Lie to graduate; lie to be hired

When Rex had to write his culminating report on student teaching, he was handed it back to redo because they didn't want to know the truth about his experience. In order to graduate, he had to make up an experience that wouldn't make the university look bad if the state-auditors randomly pulled his file.

Likewise, one particular application for a school district required an essay endorsing the supposed virtues of NCLB and state testing, citing evidence from a given article (dated 2004, a bit outdated). The author of said article had the prestigious position of consultant for the Broad Foundation and the National Center for Educational Accountability. This is the entity that gives the annual Broad Prize to poor schools that have made remarkable statistical gains (apparently like the Nobel Prize for education reform) that dumps $1-2 million on the district that wins. It turns out that the school district (Houston ISD) that won in 2002 (touted by Bush as the "Texas Miracle") was guilty of massive fraud when the soon-to-be Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, knowingly falsified the dropout numbers (zero dropouts that year). Ironically, Rod Paige was on the judges panel when the 2008 winners (of which Brownsville ISD came in 1st) all failed to meet NCLB's annual targets.... (They qualified because Broad Foundation unprecedentedly decided to look at "other indicators.")

Well, how can we ethically write about the virtues of NCLB as exemplified by the schools that won the highly esteemed Broad Prize, when the Foundation itself has been proven to lack credibility by fraud? No, Rex said he'd rather not work for a district that required him to lie just to get in.

NCLB is all about statistics. When the kids do poorly, they are handed back their papers or told to redo their tests (however many times it takes them) until they get a passing grade. You can take the TAKS test more than once too. Statistics can say anything you want them to. Did you know that if the kids get an F, it is entered in the gradebook as a 70% (even if it is really 50% or 0%)? No one is able to get lower than a 70; it's against Northside policy. Strictly by the numbers, no one in Northside can fail. We're doing pretty good, statistically....