Comments

March 10, 2007 Las Vegas Sun
Educators hoping to 'bribe' students to take tests
High schools strive for 95 percent mark
By Emily Richmond

Dr. Walton Responds

This response concerns the LV Sun story about No Child Left Behind [ NCLBY] testing requiring 95% attendance on test day, or else the school will be characterized as 'needs improvement'. If that happens 2 years in a row, the school can be taken over the by state, or all the parents can take their children to other schools, so, a severe penalty. For this reason, principals are striving to convince students to come to school on that day, even though they have 5 additional chances to pass the same test. Some principals are offering prizes of iPods, food and other prizes.

The reporter asked me to comment, and quoted me as saying that there is more to this than personal rewards or self-interest : their whole school, all students and teachers and staff can be punished by the law if 95% do not show up, so there is a responsibility to each other to come on that day, if possible.

The reporter quoted me correctly as saying that this is also a civics question, a question of shared responsiblity.

But the story did not mention that I wanted to emphasize two things - that if this testing law is a bad law, they have civic responsibilities to work with others to change it, and that the learning experience is not just about the self, but is about sharing and cooperating with other students and with teachers, so that someone needs to verbalize these shared values rather than only personal reward and self-interest values.

 

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