How Michelle Rhee tried to score a miracle: she gave DC teachers advance notice of what standards were and were not tested
The following guest post was submitted to us by Erich Martel.
“July 8, 2011
Today, the DC Public Schools released the initial, summary results of the April 2011 DC CAS, the standardized math and reading tests taken by students in grades 3 – 8 and 10, science tests in grades 5 and 8, and biology tests for high school students enrolled in biology.
The following article by Professor Aaron Pallas explains how the DC state office of the superintendent posts the DC CAS “operational blueprints,” so teachers in the tested grades know in advance which standards will be tested and the number of questions on each of those tested standards. Thus, by process of elimination, they know which standards can be skipped. OSSE reportedly opposed this policy, but was pressured by DCPS officials to continue the policy. The 2010 blueprints were posted in January 2010, rather than at the start of the