Questions of Possible Cheating in DCPS
by Frederick M. Hess • Mar 31, 2011 at 10:50 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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ShareDC Schools chief Kaya Henderson has asked DC's inspector general to investigate in response to Monday'sUSA Today front-page story suggesting that some big DCPS test score gains may have been the product of cheating. Henderson's move was the right one, because the questions raised by the USA Today analysis are real, legitimate, and serious ones. RHSU readers know that I'm unapologetic about defending Henderson's efforts in DCPS (and those of her predecessor, Michelle Rhee) against cheap shots, but the questions raised here are more substantial--and absolutely deserve the kind of careful evaluation that Henderson has endorsed.
As the Washington Post's Bill Turque reported, "[Henderson] made the request after a USA Today investigation found unusually high rates of erasures in which students apparently corrected their answer sheets for standardized tests between 2008 and 2010."
Turque summed the situation up nicely, explaining, "More than 100 D.C. public schools had the unusual rates of erasures, in which wrong answers were replaced by correct ones. One seventh grade classroom, at Noyes Education Campus in Northeast Washington, averaged 12.7 wrong-to-right erasures per student on the 2009
