School Administrators and Student Performance ... Who Cares More About Our Kids' Legitimate Educational Achievements? ... Parents or Administrators

School vouchers are in the news lately. Teachers unions say no, and parents say yes. Government officials frequently side with the teachers unions and public school administrators.

But what does common sense say? And how do public school officials and administrators act?

What different incentives are there for parents and school officials? And who is more motivated to act in the best interests of the students?

Common sense says it's the parents and the kids. Not the government officals and public school administrators. And sometimes the administrators and complicit teachers step way over the line.

Ex-Schools Chief in Atlanta Is Indicted in Testing Scandal is instructive about what recently motivated and incentivized the actions of public school officials in Atlanta:

 

"During his 35 years as a Georgia state investigator, Richard Hyde has persuaded all sorts of criminals — corrupt judges, drug dealers, money launderers, racketeers — to turn state’s evidence, but until Jackie Parks, he had never tried to flip an elementary school teacher.       

 

It worked.

 

In the fall of 2010, Ms. Parks, a third-grade teacher at Venetian Hills Elementary School in southwest Atlanta, agreed to become Witness No. 1 for Mr. Hyde, in what would develop into the most widespread public school cheating scandal in memory.

 

Ms. Parks admitted to Mr. Hyde that she was one of seven teachers — nicknamed “the chosen” — who sat in a locked windowless room every afternoon during the week of state testing, raising students’ scores by erasing wrong answers and making them right. She then agreed to wear a hidden electronic wire to school, and for weeks she secretly recorded the conversations of her fellow teachers for Mr. Hyde.

 

In the two and a half years since, the state’s investigation reached from Ms. Parks’s third-grade classroom all the way to the district superintendent at the time, Beverly L. Hall, who was one of 35 Atlanta educators indicted Friday by a Fulton County grand jury.

 

Dr. Hall, who retired in 2011, was charged with racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements. Prosecutors recommended a $7.5 million bond for her; she could face up to 45 years in prison.

 

During the decade she led the district of 52,000 children, many of them poor and African-American, Atlanta students often outperformed wealthier suburban districts on state tests.

 

Those test scores brought her fame — in 2009, the American Association of School Administrators named her superintendent of the year and Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, hosted her at the White House.

 

And fortune — she earned more than $500,000 in performance bonuses while superintendent....

 

"It is not just an Atlanta problem. Cheating has grown at school districts around the country as standardized testing has become a primary means of evaluating teachers, principals and schools. . . . In Ohio, state officials are investigating whether several urban districts intentionally listed low-performing students as having withdrawn even though they were still in school. . . .       

 

And Ex-Head of Atlanta Schools Indicted in Cheating Probe adds this:

"The former superintendent of one of the nation's largest urban public-school systems and 34 teachers and staff were indicted Friday by a state grand jury here on multiple charges related to one of the largest school cheating scandals in U.S. history.

The charges against Beverly L. Hall and others who worked in the Atlanta Public School system during her administration include racketeering, influencing witnesses, making false statements and writings and theft by taking.

Those indicted include top school officials in the administration of Ms. Hall.

The cheating, according to the report, involved practices such as teachers erasing incorrect answers on the standardized tests. Investigators, who focused largely on the 2009 round of state tests, alleged the administrators were guilty of impeding the probe, tampering with tests and intimidating teachers. Some of the implicated teachers, according to the report, prompted students to fix answers during tests, while others fixed answers themselves after the tests. Others obtained advance copies of the tests and answer keys. . . .

The indictment comes about five months after the superintendent of El Paso Independent School District was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on fraud charges, in part, for his role in a conspiracy to fraudulently manipulate test scores. It also follows allegations of cheating in other cities, including Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C."

Summing Up

Let's give parents and students control over where the kids attend school and how well they perform.

Teachers and administrators should be there to help the process but not to monopolize what happens in the education of our nation's future leaders.

Education is too important to be left to the government knows best gang and its system of perverse incentives.

By now that's 'perfectly obvious,' even if the teachers unions and government bureaucrats choose to ignore it.

That's my take.

Thanks. Bob.