents and teachers are the ones getting cheated.

We certainly shouldn’t condone cheating by teachers or school administrators. However, it makes me wonder, why the cheating and if it can happen in Philadelphia where else are answers being erased to keep up with common core domination and submission?