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With more focus being put on public schools improving standardized test scores, should we be surprised that a high school administrator is accused of falsifying answers? Department of Education investigators say that High School for Contemporary Arts Assistant Principal Ruth Ralston "brazenly erased 1,000 wrong answers on her students' algebra Regents exams and swapped them for the correct responses," according to the Post." The NY Times reports someone noticed that "1,013 multiple-choice answers had been erased and changed — in 94 percent of the cases, from incorrect to correct." Suspicion fell on Ralston, who held the uncorrected exams after students took them and before they were graded. She had also been told her $109K/year job might be eliminated due to budget cuts--"while a high passing rate on the exam might not save her job, 'it could help her search for a new position.'" (The Post says she's still working there three days a week.)
Assistant Principal Charged With "Fixing" Exam Answers
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Does anyone at Gothamist actually cover New York? Seriously, the New York Public Library has made a
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Why isn't she in the da Rubber Room?
There are teachers there for much much less!
109K for giving up on the kids and trying to take the easy way. Sounds like she wasn't even smooth about it.
Oh and you're not fired. You still work 3 days a week. What a crock.
What's the big deal? All she was doing was trying to boost the students' self-esteem. After all, that's the main goal of public education these days - self-esteem.
Merit? Achievement? Those outdated concepts went out the window in the 70's.
Letting the schools test the students to find out if the schools are doing a good job (qualifying staff promotions, bonuses, ect.) is pretty stupid. Nobody should be able to audit themselves. If any school service should be outsourced, this would be it.
Really, what is the big deal. The standardized tests are a scam to begin.
Seriously - this is the reason why I support congestion pricing and riding bicycles...
No Administrator Left Behind.
Believe me, this isn't the only time there have been special piles of tests collected to be scrutinized for near-misses. It is common proactice in schools for administrators to nudge a bunch of kids across the finish line, and has been for years. These tests, Regents and RCTs, are often the barrier between advancement and never graduating, and administrators actively assist whenever possible.
I know Ruth Ralston and she would not do what she is accused of. She has been the hardest working and most caring Chairperson of Mathematics that I have known. She is a throwback to when supervisors were master teachers. They didn't come out of the no experience neccessary pincipals academy.