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Post Magazine
This Week:
Cheating at Silver Spring International?
With Michael Sokolove
Special to the Washington Post
Monday, Feb. 25, 2002; 1 p.m. EST

True or False?
(1) The teachers at Silver Spring International Middle School set out to cheat and got what they deserved.
(2) They were sacrificed on the altar of standardized testing.

Here is your chance to weigh-in. Author Michael Sokolove, whose article about last year's Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills cheating scandal at Silver Spring International Middle School appeared in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine, will be online Monday, Feb. 25 at 1 p.m. EST, to field questions and comments about the article.

Sokolove is a writer who lives in Bethesda and whose children attend Montgomery County public schools.

A transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Maryland: Great story yesterday. This whole thing is a mess, and I think that a five-year suspension is a harsh punishment for Amy Land. At the same time, carelessness seems to be what caused the problem in the first place, and that should not be an acceptable excuse. One teacher admits she wasn't paying attention at a meeting, while another signs her name to a form without even reading it? Teachers have tremendously difficult jobs, but that shouldn't excuse mistakes they make as a result of their own carelessness.

Michael Solokove: I think carelessness did play a big role. And it should not be excused. On the other hand, teachers are fairly burdened by all the tests they must give, and the different protocols that go with each of them. The penalties issued were harsh, much too harsh in the eyes of the parent population and ultimately, too harsh in the judgment of a hearing examiner and the school board. The district seemed to want to view everything as a conspiracy to cheat, when in fact it may not have been that.

Takoma Park, Md.: It is obvious that The Washington Post got the story wrong in its initial report of this story, taking the MCPS central office "information" hook, line and sinker, while dismissing the SSIMS parents as hysterical condoners of cheating. Why has The Post never apologized? This whole saga has been incredibly harmful to the entire SSIMS community, particularly the students and The Post has not covered the devastation that is the aftermath of these events. Why?

Michael Solokove: It’s not my role to be an apologist for the daily coverage, which I know angered many in the school community, but I don’t think it was an easy story to report. The school administration had the initiative, so to speak, and control of the news. The administration said cheating had occurred, and certain individuals were at fault, and these were the penalties being issued. And that’s what the daily stories reported – along with the protests by parents, and in several cases, interviews with educators who felt they had been wronged.
As a magazine writer, working with the luxury of time and length, I was able to add context and nuance -- to say more about the nature of the school, which was not to the taste of the current administration; and about standardized testing itself. These teachers stood accused of skewing the results of tests. One of the things I found most fascinating is that the tests themselves are such imprecise measures – much more so than is generally known.
The story was able to add a somewhat more questioning voice – What exactly happened here? Were the penalties warranted? – than the daily stories. In one area, though, I do think the magazine story provided new information – and that was on the subject of the $400,000 fine paid by the Montgomery County Public Schools as a result of this “breach” of test security. Based on what I learned from the county’s own testing coordinator, from state school officials and from the manufacturer of the test, I don’t think the fine was necessary. I thought the county was bizarrely uninterested in fighting it. I think there’s a possibility that this issue will be raised anew by some on the school board or in the community.

Washington, D.C.: School board member Stephen Abrams said:

"The analogy that applies is, What if it had been an accusation of kiddie porn?" he says. "What would you have done? You would have put them on administrative leave, as was done. You would bring in a series of replacements. But you would feel it was necessary to remove them until the issue was resolved."

I find this comparison to be a little ridiculous. Kiddie porn threatens the safety of children. A testing scandal -- no matter how important -- does not. It seems like he could have made the case for removal a little better without giving people the impression that the school board and administration have lost all perspective. Or have they lost perspective?

Michael Solokove: I also thought Mr. Abrams comment was somewhat amazing. On the other hand, it is telling. The school system believed these teachers had cheated, and they whisked them out of the school as if they were highly dangerous people. This is what angered the school community more than anything -- what seemed to be a lack of proportion. Anyone who disagreed that these teachers had to go was made to feel that they condoned cheating. No middle ground -- that mistakes were made; that different people had different levels of culpability; that some, may have been entirely innocent -- was really given much credence.

University Park, Md.: Your article was excellent. It's obvious that high-stakes tests are abhorred by teachers, most administrators, and most upper-income parents (whose votes most politicians would sell their mothers for). So why aren't politicians trying to get rid of the tests?

Michael Solokove: I don't think the tests need to be gotten rid of. We all took them as kids. It was part of the way we were measured and assessed. What has changed, in a big way, is the emphasis -- and the use of the tests as scorecards for communities and schools. To the extent that teachers feel pressured, and may even be tempted to cheat, it's not the fault of the tests but, rather, the misuse of them.

Springfield, Va.: From you article:

"Brimfield, a former foreign language teacher, holds an advanced degree from the Sorbonne. She denied she had been lax about testing, but said, 'I didn't let it dictate what I thought education is all about, which is the journey. Are you engaged in learning? That's what I want to see. Everything follows from that. We had kids say, 'I love math.' What's better than that, other than 'I love reading'?" "

How about acually being able to read and do math?

