Sacrificing Educators’ Consciences to Raise High School Graduation Rates
Allowing students to cheat on the online credit recovery exams has helped raise high school graduation rates to a record 83 percent. (Dennis R.J. Geppert/AP)
By Jay Mathews Columnist August 20
During six years as a math teacher in Littleton, Colo., Peter Jonnard created a huge bank of questions only he knew the answers to so that students could no longer cheat on the online credit recovery tests they needed to graduate from high school.Only 40 percent of his students passed his cheat-proof exams, he said. The passing rate for other students, who could game the system to get the answers, was about 80 percent, he said.Ayde Rosas Davis, a high school math teacher in Del Rio, Tex., had it even worse. When she saw other teachers routinely giving students the answers to credit recovery test questions, she complained to her supervisor, her superintendent, her school board and the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
Two years later, there has been no progress, Davis said. In April, the TEA denied her complaint. The school district’s attorney, Robert A. Schulman, told me it “strongly promotes academic integrity and does not condone cheating in any form or context.”
But Gene Acuna, spokesman for the TEA, said “TEA does not have the authority to review/approve curriculum programs.” The agency instead concluded that the district had taken steps to correct the situation, so it closed the complaint without revealing what was done. Davis said she was never interviewed by the agency.
The district did not comment on its graduation rate soaring from 69 percent in 2007 to 92 percent in 2015 while its students’ college readiness rate remained a dismal 8 percent. District officials also did not respond when I asked if they had checked their credit recovery passing rate as Jonnard did in Littleton. Jonnard’s district had no comment.
Online credit recovery programs are used by 88 percent of U.S. school districts. They give high school credit for just a few weeks (sometimes a few days) of work, with little or no evidence that much is learned. School districts know they have a problem but often look the other way.
I can see why. Allowing students to cheat on the exams has helped raise high school graduation rates to a record 83 percent. In a recent column I suggested we overlook the problem, since restless students who hate high school are just going to drop out if we don’t give them some escape, like credit recovery.
Having thought more about the stories Jonnard, Davis and other teachers are telling me, I see I was wrong. Letting such dishonesty thrive poisons any respect teachers, students and parents have for our schools.
In December 2014, Davis told her supervisor, “I want to teach math, not just give them the answers,” which she said other teachers were doing. Davis, who grew up in Mexico and completed a post-baccalaureate program at Sul Ross State University in Texas to teach high school math, said the supervisor told her “I would not be a successful classroom teacher, because, in her words, I can’t speak proper English.”
Davis said she began to take notes and gather documents. She said she saw credit recovery teachers extracting the correct answers from science tests and reciting them to students. In other classes she saw teachers giving handwritten pages with answers to students.
Davis, who resigned in July after being transferred to an eighth-grade class, and Jonnard, who no longer teaches credit recovery, said they endorse giving students a chance to make up for past failures, as long as they learn more than how to plug in answers they are given or find through manipulating test software.
If credit recovery is too corrupt to save, perhaps schools ought to require something substantial for graduation. How about a 12-page research paper judged by an independent panel that checks for plagiarism? At least students would finish high school having done something challenging.
Telling teachers they can either let students cheat or be transferred out of credit recovery work is not a viable solution to low graduation rates. We don’t want to produce a new generation of high school graduates whose most memorable lesson is that dishonesty brings success.
HarryStone
Good article. When high stakes testing started to take hold, I predicted that this would happen, and it has. The constant use of “statistical measurements” to monitor results has resulted in gaming the system. Anyone who thinks that it only happens in a few districts is wrong. Let’s get back to the time when high quality teachers worked with individual students to maximize their achievement and emotional development. It would be much cheaper too. It is appalling that we have let this happen.
jknoonan
8/22/2017 9:33 AM CDT
I agree that there are problems created by high-stakes testing, and that these can distort educational outcomes by reducing them to what can be measured. However, how are these tests the cause of this problem? If Ayde’s math students had to show proficiency on an independent math exam in order to graduate, her school district would not have been able to boost grad rates by cheating in this way: the test would have exposed the students lack of knowledge. It’s the elimination of independent graduation requirements, like standardized tests, that have made cheating in online courses possible!
LiMathews
8/23/2017 11:53 PM CDT
excellent comment Harry—jay
pdexiii
These are the very same students who end up angry in the streets wearing khakis and swastikas, or black masks hurdling bottles of urine at cops. More and more I encourage some of my former students to hire some really smart lawyers and file a class action suit for education malfeasance against their respective school districts.
