In “What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?” authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner compare teachers and sumo wrestlers because of the temptation to cheat that they both face. This story introduces the concept of incentives, or rather things that urge people to do the right thing more than they do the wrong thing. They use stories of a day care and a bagel selling man to explain different kinds of incentives and the effects they have on people.
A day care in Israel had an issue with tardy parents picking up their children at the end of the day so they imposed a late fee of $3 per incident. Instead of deterring parents from being late, the late pickups increased because the consequence was not severe enough. The fee
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Cheating is a way to get more by doing less. Chicago Public Schools implemented high stakes testing in all schools, measuring not only students’ progress but the schools themselves. This is all part of the No Child Left Behind law signed by President Bush (Levitt & Dunbar, 2009). Schools with low scores can be put on probation, shutdown, and teachers fired or reassigned. Students in the third, sixth and eighth grades had to test at a certain level in order to not be held back. The test is supposed to give students the incentive to study, but instead it seems to be giving teachers the incentive to cheat. If their students do well they are praised, promoted, and sometimes even given a monetary bonus. So teachers have found many different ways to cheat the system: give students extra time, teach to the test, fill in the blanks for students after they have left the room, or erase the wrong answers and fill in right …show more content…
How the wrestlers perform in competitions affect the way they live. The best wrestlers are taken care of by the lower ranking wrestlers. Each tournament, sumo wrestlers compete in 15 bouts. If a wrestler finishes with a record of 8 or better their ranking rises. It is believed that sumo wrestlers will lose purposefully if they have a record of 8-6 and an opponent has a record of 7-7 (Levitt & Dunbar, 2009). They might be offered a bribe, or lose in order to keep their opponent, a fellow elite sumo wrestler and friend, a part of the elite. There is data that mostly proves this theory true, but no disciplinary action has ever been taken against a sumo wrestler because it would put into question the honor of the
Yes they might get paid handsomely but the lifelong damages it causes to the boxers are overwhelming. Life expectancy goes down even more when it comes to boxing because boxers have no head protection so if they get hit in the head it will cause severe
The exhortation of using incentives to receive and analyze responses reoccurs throughout the book periodically. Levitt and Dubner believe that incentives can be categorized into three different types: moral incentives, social incentives, and economic incentives. Moral incentives are defined as circumstances in which someone acts purely out of conscience or guilt. Social incentives are observed when a person’s actions are solely linked with shame or glory. Economic incentives are when people act with financial interests and benefits in mind. One example portrayed in the book is the day care center in Israel. When parents start getting charged a late fee for picking up their child at the daycare facility, more parents show up late. Before the fine was placed, parents would pick up their kids on time with a moral or social incentive. After the fine was placed parents acted with an economic incentive, which wasn’t as bad as a sense of guilt. Further data shows evidence of relations between incentives and cheating in the Chicago Public School System. In 1996, the school system started to give bonuses based on the standardized test scores of teachers’ students. If a teacher’s students showed improvements on their test scores, the teacher received a monetary bonus. Researchers found after studying score results from 1993–2000 that a spike in cheating occurred in 1996. A three-year study showed that on average cheating occurred in at least 200 Chicago classrooms per year. Therefore, Levitt and Dubner’s theory of incentives is
viewed in different lights. To some, the fights represent the risk of gambling and the
The reason for high stakes testing in schools was to see where students stood academically. It was made to check on the progress and status of whether teachers and staff were doing their job as they are responsible for a child’s learning. In 2002, George W. Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act. Each state had to come up with their own testing systems for students to meet certain standards. This was influenced by Red Paige who was superintendent at Houston I.S.D. Accountability was their main goal with this kind of testing. Texas tests are created by Sandy Kress who teamed up with Pearson. The current test outraging the opposed side is the STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) test. Kress came up with this test because people felt that the previous TAKS test was not helping students with college readiness. The STAAR test counts towards 15% of a student’s grade (Blakeslee 126). It is a harder test and Texas is a state with the most exit level exams as it is. Even though people disagree with this test even more, Kress and his followers believe that the test is not failing students, but their teachers are. Defenders can be pretty harsh and blunt about why the STAAR should stay. Bill Hammond made a stat...
Cheating can be a common routine in a classroom—from copying work on homework to copying answers on a test. “Cheating by teachers and administrators on standardized tests is rare, and not a reason to stop testing America's children” (Standardized Tests). This statement is proved false by the fact that thirty-seven states have been caught cheating by “encouraging teachers to view upcoming test forms before they are administered” (“FairTest Press Release: Standardized Exam Cheating in 37 States And D.C., New Report Shows Widespread Test Score Corruption”). If teachers can view a test before it is administered, they can teach to the test so that their students’ scores are higher. Teachers who have viewed the test can then “drill students on actual upcoming test items” (“FairTest Press Release: Standardized Exam Cheating in 37 States And D.C., New Report Shows Widespread Test Score Corruption”). This is morally wrong since teachers who do not have the access to an actual test or those who refuse to view it do not know what would be on the test and cover a broad domain of material, not just specifics.
