YOU'VE GOT TO CHEAT TO WIN

YOU’VE GOT TO CHEAT TO WIN

Leo Durocher once made the infamous quote, “You’ve got to cheat to win.” The late baseball manager’s maxim certainly applies to suceeding in the NYC school system. As I have pointed out in numerous articles, fudging the scores is a primary factor, if not the main reason, for the surge in high stakes test scores. The newspapers and television stations usually do not often publicize this factor and give credit where credit is do. However, every once in a while an article about a cheating scandal makes its way into the newspapers. Such was the case in a front-page New York Sun story on June 30, 2008, entitled HIGH SCORES, CRITICISM FOLLOW A PRINCIPAL. It seems that “a South Bronx elementary school that adopted the motto “The Best School in the Universe” on the strength of soaring test scores is being investigated for allegations that teachers helped students cheat on state tests.”

P.S. 48 principal John Hughes was routinely pressuring teachers to help the students during the exams by providing the test-takers with the answers. As a result “he oversaw a thirty point jump on a math test in 2004, and that year Chancellor Joel Klein spoke at the school’s graduation – reportedly wearing a “Best School in the Universe” T-shirt. Hughes was even favorably profiled in the New York Times and on PBS . Yet any untenured teacher who disagreed with his culture of cheating was let go at the end of the year. One teacher, Sandra Ameny said, “He asked me to guide my students to the right answers during the test…He basically said during the exam that I should go over close to them, and for example if they mark “D” and “D” is not the right answer, tell them, you know, ‘That’s not the right answer, try something else,’ and just keep guiding them until they get the right answer.”

This year the staff at P.S. 48 is set to receive merit pay bonuses averaging $3,000 a teacher, giving the faculty a vested interest in these nefarious shenanigans. “Eleven of twelve P.S. 48 graduates interviewed last week said they were coached during the state tests.” The article does not mention that Hughes himself will also see a bonus of as much as fifteen to twenty thousand dollars for his excellence in academia. It pays to cheat.