Ethics in Society

Alayna Marie Moody

Ethics GE 4442 E2

Dana Nissen

9 December, 2011

Final Ethics Paper

Part 1:

By a state probe, dozens of teachers and principals of Atlanta public schools have been caught altering students' test papers. The results of the investigation, made public by Gov. Nathan Deal, showed that the cheating occurred at 44 schools and involved at least 178 teachers and principals, almost half of whom have confessed, the governor said. The Atlanta probe found a "culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation" that spread district-wide over the past decade, prompting dozens of educators to covertly give kids correct answers on standardized tests and change wrong answers once kids handed in the score sheets. The Georgia report called test-tampering "an open secret." In one school, a group of teachers brought students' answer sheets to a teacher's home and held a "changing party." Other teachers changed students' answers at school after hours. The school's principal told teachers, "If anyone asks you anything about this, just tell them you don't know. You did not. Stick with it … just stick to the story and it will all go away."

Part 2.1:

The results of the Atlanta state probe investigation, made public by Gov. Nathan Deal, showed that the cheating occurred at 44 schools and involved at least 178 teachers and principals. Teachers and principals were told to cheat on the Atlanta standardized state test to raise tests scores. Test results play an increasingly important role: At least 10 states require that student scores be the main criterion in teacher evaluations. Some states and districts reward educators for raising scores; a teacher may earn a bonus of as much as $25,000 in Washington, D.C., if his or her students' scores climb. Georgia state law dictates that any educator found to have tampered with student test papers could face up to 10 years in prison for falsifying public documents. Anyone who lies to state investigators faces up to...