For any and every teacher/administrator who perpetrates this evil upon young people: Go to hell. If I ever saw any of you face-to-face I’d say a lot worse.
jknoonan
8/22/2017 9:36 AM CDT
I’ve thought a lot about why such educational malpractice, which is far bigger than online credit recovery, is not widely considered to be fraud and treated as such legally. The fact that 9 of 10 parents of 8th graders believe their kids are on grade level, when if fact only 1 and 3 are, nationwide, is a sign of widespread fraud.
LiMathews
8/23/2017 11:54 PM CDT
Good point pdexiii, although I have yet to see a demonstrator say it all started with ethical lapses at his high school.—jay
Ed Morgan
It grieves me to see so few comments on an issue so pervasive and disrupting to our society.
Since Nancy Grasmick, Maryland State Superintendent of Schools (retired 2011), students that have not completed work sufficient to allow them to graduate under normal requirements, a 2.0 GPA for example, have been allowed to submit “special projects” to principals and receive a diploma or they can even file for and receive a diploma for “extenuating circumstances”, unable to read, write or speak the English language for example.
- D. Woodson claims a graduation rate of 76 per cent. Yet, only 1 and 4 per cent of its graduates could pass a national core competency test in math and reading, respectively.
We are witnessing politicians, administrators, principals and teachers dumping, mostly, black and Hispanic children onto the streets without an ability to read, write or count. There has to be an accounting of this some how, some way.
PS: I surely do miss the Patrick Welsh columns of yesteryear.
Gallo1
8/21/2017 12:39 PM CDT
Pls. enlighten me with your educational acumen regarding teachers dumping mostly black and Hispanic children onto the streets without an ability to read, write or count.
From my classroom experience, I can create assessments based on a reasonable amount of practice, h.w., examples, etc., etc. If a student earns a letter grade of a “D”, below average, I have no authority or power to hold said student back. Pls. share your strategy what you would do if the class grade average is 85% and after speaking privately, working one on one with low achieving students after school, contacting the administrators, parents and counselors and school specialist, said student(s) earns no better than a D. I am all ears.
Even if I did have the authority to hold the student back, the administration and people above them would overturn my judgement.
I do hope that you spend at least a week’s worth of time shadowing those teachers at your local elementary or middle school that the school identifies as highly-qualified and respected teachers. I’m sure your viewpoint of the educational system will change.
jknoonan
8/22/2017 9:37 AM CDT
He’s talking about the whole system doing this, not just teachers specifically. Some teachers go along with and enable this system, others seek to undermine it and do right by kids, but this is increasingly harder to do.
LiMathews
8/23/2017 11:55 PM CDT
I miss Pat too, Ed—jay
BeemanRS
And they wonder why the U.S. is so far behind academically….
Big shock here. Should have asked PGCPS about their take on graduating students who aren’t prepared.
After parents learn I did time teaching in PGCPS, they ask my thoughts on what to do for their kids who are, or will be, attending that school system, I tell them to either move or enroll them in a private school.
One woman I met wanted to have a second child, but was considering stopping after one so she and her husband could afford private school, but was also considering moving so they could afford a second child and still have good schooling. The draw of living where the majority of residents are of the same race as oneself is understandable, but a good education for one’s children is far more important than that comfort level.
Mr. Mathews, while your suggestion about a research paper might work for a college student, it’s not the solution to the problem. From the moment they enter kindergarten, students need to learn to do the work. Stop with the social promotions! If a student is not cutting it from the get go, that student needs to be identified and start receiving extra help. S/he might have an unidentified learn disability. Of course that all takes money. Do we spend it in the school years, or do we spend it later on welfare and crime?
There are online sites where papers can be submitted to check for plagiarism, however, while the paper may not be plagiarized, there is no absolute method for being able to tell if the student is the one who wrote it. Without solid proof, an educator can’t come out and accuse a student of submitting a paper s/he did not write. From firsthand experience, I know what that feels like. Almost 50 years ago, I wrote an essay about a family vacation in Venice, FL. When she returned the paper the teacher asked what book I’d copied it from. It was emotionally crushing. If she’d called my parents to ask them about it she would have learned I was the one who wrote it.
