Surprised that high stakes testing has led to cheating across the nation? submitted by a member

Nobody should be surprised that high stakes testing has led to cheating. What bothers me most is that "leaders" (principals, superintendents, etc.) did not use their positions to publicly advocate for changes, rather than scamming the system. Unless you work in an underperforming system, where these tests are do or die, it is hard to understand the profoundly negative impact on school climate and ultimately our children. The approval of the new evaluation regs can be rationalized away by leadership, but the bottom line is these tests will eclipse all other forms of evaluating teachers. Instead of being an indicator of the goal, the test has become the goal. That alone corrupts the integrity of it.