Michael Solokove: I think the principal believed that if her students grew to like a subject, and by extension, liked going to school, they would ultimately achieve. I don't see how a kid could love math without being able to do math.

Houston, Tex.: I'm a MCPS alumni but have been teaching in Texas public shools for the past seven years. (Specifically in schools that have over 90 percent on free or reduced lunch). There is a tremendous amount of pressure on one test here, the TAAS. Kids that come from homes that don't have the means to travel and have experiences outside their neighborhood, don't have books, aren't read to, and who aren't getting talked to are suffering. Their entire education is revolving around the TAAS. Teachers in these schools are encouraged to give hours of "test taking practice" but not genuine, creative learning opportunities. School is boring, but not necesarily preparing these students for the skills they will need as adults to break out of poverty. Teachers are leaving the profession or are transfering to schools where children can easily pass the TAAS.(Higher socio economic status) Schools should be concentrating on proven, research based learning vs. teaching to the test but the pressure is too great. My question is: Can schools like Silver Spring International that provide inventive learning for underprivileged populations be highlighted and celebrated by The Post?

Michael Solokove: I think "inventive" learning is out, for the moment, and research-based instruction is in. I do not hold myself as enough of an education expert to say whether this is good or bad. But, clearly, when tests and test results take on such importance, everything has got to be pretty standard in order to be properly measured. This was one of the subtexts of my story. Silver Spring International was doing things a different way; they were "out of alignment." If there was intentional cheating on anyone's part there -- or some version of that -- I think it may have come from a fear that the school's curriculum would not measure well in the tests.

If test scores are the primary focus, all educators know that there are proven ways to make scores go up. And that his how schools will shape themselves. It doesn't leave a lot of room for innovation.

Bethesda, Md.: It may just be splitting hairs, but wasn't that $400,000 "fine" (originally higher) supposed to be the cost of replacing the entire 6th grade Math test across the state, because it had been "compromised?" Doesn't that seem incredibly high, considering the test probably doesn't take even an hour to complete?

Michael Solokove: I don't know if that's a high cost for that or not. But either way, the story raises quesions as to whether the test had to be replaced at all. Test booklets are lost with some regularity. They may be copied without anyone knowing it. So what occasioned this fine is somewhat of a mytery. What is clear is that the fine heightened the seriousness of the event and was used to partly justify the penalties dealt to the educators.

Rural Missouri: If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck -- It is a duck. Now I see where our kids learn how to walk the line. How can anyone say this is an honest mistake?

Michael Solokove: I knew when I wrote the story that the reaction to it would partly depend on what assumption readers brought to it. I suppose this is true in any piece of writing. I tend to see ambiguity and nuance in events -- I like stories like that, where it's not entirely clear what happened. But it's certainly possible that you are correct in seeing things much more clearly, and that this was just an obvious case of cheating. I will say, however, that a great many educators were initially implicated in this at SSIMS -- eleven in all. Any reading of this story, I think, shows that no more than a couple of them -- if any at all -- intended for students to see those test questions. Yet many of them, including some very young educators, were severely sanctioned.

Potomac, Md.: Sir, Buried in your article (third page) are the facts that: "Teachers are allowed to view some tests in advance, but the CTBS is NOT one of them." Cleverly worded, I added the CAPS, and "Land signed a document attesting that she understood the protocols of CTBS..."

There are numerous other places where you use words like "alleged" and "some" and "may have been..." and "I suspect..." but these are easy to pick out in print.

These teachers clearly cheated. They were
informed of the rules and then broke them.

1. Do you really want them teaching your children?
2. Can you refute that these teachers did not knowingly violate the rules by providing facts rather than suspicions?
If not, my critical thinking and informal logic will have me disagree with your only conclusion that the punishment was unjust.

Michael Solokove: I will refer you to the previous answer. I don't see this incident quite as clearly as you do. I don't think it was a case of: they cheated, so they had to go. And, I would point, a hearing examiner -- and later, the school board itself -- found that the initial penalties were unduly harsh.

North Potomac, Md.: I was surprised at what people were willing to tell you. Did they really think that the parents were irrational to demand proof of wrongdoing before they took action agains tht teachers? Was the person serious when ht compared events to people with child pornography? I sensed that some were seriously detached from reality.

So, who was irrational? The parents or the school board?

Michael Solokove: Stephen Abrams said to view this in the context of a previous cheating scandal. The school system believed it had sent a message to teachers in meting out penalties in that scandal. To some extent, they read this incident at Silver Spring as: Message did not get through. But when you are issuing discipline with some consideration to "sending a message to others," there is always the danger of going overboard. One thing I found interesting is that Jerry Weast told me that he did not consider anything but the "act" in handing out discipline; he was not concerned with the quality, dedication, youth, or past record of the teacher.

In criminal courts, the trial is about the crime but the penalty phase to some extent takes into consideration the person. The superintendent did not approach it that way.

Bowie, Md.: It seems that you, like a student were engaged in this story. What did you learn from researching and writing it? What would you want to tell other parents that you might not have been able to fit into the story?

How does all this fit into the Education Bill currently on the hill?

