Why were the teachers in Chicago cheating for their students

Chicago Public Schools is a huge system educating more than 400,000 students a year. During the 1990s a new concept of "high-stakes" testing was being debated in the US educational system. The testing was called high-stakes because instead of only testing the students on their progress, schools are held accountable for the results. The Chicago Public School system embraced high-stakes testing in 1996. Under the new policy, a school with low reading scores would be placed on probation and face the threat of being shut down, its staff to be dismissed or reassigned. The CPS also did away with what is known as social promotion. In the past, only a dramatically inept or difficult student was held back a grade. Now, in order to be promoted, every student in third, sixth, and eighth grade had to manage a minimum score on the standardized, multiple-choice exam known as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.