The article, “Cheating report confirms teacher 's suspicions,” examines the Atlanta Public School system’s Georgia state Criterion Reference Competency Test scandal. CNN author, Paul Frysh, discusses former East Lake Elementary school teacher, Julie Rogers-Martin, account of events involving her fellow colleague’s involvement in the artificial inflation of their students’ standardized test scores in attempts to fulfill the requirements necessary for continued federal funding, job security, as well as bonuses. The economic idea that figures prominently in the article is Incentive, particularly the positive aspect of financial rewards and the negative aspect of fraud and depriving the most vulnerable groups of children their right to an education. In an ethical sense, I believe that the economic foundation of Opportunity Cost applies as well …show more content…
In my opinion, public educational curriculums and accountability guidelines should be established at the state and local levels where parents/guardians play an integral role in the decision making process. I do not believe standardized tests alone are an accurate measure of a student’s knowledge; their classwork, projects, and literary works also represent a student’s talent and capabilities. In agreement with Robert Schaeffer, a representative for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, that federal mandated programs such as the No Child Left Behind and The Race to The Top high-stakes tests foster the temptation to cheat because they serve as means to both punish and reward students, teachers, and principals based solely upon test scores (Schaeffer,