Education Week: Why Teachers Sometimes Cheat

It’s back to school season, and all week long we’re talking about education in America, and schools under pressure – with budgets decreasing, and the pressure to raise student achievement increasing.  Today our subject is cheating teachers; specifically, those who’ve altered their students’ work or taken other measures to help them score higher on standardized tests. We’re speaking with Heather Vogell, a reporter at  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution who  first uncovered –  with the help of data analyst John Perry –  inconsistencies in Atlanta’s school test scores two years ago. Her reporting eventually led to a state investigation that found evidence of cheating in 44 out of 56 schools in 2009.  Dale Mezzacappa  also joins us. Mezzacappa is a contributing editor at  The Notebook  in Philadelphia.