Standardized Testing "Irregularities"

better known as cheating, are widespread around the country, thanks to all of the overemphasis on tests for school district funding and for teachers and administrators to keep their jobs.

That doesn't let Atlanta Public Schools off the hook, but it doesn't surprise me this is going on in school districts all over the country.

The newspaper analyzed test results for 69,000 public schools and found high concentrations of suspect math or reading scores in school systems from coast to coast. The findings represent an unprecedented examination of the integrity of school testing.

The analysis doesn’t prove cheating. But it reveals that test scores in hundreds of cities followed a pattern that, in Atlanta, indicated cheating in multiple schools.

A tainted and largely unpoliced universe of untrustworthy test results underlies bold changes in education policy, the findings show. The tougher teacher evaluations many states are rolling out, for instance, place more weight than ever on tests.

You can't cure poverty by demonizing teachers. Nothing can be done other than to "throw money" to try and alleviate poverty by creating more jobs.