Sunday, April 14, 2013

How they cheated on D.C. tests: Excerpts from new report

How they cheated on D.C. tests: Excerpts from new report:


How they cheated on D.C. tests: Excerpts from new report

test1How many ways did D.C. educators cheat on the 2102 high-stakes Comprehensive Assessment System tests given to students? Here are some excerpts from a new official report that details how teachers in 18 District classrooms cheated on the exams.
You can see the entire report below or by clicking here but in the meantime, here are some excerpts. Classes were flagged on the basis of the number of erasures on the test answer sheets, from wrong to right, but, as you will see, the report says teachers cheated in other ways.
What may be the most most egregious case is at Langdon Education Center, where there are also allegations of cheating in years prior to 2012, the year that is the focus of the new report. Concerns about widespread cheating over the years on high-stakes tests in D.C. schools were heightened late last week with the publication of a 2009 memo that raised suspicions about nearly 200 educators cheating on the 2008 test, when Michelle Rhee was schools chancellor.
This is from the “Incident Reports” of the Langdon section of the report:
…On May 9, 2012, DCPS received an anonymous tip alleging that staff members at Langdon Education Campus (“Langdon”) have been violating test procedures during DC CAS tests, including the 2012 DC CAS test. The allegation stated that, “For years, Langdon has been cheating on the DCCAS. They [Staff members] have been copying the test in the late afternoon and would share it with the students. The students would take the test home and practice.” It further stated that, “For the current 2012 DC CAS season, they [staff members] did the same thing. When the test arrived at Langdon, they looked at the test before the monitors came on Wednesday.” The anonymous tip did not specify