There are online sites where papers can be submitted to check for plagiarism, however, while the paper may not be plagiarized, there is no absolute method for being able to tell if the student is the one who wrote it. Without solid proof, an educator can’t come out and accuse a student of submitting a paper s/he did not write. From firsthand experience, I know what that feels like. Almost 50 years ago, I wrote an essay about a family vacation in Venice, FL. When she returned the paper the teacher asked what book I’d copied it from. It was emotionally crushing. If she’d called my parents to ask them about it she would have learned I was the one who wrote it.
LiMathews
8/24/2017 12:01 AM CDT
That is an awful act by your former teacher. You are right to be cautious about PG schools, but some of them are quite good. Best to look at the Post’s America’s Most Challenging HIgh Schools and see which ones in PG are listed there as among the schools that have high AP and IB test participation rates. A PG school with a high rating can be trusted to provide a challenging experience, since the final exams in those courses cannot be dumbed down. They are out of the control of PG teachers, unlike credit recovery tests. —jay
Phil50
Jay, thanks for this. I agree, students need to do something more substantial, and I think all evaluations should be conducted by a group of teachers. Have you done much research on the value of oral examinations? I do think the writing/research is an excellent idea.
Separate, but related topic; Are you aware of the NAS report on Making Citizens, released in Jan 2017? https://www.nas.org/images/documents/NAS_makingCit…
kodonivan
8/22/2017 1:24 PM CDT
Thank you Phil50 for the link on Making Citizens.
LiMathews
8/24/2017 12:04 AM CDT
Thanks for the tip Phil50. Very few schools have oral exams of the type you and I would prefer. My alma mater, Hillsdale HIgh in San Mateo, CA, does, but it was captured some years ago by a band of rebel teachers and adminstrators who have held on to those very high standards. A lot of people talk about making such a change but it is rarely done.—jay
sensible6
I realize that this is an opinion column, but it is completely unfair to tarnish all credit recovery programs in the country based on anecdotal information from two educators. If you want to objectively discuss the pros and cons of the credit recovery system, that would be a different column altogether. I don’t teach credit recover BTW.
ARosas-Davis
8/21/2017 9:06 AM CDT
Excellent point sensible6 and that is another troubling component of credit recovery: the lack of data. Both school districts referenced in the article have no data to inform, justify, support or challenge. In Texas, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has said that they do not certify or evaluate credit recovery programs, that credit recovery programs are under local district discretion. Since the authority lies with local districts, TEA does not have any state level requirements and districts don’t report anything to the state. Since money, ratings, and local political pressure are on the line, the motivation to cheat is strong, especially since the agency designed to provided oversight has stated that credit recovery, effectively, is none of their business. Hopefully, other states have better oversight, but in Texas, where the voucher movement is politically strong and gaining momentum, that is not the case.
BeemanRS
8/21/2017 10:29 AM CDT
Ms. Davis:
I’m sorry to learn you received no support from the school system or the state education agency. It’s not at all surprising. Maryland’s is the same way. They outright tell a parent they have no say in how school systems handle things. I know this from firsthand experience, and our issue was setting up a 504 plan.
That your supervisor said you would not be a successful teacher due to your language skills was appallingly ignorant. All over the world, people who speak English as another language teach, in English, others at all levels. They even teach English classes.
Had the person ever actually attended college? In U.S. higher education, there are thousands of people, for whom English is not their first language, teaching a variety of subjects. Too bad you didn’t have a witness so you could have filed a discrimination lawsuit.
One would think that, in Texas, school systems would be falling all over themselves to hire teachers who speak both English and Spanish. How many kids, for whom English is not their first language, are falling behind in math because they don’t understand English, or at least not understand it well?
The first commandment in teaching appears to be: Thou shalt not care about thy students!
sensible6
8/21/2017 7:36 PM CDT
I appreciate the information you provided. It seems as if you have really done your best to do the right thing.
MPR3000
8/21/2017 10:40 AM CDT
This is not only anecdotal. Ms. Davis has evidence to back her claim. She collected months of data and it is compelling.
