D.C. Council to discuss test cheating
Better late than never: The D.C. Council’s Education Committee will discuss the standardized test cheating scandal at a previously scheduled hearing this week that was, ironically, intended to be about test security.My colleague Emma Brown has learned that added to the Thursday agenda is a discussion about a new report that came out Friday about cheating by educators on the 2012 D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System high-stakes exams.
The original intent of the hearing was to discuss the Testing Integrity Act of 2013, legislation to “codify testing security protocols and procedures” for high-stakes accountability tests, according to the committee’s Web site. The bill (a description of which is replete with spelling errors on the Web site) would make it a violation of District law to facilitate cheating on a statewide assessment test, calls for test security training for teachers and others, and more.
The hearing was scheduled before last week’s publication by independent journalist John Merrow of a secret 2009 memo from a data expert working for D.C. public schools that says nearly 200 D.C. educators may have cheated on standardized tests in 2008 when Michelle Rhee was schools chancellor.
And it was scheduled before the release of Friday’s report by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education that said teachers in 18 District classrooms cheated on high-