How Public Schools Cheat

So you think slapping a high-stakes testing system on top of a government monopoly is going to tell you how well your kids are doing? Think again, mes amis, think again.

State finds schools broke WASL protocols

By The Associated Press

TACOMA — The state school superintendent's office has investigated nearly two dozen reports this year of improperly administered standardized tests at public schools across Washington.

In one case, a class of fifth-grade students in Graham, Pierce County, corrected their Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) tests after finishing them, The News Tribune of Tacoma reported yesterday.

School officials later invalidated the results of the science tests and gave the Rocky Ridge Elementary School teacher who administered them a 15-day suspension for violating WASL test protocols, the newspaper said.

Details of "irregularities" in the testing were spelled out in nearly 200 pages of documents obtained by The News Tribune through public-disclosure requests.

A handful of teachers have been reprimanded, placed on paid leave or suspended without pay after reportedly disclosing questions before the exam, changing answers or counseling students to fix their answers.

The state might invalidate certain tests at seven schools and is closely watching scores at eight other schools, according to preliminary estimates.

If you want an education system that will force schools to be responsive to your needs, and to prepare your children for higher-education and life and work, look not to our dysfunctional education monopoly, but to a free market.

In a market, schools are chosen (or rejected) based on their ability to deliver the things families want. All the things families want, not just a passing grade on one set of tests.

When you eliminate parental choice and evaluate monopoly schools using a single set of tests, you create incentives for exactly the kind of fraud we're seeing in Washington state. More broadly, however, you create a system in which schools cannot tailor their services to the particular demands of the families they serve, having instead to offer a standardized, homogenized course of instruction to match the standardized, homogenized tests.

Folks, Gidget is not a widget. Kids and families have different priorities, talents, and needs. Why have we turned education into a government cheese factory?