Bennett Emails Reveal “favoritism, cronyism, self-interest, and hubris”
Teresa Meredith is the new president of the Indiana Teacher’s Association. She offers this on the Tony Bennett’s cheating scandal in the Chesterton Tribune: It’s time to call the Bennett school letter grade scandal exactly what it is—cheating. Emails obtained by the Associated Press and released Monday show that former Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett and his staff wor
Senator Dwight Bullard Calls For Bennett’s Removal
From Kathleen McGrory in the Miami Herald: Bullard wrote the following in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday: “In light of the recent reports from the Associated Press and other news outlets on Department of Education chief Tony Bennett’s grade changing activities in Indiana, I find it necessary to call on you to request his immediate resignation as Florida’s Commissioner of Education. Given
Indiana Mayor and Charter School Operator Livid Over Bennett’s Grade Change Revelations
From Northwest Indiana Times reporter Carmen McCollum: Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott, who founded the Hammond Academy of Science and Technology, a charter school in Hammond that received an F last year, was livid over the report. McDermott, a Democrat, wrote on his Facebook page, “Maybe if I voted Republican, HAST’s grade would have been higher. Maybe if I had donated $130,000 to the Republicans,
Bennett Engaged in “Pay to Play Tactics”
Wow. Florida Democrats are starting to call for Tony Bennett’s ouster. From Times-Herald reporter Kathleen McGrory: Two Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday called for the resignation of Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett, saying the school grades scandal in Indiana had called Bennett’s integrity into question. “It’s time for [Gov. Rick Scott] to accept another resignation,” said Rep. Mark P
Bush Foundation Dangerous All-In Defense of Bennett’s Indiana Grade Changes
Bush Foundation boss Patricia Levesque predictably came to the defense yesterday of embattled education commissioner Tony Bennett. From Lisa Gartner in GRADEBOOK: “Commissioner Bennett and his department found and corrected a mistake that would have unfairly penalized 13 schools missing data for grades they did not even serve. They fixed a problem to be accurate and fair – any accusation otherwise
Bennett’s Indiana School Grade Changes Never Made Sense to Begin With
More revelations are emerging about the grade changes that Tony Bennett feverishly put in place last fall to protect one of a major political donor. This from Karen Francisco of theFort Wayne Journal Gazette:
The scramble to inflate Christel House’s grade also was successful in pushing more than half of the state’s charter schools to a letter grade of C or better, a claim Bennett couldn’t make before the formula was massaged.The disclosure settles the question why educators well-versed in test scores and evaluation systems couldn’t make sense of it.“(I)t is not criterion based, it does not statistically make sense, it does not account for standard measure of error, it is unexplainable and difficult to understand, and it fails to comply with current law and administrative code,” Superintendent Chris Himsel of Northwest Allen County Schools told legislators
