I purposefully gave my students the wrong answer so they would be held back after the board of education ended up giving me an ultimatum with my job.

EDIT: I love all the clever people who are just replying with a “?” in response to my claims of cheating. Hats off to you all. I was also going to post my job offer from the school district, but most of you would call that fake since I’d have to redact so many things in the document (plus I don’t care about 99% of you I’m just trying to get this story out there). <br><br>EDIT 2: I get that everyone is very passionate about this issue. I was too. I still am. The cheating issue is just as big of a problem today as it was two years ago. I’d love for an external audit to happen. I’d love for something to be done about the situation. Years ago, I absolutely loved teaching. It was my passion. The cheating issue destroyed it for me. I’m still working in education, but I’m no longer in the classroom. I ended up on the curriculum side. I’m no longer at the school district, I’m at a private company. I don’t hate the board of education or the union or anything in that regard. I do hate the system in place. <br><br>Thanks to everyone on this thread for your input. Much appreciated. I was honestly expecting this thread to bomb and have 2-3 comments after 24 hours. <br><br>I know that this is an old story, but I’m just now sharing it. I’m currently out of the teaching profession, but this happened two years ago at the high school I was at. It was my first job out of college. I went through a traditional teaching program. I’m not certified in any specific area, but rather in the general field of secondary education, which allows me to teach any subject at the high school level (grades 9-12). In my state, this is 14-18 years old. <br><br>My first year was very rough. I had many classes, and they were all pretty full because I was on a 7 period schedule with only one preparation period. I taught over 150 students my first year. Looking back I was very overwhelmed and probably suffering from a severe amount of anxiety and depression. I ended up on blood pressure medication, which my doctors have told me that they will continue to prescribe me indefinitely. I was also diagnosed with acid reflux, and was prescribed a medication for that. <br><br>The cheating was just one of many issues that board had with me. They ended up giving me an ultimatum: I could resign at the end of the year and the district would not post anything negative on my teaching record, but if I chose to stay I would be terminated at the end of the school year. The union was involved, and they tried to fight it but the district had enough to fire me. I decided to resign, as I wanted to have no issues getting a job at a different school district. I also wasn’t sure if I was going to continue teaching after what had happened. <br><br>So, the cheating. It was a few weeks before the final exams were going to be administered for the semester. I had a student teacher at the time, and he was basically running the classes at that point. The students had to memorize a scene from some play, 3-4 pages of dialogue. They didn’t have to memorize who said what, just the dialogue itself. I knew the students were cheating, as they had cheated on other assignments and tests in my classes. I decided to purposefully give them the wrong answers. At the end of the year, over half the class ended up being held back because they could not recite the scene, which was a state requirement to pass that grade level. So, I basically fucked up over half the class. The students blamed me for it, the school board blamed me for it. This happened at the end of the year, so it was after they told me that they wanted me gone. <br><br>The actual cheating issue was a huge problem at the school, but no one ever did anything about it. The students were so brazen with it that they would openly cheat on assignments and tests in front of teachers. I personally caught a few students cheating on assignments, and when I reported it to the administration they did absolutely nothing. The cheating was so bad that it came down from the state that the final exams were supposed to be proctored by teachers, but the school board basically ignored that mandate and left the students alone in the rooms with cellphones and tablets, etc. <br><br>EDIT: To answer some questions that have been popping up.<br><br>1.) I did not tell the students I was intentionally giving them the wrong answers. They believed I was telling them the correct answers.<br><br>2.) I did not tell my student teacher about it. <br><br>3.) This was for my 9th grade classes. The cheating students would have repeated 9th grade, not gone into 10th. <br><br>4.) I did catch students blatantly cheating and turned them in. Nothing ever happened. <br><br>5.) I was let go after one year. I’m now working for a curriculum company. I do not work at that school district any longer, and haven’t for two years. <br><br>6.) I am no longer in the classroom. I’m in curriculum development. I’m working on a project that is trying to bring about a change to the system. <br><br>7.) I didn’t get fired for cheating on test grades. I was let go for a long list of bullshit, took up too many sick days being the biggest one. I was also written up for things like students not walking in a straight line down the hallway. <br><br>8.) The school board basically runs the school. They hire/fire the administration. They are the ones who made the decision to not have any proctors in place. <br><br>9.) The state recently audited the school district I taught at (different year, different teachers) and found that 90% of all test grades were fraudulent. They ended up graduating the students in the audit, but with the caveat that if the students continued to cheat in college they would be stripped of their diploma. <br><br>10.) Cheating is not the biggest problem with the school district. I was simply sharing the cheating story, there are many other issues with the district. <br><br>11.) I wasn’t told not to report cheating, I was just ignored when I reported it.