Attention to school bullying issues reflects continuing concern with school discipline and student safety. Citing a 2003 study by the National Education Association, the Health Resources and Services Administration notes "bullying creates a climate of fear and disrespect in schools and has a negative impact on student learning." A 2010 report from the ABC News program "20/20" blamed bullying for social alienation and even suicide among targeted students. Yet the HRSA states teachers intervene very rarely and often do not notice bullying behavior.
Students advancing from grade to grade run a gauntlet of standardized tests measuring academic performance. School reformer and educator Donald McAdams notes that standardized testing has an important role to play in public education because it allows officials and administrators to identify failing schools and track the progress of educational reform, but the tests nevertheless attract controversy. There's an argument that focusing on measurable results encourages "teaching to the test," which emphasizes rote memorization at the expense of skill development. According to UCLA education professor W.J. Popham, this kind of instruction produces scores that "provide invalid interpretations about the students' actual mastery of the content." Teachers have strong incentives to teach this way and administrators have few effective tools for policing classroom instruction related to standardized tests, Popham believes.
Because an educator's career success can depend on high student test scores, standardized testing also plays a major role in debates over teacher accountability. In a 2008 article for "American Educator," Harvard education professor Daniel Koretz noted that current "value-added" models of testing assume "teachers should be held accountable for what they contribute to their students' growth, not for the accumulated knowledge and skills (or lack thereof) that students bring with them to the first day of class." Basing teacher pay and tenure on test scores has proven controversial, however. When "Christian Science Monitor" reporter Stacy Teicher Khadaroo the Houston school district's 2010 decision to tie test scores to teacher compensation and job security, she noted such approaches have met with resistance from teachers' unions, particularly when districts make individual teacher data public.
Teacher may encounter students cheating, so promoting and enforcing academic honesty remains a serious concern. The University of the Sciences points out educators must carefully design and administer tests to discourage cheating. New technologies can also make it easier for students to plagiarize written work. Coastal Carolina University's Kimbel Library maintains a list of hundreds of so-called "paper mills" that sell manuscripts to paying students, suggesting that teachers must remain alert to new ways of cheating. On the other hand, PBS technology blogger Andy Carvin points out that teachers can catch plagiarists in the act by using online plagiarism detection services.