Why Teachers Cheat And How To Deal With The Problem (AUDIO)

The teacher cheating scandal in Atlanta that was uncovered this year has rocked the country and cast a national spotlight on educators and standardized testing. It has also opened the investigations of several other questionably similar incidences in schools from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia while expediting a national conversation on the country's testing and teacher evaluation system.

Georgia issued last week its first sanctions against teachers involved in one of the nation's largest cheating scandals, in which 180 educators across 44 Atlanta schools were implicated for test tampering that inflated students' standardized test scores. Eight teachers and three school administrators in the Atlanta Public Schools have lost their licenses as the Georgia Professional Standards Commission moves on to handle the other cases.

In Connecticut, 12 teachers who were involved in a cheating scandal lost 20 days pay and must serve 25 hours of community service through tutoring as punishment. The district superintendent is calling for the teachers to be allowed to keep their licenses.

In response to the profusion of cheating scandals surfacing across the country, The Washington Post in July created a digital roundtable of experts to discuss their views on what the best approaches are to measure and compensate teachers.

Yesterday, American Public Media Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal talked to Freakonomics Radio's Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt about why teachers cheat and how to deal with the issue.

LISTEN: