Instant test score improvement: Remove weak students
Here’s a surefire way to boost test scores in a hurry. Unenroll the students likely to perform poorly. (Schools could also lock potential low scorers in the closet during testing, but that might get noisy.)
What I don’t know from this story is how much time these kids had really missed. I don’t condone the manipulation, but I have to question the fairness of holding schools accountable for children whose parents don’t get them to school. I can understand why schools would want these chronically absent students out of the mix.
But this seems like an obvious trick – to remove kids from the school rolls and then put them back on after the testing period. And I guess it was since this DeKalb principal is now out of job.
Channel 2 Action News reports:
Channel 2 Action News has learned that a DeKalb County principal resigned after admitting she tried to improve her school’s CRCT scores by unenrolling some students.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Richard Belcher learned that the incident took place as Rock Chapel Elementary in Lithonia prepared for last year’s CRCT exams. Belcher got his hands on a letter from interim DeKalb County Superintendent Ramona Tyson alerting the Professional Standards Commission of a possible violation of the state’s Code of Ethics for Educators by principal Angela Jennings. The commission investigates alleged misconduct by educators.
Belcher obtained a written statement that Jennings gave to DeKalb School investigators. Jennings wrote that she was “worried about the effect certain students would have on her school’s chance to make annual yearly progress, or AYP.”
“Before the CRCT, I sent a letter to the parents of 13 students advising that they would be withdrawn due to poor attendance, which would cause the school not to make AYP,” Jennings explained. Belcher thought it might be the first case of its kind, but Gary Walker of the state’s Professional Standards Commission said there are others.
He chuckled while thinking about a case of roster manipulation in another county. He said 86 students were withdrawn, and then reinstated.”In one day?” Belcher asked.”Yeah, they were withdrawn one day, and a day later they were reinstated. They were out one day,” he said.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
65 comments Add your comment
mystery poster
February 4th, 2011
10:10 am
There was an episode of the Simpsons like this. The “dumb” kids were sent to the cellar to guard a jar of bees while the rest of the kids tested.
Philosopher
February 4th, 2011
10:33 am
Maybe if ALL the schools who wouldn’t rightfully make AYP, didn’t make AYP, some eyes would open and some real changes might get made. AYP or no AYP, Georgia continues to remain at the bottom of the country in education…false achievements are not certainly not changing this. Stop rushing around sweeping dirt and dust under rugs and shoving the clutter in the closets before Mom comes to visit…the house remains dirty and Mom ain’t fooled.
sad APS Dad
February 4th, 2011
1:11 pm
@David Sims: The five elementary schools with high test scores that are also predominantly white is not a coincidence. The schools mentioned are never open to receive transfer students as they are magically at full capacity every single year and thus ineligible for general transfers. If they were open to general trasfers, you would find a significant population of high achieving minority students also attending those schools. The test scores at those schools has nothing to do with the race of the students. It has everything to do with family structure, household income, and educational attainment of the parents. While correlation does not prove causation, I’m sure if you look closer at the geographies that encompass the school zones of those five schools, you will find higher proportions of two-parent households, higher median incomes, and higher rates of high school graduates and persons with at least a college degree. Your attempt to draw some conclusion on student performance based on race alone doesn’t hold water. If the analysis was that simple, then schools would rush to recruit Asian students, as that demographic tends to produce higher math scores; or Jewish students, as that demographic has high school graduation rates in the 90% range and college rates in the 80% range. But I don’t think you’re advocating that schools recruit more Asians and Jews, are you? No, I think you just intended to roll a grenade into the discussion by throwing in race among everything else hoping the ignorant follow your lead. Very disingenuous, indeed.
Booklover
February 4th, 2011
2:09 pm
It’s obvious to me that disenrolling students so as to make AYP should be an ethics violation, but:
1. Why is attendance part of AYP? I agree that it’s not in the school’s control, although it does force the school to essentially bribe students to come.
2. Kids who miss too many days for unexplained/unexcused reasons SHOULD be withdrawn and have to repeat that grade… but the withdrawal should occur as soon as the 10th (or what-have-you)BS absence has been reached, not just the day before testing.
