WashPost: 2011 DCPS suspicious erasures decline– so do test scores
Written by Bill Turque for The Washington Post. Read the entire article here.
“That’s a drop of nearly 50 percent from 253 classrooms in 2009. The 128 classrooms represent less than 3 percent of the total number of classrooms in which students were tested. …
The 2011 numbers continue a trend in which the decline in suspicious erasures–which officials credit to improved security–has been accompanied by flat or falling test scores.
The 2011 data released this week show the highest concentration of high-erasure classrooms in the third
WashPost: 2011 DCPS suspicious erasures decline– so do test scores
That’s a drop of nearly 50 percent from 253 classrooms in 2009. The 128 classrooms represent less than 3 percent of the total number of classrooms in which students were tested. ... The 2011 numbers continue a trend in which the decline in suspicious erasures--which officials credit to improved security--has been accompanied by flat or falling test scores. The 2011 data released this week show the highest concentration of high-erasure classrooms in the third grade, where 21 of 303 rooms (6.9 percent) were flagged in math tests and 6.3 percent in reading exams. Why erasure rates are ... more »
Schools flunked inquiries into suspicious scores in 2011
"By the time it's over, 2011 may well go down as the Year of the Test Scandal... The revelations came as schools, nearly a decade into the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era of test-based accountability, struggled to increase the percentage of students deemed "proficient" on state math and reading tests. Among the most high-profile cases: •In Atlanta, three years after the Journal-Constitution began probing unusual gains on test scores, a state investigation in July found that 178 teachers and principals had tampered with tests over the past decade. Last week, investigators said educat... more »
DCPS achievement gap blamed on officials, demographics, lack of funding
"Goldstein also concluded that while Rhee failed to significantly narrow achievement gaps, the gaps would be less disturbing if overall achievement levels were moderate or high. "But what we continue to see in D.C. is that white students score well above both national and urban district averages for their race; [and that] black, Hispanic and poor children score well below national averages for their races and classes," Goldstein wrote."
Former DC schools chief busy lobbying, helping (right-wing) politicians
"'She represents an approach to reforming education that we think is really destructive and is not going to face the problems of public education,' says Lisa Guisbond of Citizens for Public Schools, a Boston-based public education advocacy group. Along with a handful* of others, Guisbond's group arranged a boisterous demonstration in November when Rhee appeared at Boston's Symphony Hall, where marchers carried signs that read, 'Erasing Mistakes Doesn't Put Children First.'" *Contemporaneous local news reports put the number of protestors at 100.
The decline of thinking outside the box–study results
While IQ scores are indisputably on the rise, American creativity levels are bottoming out. Analysis of the results of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking suggests that the creative abilities of American children have been spiraling downward for almost 20 years. ....... That's a serious issue at a time when creative thinking is among the most desperately needed skills in the American workplace. A recent study found that 85 percent of employers concerned with hiring creative people say they can't find the right applicants. Kim blamed America's standards-obsessed schools for creat... more »
Fighting back against mandatory school testing– Mother Courage vs corporate reformers
"I’m angry that my kid is being held hostage to tests by a system that threatens to take away her school’s funding if she and her schoolmates don’t perform well. I’m angry that my child’s class spent an hour, during the math benchmark test in October, transcribing their answers from the test sheet to the Scantron sheet. I’m angry that whatever changes are coming to this system will not be soon enough—or even the right ones—to change the experience the “lost generation” will have. I’m not willing to be complicit in it. So, we are opting out of the mandated testing. What? You didn’t k... more »
Shock Treatment: Scores jumped, then stalled, after NCLB
As corporate reformers like Michelle Rhee continue to push for wrongly-headed "accountability," research debunks them. "After the initial shock of the law's "accountability" mechanisms wore off, there was a leveling-off of student gains—which suggests that bold new education policies are needed to unleash a fresh wave of academic progress, author Mark Schneider contends. The paper, published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, speaks to some of the big questions swirling around the attempted, long-stalled reauthorization of the law, as well as to other major, multi-state policy effo... more »
Michelle Rhee’s 5-City California infomercial- coming to an auditorium near you!
"Last night, I drove over to the Shiley Auditorium on the beautiful campus of USD to hear Michelle Rhee talk about education reform, or as it should more aptly be called when it comes to Rhee, “reform.” San Diego was the first of five stops she is making in California as part of what she called a listening tour, or as it should more aptly be called when it comes to Rhee, a “listening tour.” But I’ll get to that in a minute."
IMPACT study scuttled by differences over method
The project was a sticky issue from the beginning. The selection of an outside researcher was supposed to be mutually acceptable to the union and the District. But former WTU president George Parker said he never signed off on Fryer. His successor, Nathan Saunders, also balked... Saunders said he was troubled by his connections. Saunders cited Fryer’s prior experience as a contractor hired by former Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee to assess the now-defunct “Capital Gains” program that paid cash to middle schoolers for good grades and behavior. There was also the issue of EdLab’s funders,...more »
Slow down the school reform factory
"Even Michelle Rhee, the superstar reformer, accepted limits on using test results in Washington D.C.'s revised evaluation system. Called IMPACT, now in its third year, the approach acknowledges that teachers of untested subjects cannot be evaluated with "quantifiable measures of student performance." Instead, the Rhee plan relies on five annual observations by principals and specialist "master educators." Under Rhee, the D.C. schools attracted extensive outside funding to pay for the costs of the new system and for the merit bonuses it triggers, funding not likely to flow to New Je... more »
In which I nitpick on the subject of the opportunity/ achievement gap, charters, and Rhee’s legacy in DC
"...for the record, Rhee did not "streamline" the bureaucracy as Goldstein suggests in her post. As I discussed here and here, the bureaucracy actually got bigger and costlier under Rhee and Henderson. But I guess that's part of the Common Wisdom about Very Serious People that Very Serious Education Pundits are too busy and underpaid to shake themselves of. Or perhaps it's part of some misguided attempt to "balance" coverage. If the information is not accurate, if the coverage is based on assumptions rather than on facts and evidence, however, then that's not "balance," it's misinfo... more »
Braun: New kind of N.J. school privatization on the rise
Michelle Rhee continues to advise NJ Gov Chris Christie on corporate education reform. "Public education in New Jersey has been roiled recently by conflicts over charter schools, vouchers and "virtual" schools — but, now, a new type of privatization is on the horizon: allowing public schools to contract with a private company to offer "alternative" education."
