Cheating in Philly: is it common?

[Guest PasadenaCA]

If you're not familiar with the recent scandal, here's a link.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=9531036

There have been other such scandals. I was thinking about it and nothing even close to a teacher suggesting cheating happened in my schooldays. What was the experience of others? Is this issue common?

[Guest CharliePS]

I left Philly ten years ago, so I don't know the particular pressures that are imposed on schools and employees these days. However, in most places, salaries, promotions and even jobs are being tied to standardized test scores, and it's inevitable that some teachers and principals may become desperate enough to game the scoring of student test results to make them look better. Hunting Park is a poor neighborhood, so it is not surprising that the normal test scores would be lower even than the average of a system which already performs poorly. I dealt with many students from the system over a period of 35 years, and for most of that time even the students who graduated with high grades turned out to need academic remediation after they graduated. The students were often shocked to discover that they had been poorly prepared, because they couldn't tell how low the district's standards were. Some of the Superintendents over the years were excellent, and some were hacks or even corrupt, but their quality often made no difference, because of the mediocre bureaucracy that ran the system.

The teachers union was well meaning, but it had little control over hiring and policy, so it focused mostly on benefits for its members. It is interesting that the five who were arrested are all experienced teachers whose jobs I would expect were pretty safe. None of them live in the neighborhood in which they work--the principal and one teacher don't even live in the Philadelphia school district--nor do they appear to have much in common (ethnicity, residence) beyond the common workplace. The article gives the impression that they were part of a conspiracy. led by the principal, to make the school look better than it was, but their motivation isn't clear.

[Guest PasadenaCA]

Excellent. Thanks for the insight.

[boiworship]

Most of Philadelphia: unremitting grimness.

[RA1]

Not about teachers, but, once I delivered an aircraft to a VW dealer on the outskirts lf PHL. Nice enough guy and our business was conducted above the show room of the dealership. He gave me a VW "racing jacket" which was a sort of "Chutzpah" advert for VW. In those days, any VW would struggle to get to 100 MPH. However, he also paid in cash, something I was not necessarily expecting. It was not a huge sum, I don't remember exactly, but likely 30 something thousand dollars. We parted amicably. Then, he gave me a clean up guy to drive me to PHL. Now, here I was with 36,000 in cash in a pouch with a guy sporting a 3 day beard, in the middle of nowhere, driving me to PHL. Was I a little nervous? Yes.

We arrived safely but PHL was under construction for improvements and, being already slightly traumatized, I was not all that happy walking through dimly lit corridors that led to who knows where in the PHL terminal.

Everything worked out fine and it was all just a mental reaction to things that were not necessarily what they might have been.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest PasadenaCA]

I have to say, I really like Philly. When I lived in Jersey, I went to the city frequently. It's a bit of a hidden gem, overshadowed by New York--really Manhattan--and DC. Give Philadelphia a second chance!