ARosas-Davis
8/21/2017 11:08 AM CDT
Thanks MPR3000, I actually collected, among other things, two years of data that showed accelerated course completion rates. But, it appears that no matter what the data shows or showed, the Texas Education Agency has stated that it is not in their domain to act.
kodonivan
8/22/2017 1:27 PM CDT
ARosas-Davis: This has cheating in recovery programs in the San Diego Unified School District.http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/wo…
Yet the school district is in denial. This particular district has many, many problems and this is only one of them
LiMathews
8/24/2017 12:09 AM CDT
Hi sensible. I have written four or five previous columns on this subject. There are also major journalistic projects in other areas, such as Atlanta, that have found similar results. I think the most telling statistic is this: 88 percent of districts use credit recovery, yet after checking with several scholars I have found NO studies that prove the courses teach much. Why would all those districts use something with no proven academic worth? There is only one possible reason—it ups their graduation rates. Even without the widespread evidence of cheating, that should be enough to take action. The superitendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district recently called for an investigation of credit recovery in his district. —jay
oldspaper
Independent evaluations are necessary. We hear so many times how terrible it is that students have to take “standardized” tests, as if standardized is some evil concept. Valerie Strauss and her comrades are always droning on about it. However, the behavior described in this article is part of why standardized, independent evaluations are necessary- we cannot trust people who are being evaluated on how well the students do on the test to score the tests. The response of Strauss and comrades- “don’t evaluate anyone on the results and don’t give the tests anyway” is clearly irresponsible and sweeping the problems under the rug.
Why not look at what other countries do? National matriculation exams, as given in Finland, Japan, South Korea, British A levels, French bac, German Abitur, etc.. Just look at all of the countries that give some kind of Matura. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matura
The closest thing we have in the US is the AP tests.
Many of these countries also have lower level qualifications for those that are pursuing post secondary options that are not universities, such as vocational schools. The disparagement and limiting of vocational education in the US is perhaps the greatest disservice we have done to the people who are going to college. Unfortunately it is too often viewed through a racial lens that makes its application in the US subject to the same sort of criticism advanced programs get.
BeemanRS
8/21/2017 10:49 AM CDT
I’m all for not using tests as methods for evaluating students’ abilities. Tests do not give the whole story about what the students do or do not know.
For example: adults learning English as another language are given a test to place them in class levels supposedly based on ability. Often, those tests are wrong. The student just doesn’t test well. Period. Another version of that same test is given at completion of the course. Again, the tests do not properly evaluate their abilities. Again, the student doesn’t test well. In speaking with the person, the teacher can see either improvement or no improvement.
It’s too bad all students, at all levels, can’t be individually evaluated, but costs and time do not allow. Imagine what education could be if each student could be taught based on an individualed plan tailored to meet their needs and abilities.
conditionalprobability
8/21/2017 11:48 AM CDT
Individualized instruction and pacing is already going strong in math.
If the tests are wrong, that is a separate problem that can be corrected.
If the student can comprehend things from a listening perspective, this can be tested.
I do understand that some people really can’t pass most tests, because they are just very bad at understanding what is going on in any abstract way at all, what we often think of as low IQ. However, the subjectivity you refer to is no solution to this problem at all, and is how we get into this sort of problem in the first place. Teachers give good grades to quiet, obedient students whether or not they are mastering the material the course is intended to convey.
conditionalprobability
8/21/2017 11:50 AM CDT
I’d additionally point out that in many countries, only about 50% of students pass the Matura or equivalent, as many opt for the other sorts of degrees that are available.
LiMathews
8/24/2017 12:11 AM CDT
thanks oldspaper. MUch food for thought there. —jay
Willow River
Jay, I applaud you for courage. Changing a view when presented with countervailing evidence is crucial to good science and intellectual honesty.
LiMathews
8/24/2017 12:12 AM CDT
Thanks Willow. I appreciate your kind comment. —jay
corkry
If students do not learn what they are suppose to learn, and they still graduate then we are just kicking the can down the road, but sometimes I think the United States is addicted to kicking cans down the road.
LiMathews
8/20/2017 6:34 PM CDT
It is a popular sport here, isn’t it corkry.—jay
JAChristoff
Credit recovery programs have been on the rise since Republican state legislatures have cut educational budgets to practically bare bones. (I bet Kansas has one of the most prolific growths in recovery programs because it will not spend money to educate its children).
These programs sound good and make the public think that the educational system are so wonderful in giving failing students a second chance. What is really happening is just another case of the age old “diploma mill”.
But it sounds and looks good because it involves computers and technology.
Most of these kids need special help (which means additional money, teachers and educational resources) but these conservative states want to do it on the cheap.
In the end it makes the graduation rates look good but the same old problems that spark Conservative criticism of public schools are still thriving.
