Question

Andrea Miles is the GT teacher at Meridian Elementary school. As part of her duties, she is to screen, identify and assess students who exhibit characteristics of gifted and talented students. The GT program in her school district is well known for being rigorous and enriching for students, and many times families will move into the district in hopes of getting their child identified for the program. Ms. Meridian recently found out that her close friend’s niece, Stefanie, has enrolled at her school. Stefanie was identified as GT in her previous district, but because GT identification has different criteria for each school district in the state, being GT in one school district, does not always mean a student will be GT in a new school district.Meridian ISD has very rigorous criteria for the GT program, and oftentimes students who were GT in a previous district, will no longer qualify for the GT program once they move to Meridian. Unfortunately, this was the case for Stefanie. Her test scores, at the 95th percentile, were just shy of the 97th percentile score, set by district policy, she needed to qualify at Meridian. Admission into the GT program requires a committee of at least 3 GT certified teachers as per the state plan. The committee has the authority to qualify students whose scores are close to qualifying, like Stefanie’s, on the basis of a "preponderance of evidence". The last couple of students with almost qualifying scores, that were brought to the committee, in hopes of a "yes" decision based on the "preponderance of evidence", were not admitted into the program. Because Stefanie was related to her good friend, and because she truly felt that she was a great candidate for the program, Ms. Miles did not want risk her not being admitted. In preparing the paperwork for the committee admission meeting, Ms. Miles changed Stefanie’s score from a 95th to a 97th. With the information Ms. Miles provided, the committee admitted Stefanie into the program based on her meeting the Meridian school district requirements.Questions:1. Identify the behaviors that you believe violate standards in the Educator Code of Ethics?2. Which standards do you think were violated, explain your reasoning.3. What different choices or actions, could Ms. Miles have chosen in order to act in accordance with the code of ethics.

Answer 1

Answer:

Although one would read this case and think that it was no big deal, after all Stefanie did have a really high score, maybe not as high as expected by the program, to enter, but close enough, there were two particular factors in which this educator failed. So here would be the answers to your questions:

1. The first behavior that violated the Code of Ethics for Educators would be when M. Miles allowed her personal involvement with the student to sway her in helping the girl enter the program. The second, and gravest, was the adjustment of the scores of Stefanie to ensure that she was accepted in the program, which in itself is a violation of the principles in the Code of Ethics because what she is showing the student is that the end justifies the means. Third, she has also diminished the gravity of violating, or "bending" the rules, even if not by a big margin, to favor someone she knows personally. All of these affect the student, Stephanie, because coming from an educator, these become ingrained in the student as necessary, or correct, measures in order to help someone.

2. This educator violated the First Principle of the Code of Ethics: Ethical conduct towards students. Specifically, standard 1: dealing considerately and justly with each student and seeks to resolve problems in accordance to district and school policy. By adjusting Stefanie´s records, this educator is not being just to Stefanie, and neither is she being fair to other students. She is allows personal issues to impede her good judgement. And she is also violating standard 5: The educator endeavors to present facts without distorting them, without bias and without personal prejudice.

3. Ms. Miles could have attempted instead to prepare Stefanie´s case in such a way that the committe might have rather considered her as a potential candidate for the program, even if she did not have the required 97. Otherwise, she might have better been very sincere with Stefanie and let her know that her results were not enough to ensure her entrance in that particular program, or help her rather to excel in other possible programs.