Education is becoming an increasingly high stress industry in America. Wrong Answers? in July’s New Yorker details a school that cheated for its students.
Elementary schools have to meet No Child Left Behind minimum standards for performance. Certain schools have a particularly difficult road to meeting those standards. Independent of whether test scores are an adequate measure of education or student growth, the situation is very stressful for educators in those schools.
The situation surely feels out of the educator’s control. At a very minimum, the students, not the teachers must perform well on the exam. The parents must suitably prepare their children for learning each day before they head to school. Teachers rely on their colleagues that teach earlier levels, so that the students are prepared to learn new material.