Do you like being bombarded with the stress of having to take so many tests? In 1845 the US brought standardized testing in the subjects spelling, geography, and math into public schools (Standardized Testing 1). Standardized tests were made to swiftly assess students abilities (Standardized Testing 1). The No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 mandated testing in all 50 states. In the article, “Standardized Tests,” it states that “US students slipped from 18th in the world in math in 2000 to 31st place in 2009, with a similar decline in science and no change in reading” (Use of Standardized Tests 5). Blame of the decline in rates are on poverty levels, teacher quality, tenure policies, and increasingly on the pervasive use
The drive to compete can encourage wrestlers to lose weight, whether or not they have excessive body fat (Perriello 58). The major motivation for wrestlers to lose weight is the hope of achieving greater success at a lower weight class. According to Vito Perriello, “the perception may be based on the myth that wrestling at a lower weight for the same height improves leverage and provides an advantage over one’s opponent.”(58). Another reason wrestlers may drop to a lower weight class is to avoid competing against a wrestler in the athlete’s more natural weight who is significantly better or to help the team fill an empty spot. Although most wrestlers like to try and lose weight, there is no reason to believe that wrestling performance will improve simply by losing weight (Wrestling Nutrition and Weight Control). A major reason wrestlers decide to drop a weight class is because they believe they will be stronger and they may need to avoid tougher
A nationwide investigation also reviled school across the nation were involved in changing test scores. In order to stop this cruel and I think criminal intent on our children we must understand different learning habits. Also understand the environment of the child. The environment plays a strong role in how our children learn and are able to grasp what is being taught. Most importantly we must be patient. Every child does not learn one the same level. We are all different in so many ways. The teaching outline should reflect our unique characteristics. Let’s use the universalization test. What would the United States be like if every educator changed test scores? We would be a nation of inadequate uneducated individuals. We have an unwavering responsibility to our children.
In the contemporary American education system high-stakes standardized testing has resulted in a focus on extensive test preparation, as well as a large increase in the numbers of teachers cheating by alternating their students' test scores. Both these phenomena are a direct consequence of the incentives and punishments directly linked to standardized test results.
Pressure is being exerted on students to pass, and teachers to enable their students to pass the standardized tests being presented to them. This takes much classroom time that could be spent instructing students on what might be more valuable information, and instead study for the test by what some consider rote memorization (Silva). Experiments have been done seeing how much different teaching approaches were before and after the implementation of standardized testing (Desimone). These experiments demonstrated how vastly the difference between teaching to the test and teaching what the instructor believes is the most valuable knowledge and the best way to present this knowledge. If there is a disconnect between what America’s teachers believe is best to know, and what is on the examinations, then one of the two is flawed, and it is not likely to be what the teachers are teaching.
Wrestling is the hardest sport both physically and mentally.The constant management of weight is what kills me the most, I can take all the cheap shots from opponents and the slams down onto the mat but the cutting weight part is the worst. It was the day before a tournament and I was 14 pounds over the weight I was going to wrestle that weekend. I had to lose it, so i did. I ran with layers of clothing on all night long and I didn 't eat or drink anything for two days, I made myself freeze at night so my body would burn more calories to keep me warm, me and friends drilled for hours to help me shed those final pounds. I went through hell and yet not one person tried to stop me or check to see if i was physically okay. They cared about the medal i was going to get that weekend rather than the fact that i was on the verge of dehydration and malnourishment. People should consider the mental and physical health problems wrestling has on a person such as dehydration, excessive weight loss,going days without eating,and the breakage of a person’s will, however all they think about is the titles and the medals they will receive if they can just make that weigh in.
There is added pressure to schools to get better scores which adds pressure to the educators and the students. The added pressure can cause health problems with the students or the educators. If health problem come from the stress of the tests it could negatively affect the student’s ability to learn (Pros and Cons, 2013). The test itself is a problem as well. The test is supposed to be unbiased based on the grade level but in most cases the test is not. As much as they try...
Too much time is being devoted to preparing students for standardized tests. Parents should worry about what schools are sacrificing in order to focus on raising test scores. Schools across the country are cutting back on, or even eliminating programs in the arts, recess for young children, field trips, electives for high school students, class meetings, discussions about current events, the use of literature in the elementary grades, and entire subject areas such as science (if the tests cover only language arts and math) (Kohn Standardized Testing and Its Victims 1).
When they see the wrestlers they are so much bigger than they thought. The wrestlers have big and powerful wrestlers. They are always in top condition. The smaller wrestlers still have muscles but they are not as powerful as the bigger ones. The smaller wrestlers rely on their speed to win their matches.
Testing is one of the big issues in our education system. The idea that the whole school curriculum should be planned around tests is a foolish one, if we want to get a quality education that we can actually learn something valuable from. Having students cram empty facts and memorize test answers is not teaching them it is just encouraging more stress and late nights. On some occasions, tests are a necessary evil to see if the student has actually learned anything from what they have been taught, but to gear the whole class a...