Education professor: Schools are pressure cookers ready to explode

Maureen Downey:

A Clayton State University education professor says the recipe has been in place for a while for CRCT cheating with the main ingredient being the pressure on schools to reach artificial and questionable goals.

Here is an opinion piece by Mari Ann Roberts, assistant professor in Clayton State University's department of teacher education:

I like to cook so I'm going to share a recipe with you.

• Take one flawed underfunded federal education improvement act, like NCLB,
• add increasing pressure on individual schools to meet "Adequate Yearly Progress,"
• include some inane expectations that teachers can work miracles,
• sprinkle liberally with furlough days, suspended raises, and budget cuts dating back to 2003 that will total more than $2.8 billion through the fiscal year ending next June.

And what do you get? Whatever it is, it can't be good.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 16, 2010 4:00 AM
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