WHY DON'T WE EXPECT MORE OF EDUCATORS?
An exerpt from Character Counts by Michael Josephson 329:3I've talked before about what I call the disease of low expectations. The symptoms are an atrophied sense of moral indignation based on the assumption that most people can't be expected to put ethical principles above personal interests. Thus, we take it for granted that people will say or do whatever they think they have to in order to get what they want.
In no area is this disease more evident than education. Consider the ho-hum public reaction to a morally momentous scandal in the Houston school system, a centerpiece in the so-called "Texas miracle." Based on increased test scores and reduced dropout rates, the district received a $500,000 prize from the Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation as the best urban district in the country. In addition, in December 2002, administrators, teachers and rank-and-file office workers were rewarded for their accomplishments with $7 million in cash bonuses from the state. (The superintendent received $25,000 and her four deputies each were paid an extra $20,000. Others earned bonuses ranging from $2,500 to $15,000.)
Unfortunately, the recognition, the cash prize and the bonuses were based on false data. An audit revealed massive and systematic understatement of dropout rates. The irony is that in an atmosphere pervaded with rhetoric about accountability, there seems to be no appetite to identify the cheating employees and hold them accountable. No one was fired. No criminal investigation has been launched and there has been no demand for a return of money fraudulently obtained.
Similar practices throughout the country reveal the sad vulnerability of educators to "Enron accounting." In New York City, for example, thousands of the system's lowest-achieving students were apparently coaxed or coerced to withdraw in order to improve performance on the final statewide Regent's Exams. To hide this strategy and keep dropout rates low, administrators falsely reported that the students had "transferred to another educational setting."
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Michael Josephson writes a weekly column via email. He represents the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition; see REFERENCES->LINKS for the website.
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