Delusions of adequacy in D.C. reform effort
As the D.C. schools reform effort launched in 2007 by former chancellor Michelle Rhee enters its fifth year, newly released test scores (Rhee’s chosen measure of progress in closing the achievement gap) still show huge gaps between schools in the city’s poorest and wealthiest neighborhoods.
Is anybody surprised?
In this story about the continuing achievement gap, my colleague Bill Turque wrote that children in the poorest schools (in Ward 7 and 8) trailed students in the wealthiest (in Ward 3) in reading and math pass rates from 41 to 56 percentage points on this year’s D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System exams (which are given annually to students in grades 3 through 8 and 10).
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