No School Left Uncorrupted: How Cheating, High-Stakes Testing, and Declining Budgets Affected Student Achievement in Philadelphia

James R. Sadler, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind education act, signed by President Bush in 2002, imposed high-stakes testing standards on all schools in the nation. A decade later, amidst a cheating scandal and a budget crisis, the School District of Philadelphia experienced dramatic standardized test score declines after nine years of increases. This study aims to place these declines in the context of national, state, and local education policy and provide statistical evidence for the cause of the declines. School climate among schools flagged for cheating and budget decreases experienced by all Philadelphia schools significantly contributed to the declines. Nevertheless, the major finding faults the elimination of cheating, enforced by the use of increased testing security in 2012, for the lower test scores. The analysis supports existing theory that high stakes testing encourages administrative cheating and hinders the educational achievement of students.

Discipline(s)

American Politics | Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Psychology | Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration | Political Science | Urban Education

Suggested Citation

Sadler, James R., "No School Left Uncorrupted: How Cheating, High-Stakes Testing, and Declining Budgets Affected Student Achievement in Philadelphia" 01 April 2013. CUREJ: College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal, University of Pennsylvania, https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/163.