- Students have to completely trust that their teacher is giving them all they need to know to pass the test given by the state. Teachers don't know what is specifically on the test so they have to over prepare the kids. Principals have to trust that the teachers are being effective and covering what they need to cover or else their school's reputation is gone.
- High stakes tests are measuring the amount of the curriculum that the teacher has taught the student, not intelligence. You can't measure how intelligent a child is by testing them on something they might not even be taught.
- The problem is you don't know who's fault it is if a student failed. Maybe the teacher didn't teach them, maybe the student honestly has no motivation to learn or pass. I am from a high school that didn't make AYP for 3 years and I understand the strain it puts on everyone involved. In my situation, ultimately the community blamed it on the principal. Because of these problems, Georgia has a completely new math curriculum that is not working in the schools at all and has cost a ton of money for new text books and teacher training.
To answer your question... I feel that test score pollution is necessarily a form of cheating. Although in the book it does not specifically say that it IS a form of cheating, but I feel that it most definitely is. Teachers should never do this, as it only hurts the students. There are many motives as to why a teacher or school would do this, but there are no benefits to the students. One motive for a teacher would be that they have to meet certain standards (for like state tests) in order to get a pay raise. So, they would give students illegal details about the test so they could receive better test scores. Another thing they may do is extend the time of the tests, which is another form of pollution. In all, test pollution is cheating and only is beneficial to the teacher.
ReplyDeleteThough cheating, in my opinion, is definitely a form of test score pollution, there are quite a few other forms of pollution like environmental factors, test-preparation, and the administration of the test itself.
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