In Atlanta-Ask them to do Public Service.

"In 2009, the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) named Hall the National Superintendent of the Year. In a statement, AASA executive director Dan Domenech said Hall had “turned Atlanta into a model of urban school reform.”
“Throughout her long and successful tenure in Atlanta, Hall has accomplished significant gains in student achievement,” he said. “She has demonstrated a commitment to setting high standards for students and school personnel, working collaboratively with the school board, and meeting the needs of the local community.” "
 from MSNBC

Yes, well,
I would like to see the Atlanta teaching scandal put on trial the notion that 100% of our children nation-wide will be proficient and advanced by next year.  2014, the year when everything is "fixed". Or is the fix in?
I'd like that specific notion to be tried.
I'd like to see a lawyer equal to the best we've ever seen in civil rights work-litigate- come forward- to suggest that sometimes when things are theater of the absurd, then the drama that results isn't so awfully surprising. Sad though it is. And disappointing. I think if we tried that falsehood we might have different types of names than just an Atlanta Super plus teachers to vilify. And this certainly has sprung forward an absurdest catalog of behavior on her part-from group cheer sessions celebrating the cheaters to a $100,000 chauffeuring around a city burning with educational nightmarish behavior.
Except my calling for that defense and trial might turn us to talk about the elevation of test based education-and for some will be heard as a defense of cheating-which I do not support in fact, over a broader wanting to hear the case on education based on test scores as king. Or it'll be heard as excuse making, (which I do support). Or heaven help us-just THINK of all the "extra help" the actions of these cheaters took from these poor kids. (and that I'd like to see recently sprung notion defended as a "truth")

Lately in the news about the Atlanta test cheating scandal I've been watching and paying attention to "erasing parties", group humiliations, teachers shunned for lower scores, big assemblies and cheering for those "getting results," and a long hard look at leadership that took on the last wave of education reform by accepting bonuses, embracing the inherent notions and saying if this is what they want we'll do it with glee, that said what couldn't possibly be done was their mission-with no excuses-and I wonder why couldn't it, that is what I think we should bring to trial. 

Now I guess when Arne Duncan or his ilk want to point to schools that DO achieve these "goals" in areas of poverty, they don't point to Atlanta anymore, they just sort of say...it can be done and when it's done by cheating we will lock you up. So.....look away at what we once touted.
I'd like to look at that. How they missed anything done on that scale.
How readily they assumed that these "wonderful" increases were examples of "what works."
What failure in oversight and responsibility do these leaders have in this?

Because, after all, they didn't tell ANY system how to go about achieving these impossible things that didn't really happen. NCLB was not a way to reform a system, or help an area in poverty. It was a measurement and a punishment scenario. The achievement gap remains. By the way.
They just encentivized and punished, sorted and privatized-standing there with a group of consultants and took the public system to the cleaners.
But I think fully understanding that -well that lags.
A good televised court case would help.

But something about Atlanta brings to mind what won't be debated.
Or put on public trial.

I heard a person on TV stating "it would just be easier to teach the kids the content" and I thought-if it would be easier to get the scores legitimately, why this elaborate cheating?
Can that person prove that assertion?
And I read a friend talking about how much he resents the poor quality instruction given to black kids schools in urban poverty-where he works in math education-and has a historical perspective. What he knows offsets those that claim that thousands are beating down the door to go teach in high crime, high poverty areas, he misses seeing those with incredible skill levels in the class next door. And now he sees the turnover that was killing in the past- of two year teachers- now a revolving door of all the teachers who aren't going to even gain the security of tenure or the assurance of a pension.

I go back to my days teaching in south Central LA where there were no materials, class-sizes were enormous, it was dangerous, rates of absences were high for instructors, turn- over impossible, poverty and crime were overwhelming factors-thinking of how the highstakes testing must have impacted that world. Further isolating it. Do we hear the voices from those schools speaking?

Perhaps the teachers and Super that are caught in this net might be assigned public service and asked to go give their time and effort to kids in poverty and be assigned to help them learn to read, do math, love science, art, technology. Say for years. After all they started out wanting to do that-over going into expensive jails. That seems fitting.

It might be nice to see ed reformers and consultants assigned to do the same.
Perhaps Arne might do a five year stint. He could clean up by writing a book about what he learned to compensate him for the loss of income later.

Punished by the crime-so to speak.