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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Indiana Grassroots Groups Not Ready to Exonerate Tony Bennett in School Grading Scandal - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Indiana Grassroots Groups Not Ready to Exonerate Tony Bennett in School Grading Scandal - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Indiana Grassroots Groups Not Ready to Exonerate Tony Bennett in School Grading Scandal



Guest post by members of the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education, and Monroe County Coalition Public Education. 
In his article in the September 9, 2013 Education Week, Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, claims that the recent report on the Tony Bennett grading scandal, commissioned by leaders of the Indiana state legislature, has exonerated Bennett and his staff. Many of us here in Indiana would respectfully disagree.
Most of the state news reports indicated that Bennett's claims were plausible, which was a curious word choice. There are many ways to interpret the word plausible, which seems to imply there is an appearance of truth, which may or may not be accurate.

Having said that, Steve Hinnefeld states that while acknowledging plausibility, Bennett has NOT been exonerated.
"Grew and Sheldrake said Friday that the report does not 'exonerate' or 'vindicate' Bennett, nor condemn him. They said it only explains how his team changed the grading formula..."

The only people who would consider the report "exoneration" are those who agreed with Bennett in the first place. To the best of my knowledge, Bennett was never in favor of "grading on the curve" before Christel House didn't get its "A." Perhaps the question that