Michael Solokove: Hmmm. Wasn't that story long enough? You want to know more? More seriously, what I took from the story were lessosn about standardized testing itself. H.D. Hoover, the principal author of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, said that what's happening now "scares the dickens" out of him -- referring to what he sees as an overemphasis on scores. He told me that testing is inexpensive compared to real educational reform -- hiring more and better trained teachers -- and therefore attractive to politicians.

Again, there is nothing wrong with the tests, nothing wrong with taking them seriously as assessments, nothing wrong with telling kids that they matter. What should be questioned -- what certainly does lead to cheating by educators -- is when the tests become the sum total of a student, a teacher or a school. I think it's important to be able to understand what may cause cheating without seeming to condone or excuse it.

Takoma Park, Md.: You did an excellent job exposing the nuances of what happened. But I was very troubled by your characterization of the apartments around SSIMS as just a step above the islands. How did you reach that conclusion? Have you ever seen Third World poverty? Many of the people who live in those apartments are just like previous waves of immigrants to this country who live in small crowded apartments with several generations who work several shifts to give their children a better opportunity in life. Yes, SSIMS has a large population of kids on free and reduced meals, but you stereotype about the apartments was inappropriate. Otherwise the article was very insightful.

Michael Solokove: The story referred not the "islands," but to a particular area in Fort Worth, Tx, sometimes called the Island. It's a housing project, surrounded entirely by highways, where I visited a school where students were learning under a system called Direct Instruction.

Maryland: I graduated from Rockville high school in 1987. There is still too much emphasis on the difference between white and black kids in scores from reading The Post everyday.

Michael Solokove: This is a complicated issue. Minority students, not just in Montgomery County, but all over, generally lag on test scores. Most districts see raising minority scores as a point of emphasis. But to the extent that there is "teaching to the test," many parents of high achieveing students -- of any race -- sometimes come to believe that their kids' education is being watered down.

Washington, D.C.: Is the county going to take any steps to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again? Are any procedures, training, or systems going to be changed or adjusted? And please answer the same question with regard to the state.

Michael Solokove: The county has instituted programs to tighten up test security. What's interesting to me is this concept of "test security" -- some people think that testing would be better if it was more transparent and less mysterious; if students and teachers had a better idea of what they would be tested on. A principal quoted in the story said she liked the tests but found all the nervousness over security to be counterproductive. So it will be interesting if the new secuirty measures are an improvement or not.

Alexandria, Va.: So the teachers weren't paying attention. No surprise. In my twelve years as a University professor, my laziest, most incompetent students by far have been those who are either current teachers (in M.A. programs) or education students. What a lack of talent and drive! I truly fear for our young given they must try to "learn" from these people day after day.

Michael Solokove: I have known a lot of teachers, here in Maryland and in Philadelphia, where I lived for many years. They have run the gamut in ability levels but most, I think, have tried to do the best they can. Your feelings about teachers, though, are shared by many, and I think are certainly partly behind the push for more standardized testing. If you think teachers are generally lazy, you will certainly want every possible measure to identify ones who are not performing.

Silver Spring, Md.: One of the interesting aspects of this was that one of the math teachers who has now left teaching was an African-American female. Do you have any idea how many African-American female math teachers there are at the middle school level in MCPS? She could have been a great role modal for girls at this very crucial stage especially at SSIMS.

Michael Solokove: I don't know how many African American math teachers there are. The parent community at SSIMS believed that this scandal cost the district more than one talented math teacher.

Annapolis, Md.: Congartulations on an extremly intersting and well written article.
One of the primary thoughts I had after reading it was that I hope Brimfield leaves Montgomery County and moves where she can again be a principal, and I hope that it is whatever school district my children are in. And that she brings her teachers from SSIS with her. Their suspension is obviously a great disservice to the chidren, who are, above all, the most important thinsg here. I see it along the same lines as expelling the child who saw a fellow student with a knife, grabbed it and took it to the teacher, and then was expelled for holding a knife in school. Ridiculous. I look forward to the day when our school systems move back to punishment fitting the crime, not fitting the grandiose head of whomever is in charge.
That said, did you, during your research, touch upon the facts that even tests like the SAT and ACT are being disputed because of their inability to truly test knowledge or ability?

Michael Solokove: Thank you. As for your last question, I don't think anyone believes that any single test measures everything you would want to know about a child. Certainly the people who make these tests don't claim that. And, neither,I would point out, does Jerry Weast or anyone else in MCPS. But the pressure flows all the way down. We now have a new national education mandate which will test children every grade from 3-8, and santion poor-performing schools that do not improve.

The state of Maryland already rewards and sanctions based on test performance. So even if Jerry Weast undersands the limitations of tests -- and he does -- he is under pressure from above -- and also from parents who use scores as a way of measuring worth -- to push scores ever higher.

Rockville, Md.: Obviously, the scandal set SSIM back in terms of what Brimfield was attempting to achieve as a vision. Could you say a little about where you think SSIM is now headed?

Michael Solokove: I don't know too much about SSIMS currently, except that various things have changed. The school was, for better or worse, Brimfield's singular vision. There is no way that it could continue as it was without her sponsorship.

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