LiMathews
8/20/2017 6:35 PM CDT
Great point JAC. The magic of the words “new technology” has tripped us up again.—jay
MPR3000
8/21/2017 10:47 AM CDT
The issue is not money it is the system. US spends the most than most countries on education with bleak results. My wife teaches at a private school with half the budget of our local school district and provides quality education. Throwing more money on a flawed system will not fix the problem. Also please do not make this topic politically partisan.
Madonna Riesenmy
8/21/2017 3:57 PM CDT
The U.S. DOES NOT SPEND More money than other countries on Education!!! Would someone get this right for goodness sake! It looks that way because, unlike ALL THE COUNTRIES WE ARE COMPARED TO that do not have to include health care and pensions into their educational costs because those costs are covered by national governments, our individual school districts have to include those costs in their budgets!
Gallo1
8/21/2017 5:08 PM CDT
With all due respect MPR3000, have you compared the dollar amount and the different expenditures of private vs. public?
– Pls. show me the difference in spending for special education. (This is the biggest gap, IMHO, between private vs. public schools)
– Pls. show me the difference in spending for transportation
– Pls. show me the difference in spending for ESL
– Pls. show me the difference in administration.
OrangeMath
There is a way to repair credit recovery and maintain integrity: adopt “mastery learning” and apply it in a practical manner for courses REQUIRED for graduation. For example, based on my observations of individual student work, weak high school students are placed in Khan Academy courses Kindergarten through 8th grade initially. For my few students who are at higher levels, Arizona State’s curriculum works beautifully. Students get credit for growth shown by passing a number of objectives. I take students from where they actually are. They don’t have to game the system – no need to cheat. For students who don’t like Khan, software like Wootmath (exceptional) or Amplify Fractions or Matific or Sokikom work. They are good products with a reasonable price.
For those who are aghast at what I do, please note that you in practice support cheating, lies, and corruption. Please don’t say teach better. Geez, getting a weak student from third grade through Geometry (Math 2) in a semester or two really isn’t a sustainable system. Don’t make the best the enemy of the better. I see all of the work that goes into remediation and cry. Doing our best ruins lives. I have to fix the well-meaning actions of others, decent people in an ed system that wallows.
I stopped teaching Credit Recovery years ago because the students were demanding “answer check,” which Mr. Mathews detailed in another post.
LiMathews
8/20/2017 6:37 PM CDT
A very fine post OrangeMath. You really know your stuff.—jay
Nicole1
Thank you for changing your opinion about allowing cheating, Jay.
I do not think the 12-page research paper requirement is going to work, though. You will have no way of knowing who actually did the work. Students could be given varying degrees of “help.”
LiMathews
8/20/2017 6:39 PM CDT
You have a good point Nicole1, but you might be able to reduce cheating by having the paper submitted in stages, with some of the editing work being done by the kid in class. And maybe a quick oral exam on sources after it is submitted.—jay
BeemanRS
8/21/2017 11:12 AM CDT
By the time a student is in credit recovery mode, isn’t it a bit late to fit this work in? I think of credit recovery as something a student accomplishes after the final, failing grade has been recorded. Additionally, in all reality, teachers just don’t have the time to spend on overseeing the writing of individual papers by students who never bothered to do the work in class.
Teachers already spend a great deal of extra time trying to review and grade papers. It might not be so time-consuming if the teacher is working with the same students all day long, but for those teaching five or six classes a day, with 150, or more, students, that puts them to the point of having to forego sleep in order to get it done. Education doesn’t pay that well.
I can also see students gaming the credit recovery system: “I don’t have to even attend classes because I can write a paper at the end of the year to pass,” or “I don’t have to do any work in class because all I have to do is write a paper at the end of the year to pass.” Talk about more stress for a teacher! Of course kids will do it. Denying they won’t is unrealistic.
As for that 181 days per year required of students, tell that to PGCPS. If they let that requirement slide, so do lots of other school systems.
Itsacolddayinhe77
8/20/2017 6:48 PM CDT
It would take some really creative lesson planning to have math skills shown with original research.
BeemanRS
8/21/2017 11:12 AM CDT
My thoughts exactly.
Phil50
8/21/2017 7:59 AM CDT
Make it a handwritten paper.
BeemanRS
8/21/2017 10:54 AM CDT
The student need only copy what someone else has written for them.
jknoonan
Thanks for getting to the heart of the matter, Jay. OCR programs have violated public trust all over the country by allowing students to get credits without having to learn a thing. These teachers have been stonewalled by their local educational establishments. Thank you for giving them a voice!
Educators For Academic Integrity 