Fallout from evaluation of D.C. public schools
The following post was written by two members of a committee that authored a report released last month by the National Research Council on evaluating D.C. public school reform under Michelle Rhee. They are Robert Hauser, executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the National Research Council, and Christopher Edley, dean of the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.
The report, called “A Plan for Evaluating the District of Columbia’s Public Schools: From Impressions to Evidence ,” concluded that the standardized test scores that have been trumpeted to show improvement in the D.C. schools under Rhee provide limited information about the causes of improvements or variability in student performance.
Duncan gets a gift of omission
Education Secretary Arne Duncan just appeared at a forum on how to redo the law known as No Child Left Behind and he got a gift from Montgomery County Public Schools Chancellor Jerry Weast.
It wasn’t a traditional gift, but rather, a gift of omission.
The forumon Wednesday was held at John F. Kennedy High School, where about 75 county officials, students, parents and others gathered for a session that is part of a tour around the country Duncan is taking to talk about reauthorizing NCLB, formally known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
