There’s been a lot of talk about cheating in recent weeks as CHS cracks down on dishonesty in the classroom. But for all we condemn students who unfairly claim success, their lack of integrity is not isolated in an educational environment dictated by numbers.

On July 29, an Associated Press (AP) article revealed that former state Superintendent Tony Bennett manipulated his trademark “A” to “F” school grading scale in the fall of 2012 to change Christel House Academy’s grade from a “C” to an “A.” Christel House is an Indianapolis charter school run by one of Bennett’s Republican donors. Additionally, 165 schools saw their grades change without explanation at the time.

Gut Reactions

These revelations provoked outrage from critics of Bennett’s education initiatives as well as his supporters, who insist the situation was politicized out of context. In Bennett’s defense, the existing scale didn’t account for Christel House’s recent addition of freshman and sophomore classes, in which new students scored significantly lower on standardized tests.

Bennett’s office’s treatment of this predicament, however, is far more revealing in terms of their priorities. The immediate reaction was one of utter dismay, but not that schools in Christel House’s situation had been unjustly scored. The issue was one of Bennett’s star schools, touted as an ideal low-income establishment, scoring so poorly.

Political Priorities

Bennett’s considerations were chillingly political. Bennett, in emails released by the AP, lamented promises made to Christel House and other charter schools, guaranteeing an “A” grade. He declared, “anything less than an ‘A’ for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work,” referring to his statewide campaign to take failing schools to task. He fretted over losing support from Republican proponents of charter schools because of Christel House’s grade.

Furthermore, the “loophole” that raised Christel House’s grade was applied unevenly. Twelve charter and private schools shared Christel House’s leap to an “A” because the old scale didn’t account for recently added classes. Yet, according to The Indianapolis Star, at least two Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) were in the same predicament in 2011, but despite requests to reevaluate their scores, they were taken over by the state.

This inconsistent treatment reveals the insincerity of Bennett’s grading model, a lack of acknowledgment of schools’ needs, as well as favoritism, political agendas and the valuation of the appearance of success over the real deal.

The superficiality extends beyond the scandal, with a scale that relies almost entirely on standardized tests, which, as we discussed in last month’s editorial, don’t guarantee students’ improvement as learners or thinkers. Rather, there’s an incentive for tests to replace teachers as lesson planners, educators and evaluators. To then use these scores for critical decisions like school funding is an offense to students’ education.

Everyone Loses

As the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) said in a statement, “It’s time to call the Tony Bennett letter-grading scandal exactly what it is—cheating.” But just like academic dishonesty among students, the scandal does not stand alone.

It’s a culture of cheating, built on a fixation with numbers that overlooks true education. States press schools to produce higher test scores or face state takeover; schools press teachers to reach a certain percentile or face layoffs and withheld promotions; teachers press students to concentrate disproportionately on test materials or suffer poor grades; students press themselves to score well by whatever means—or they all fail together.

Even before the Christel House scandal, state lawmakers began to reassess Bennett’s grading scale and rewrite his formula. When reevaluating the current grading system, Indiana education officials must go beyond the numbers and offer a scoring system that promotes a holistic education, not teaching to the test.

Rankings, test scores, “A’s” and “F’s—these aren’t inherently useless measures of academic success. But they are not the only measures, and the state education system cannot endorse that mind set in schools, teachers or students. Indiana’s educational integrity depends on this, for as the Bennett scandal shows, an “A” could mean everything or nothing at all.