Tuesday, February 28, 2012

RheeFirst! » Rhee-placement says nothing DCPS can do re cheating investigation until national standards are set

RheeFirst! » Rhee-placement says nothing DCPS can do re cheating investigation until national standards are set:

Rhee-placement says nothing DCPS can do re cheating investigation until national standards are set

Written by Bill Turque for The Washington Post. Read the entire article here.
DCPS is under investigation by District and federal authorities for alleged cheating by staff on the DC CAS between 2008 and 2010. Henderson asked the D.C. Inspector General to investigate after USA Today publisheda lengthy investigation last March that showed elevated levels of wrong-to-right answer sheet erasures in classrooms at more than 100 D.C. schools since 2008. The Education Department Inspector General later joined the inquiry.

But Henderson seemed to be saying that without clearer standards, even these probes will not resolve questions from the public or media about the sharp growth in D.C. test scores under former chancellor Michelle Rhee. It will also continue to render DCPS and other school systems vulnerable to what she described “those who would


NYT’s Winerip: Rhee’s and Atlanta’s internal investigation found no cheating; investigator disagrees

The Washington Post and New York Times have joined a the growing demand for an honest investigation of the DC test cheating scandal (see the USA Today’s reporting here and here). Recently, the Post’s Robert McCartney speculated on the reasons behind the stonewalling. Official responses, as Winerip reveals in this New York Times article, have been to exonerate the person in charge and have far exceeded the usual caution about a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Read his full article here.

Both Ms. Rhee and [Atlanta superintendent] Dr. Hall conducted their own internal investigations that found little or no cheating. Both cities hired Caveon, a private test-security company, which reached the same conclusion. The state investigative report for Atlanta criticized the company, noting that “many schools for which there was