What Goes Around Comes Around
February 4th, 2011
2:38 pm
“OLDEST TRICK IN THE BOOK ” “COMMON PRACTICE AT APS”
At APS they also get rid of Special Ed students. At one Middle School they just walk them to the door and tell them to go home without paperwork or notifying a parent.
It is a shame what we do to our children. No wonder they are so anger!!!!!!!
What Goes Around Comes Around
February 4th, 2011
2:53 pm
@Jennifer February 4th, 2011 8:50 am
You say, “Why is it when the media comes out with these stories – it is only then that we see kids as victims and adults rally to their side ?”
Well Jen that is not always true. I have fought for several students. I have called DFACS, Richard Belcher, DOE, and anyone that would listen.
A young man was kicked out of an APS middle school and he was sent to three other middle schools who would not enroll him. I fought so hard for these children that my administrator threatended to fire me if I did not back down. I DID NOT BACK DOWN.
We will pay for what we have done to our children!!!! What goes around comes around.
Phyllis Jordan
February 4th, 2011
3:09 pm
Does the school truly have no ability to affect attendance? Certainly the parents are the prime movers in this, but schools across the country are improving attendance through reaching out to parents, offering incentives to kids (not money but pizza parties, special events, one Georgia high school gives kids with perfect attendance 10 extra points on final exams), and figuring out what’s keeping kids from getting to schools. Maybe the parents don’t have a working car or access to health care or a home. There’s plenty the school, and the community as a whole, can do to affect school attendance…and by extension, school achievement. Check out http://www.attendanceworks.org
Susan
February 4th, 2011
3:39 pm
Phyllis…I’m all for incentives, but 10 points to a final exam…that’s a letter grade. I’d have a SERIOUS problem with a child earning a C on an exam magically earning a B simply because he/she sat in my class for the required number of days.
Philosopher
February 4th, 2011
4:29 pm
@Phyllis- I have to agree with Susan- this happens at my child’s middle school and makes me absolutely furious- to get 10 points higher just for coming to school (and most of them sleep through class)is sending a slue of stupid messages to these kids. And in a bassackward way, punishes those who come to school regularly…as well as those who have a chronic illness…it’s just plain wrong!
Top School
February 4th, 2011
6:41 pm
@david Sims…
You are crazier than I ever hoped to be…I don’t know how you came to that conclusion after my post…but something is a little twisted.
@ sad APS Dad …
You got it!…”The schools mentioned are never open to receive transfer students as they are magically at full capacity every single year and thus ineligible for general transfers. If they were open to general trasfers, you would find a significant population of high achieving minority students also attending those schools.”
iF the NORTHSIDE is short in the enrollment numbers…this principal recruited them from “good zip codes”…as the former ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL reported IN THIS CASE against JACKSON ELEMENTARY…( see in video below )
Concealing Segregation/APS/Jackson Elementary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urvDMBN6y4k
And believe me this school would take all the ASIANS and JEWS they could find…
IT’s just so hard to find all those worthy and smart enough to attend this School of Excellence from “other” good zip codes in the ATLANTA area.
Pick up the latest issue of Atlanta Magazine…Best Schools Issue…Count the NORTHSIDE SCHOOLS…
Flip the pages…and count the “children of color” in photographs on one hand.
No name used
February 5th, 2011
4:20 pm
I agree that it is unethical to cook the books. I have a question though for those who believe parents should be punished or children forced to repeat a grade because of attendance. WHY? If a child has an absence that the parent condones, then it should be excused. PERIOD. Not all learning comes from a book. If the child EARNS the grade, they should pass the class. I was a victim of this in highschool. I made an 89 in Latin, a 94 in American Lit and had nearly aced the American History class. I missed 3 weeks of school-unexcused by school standards and condoned by my parents but I had to repeat those classes. The only class I EVER failed was geometry-and I was there for that class-it just didn’t click. My own child has missed many days, but when the principal and I talked about it, he admitted that attendance did not seem to be affecting my all A student. Her CRCT scores for last year ranged from 838 being the lowest to 898-which is off the charts basically. For those that don’t know, 800 is passing, 850 is exceeding expectations. Now, when my kids are out of school, they are NOT playing video games etc, but doing things either on the farm, or learning something about the real world, so that may play into it.
Attendance is not the be all and end all of school, because learning is not restricted to the halls of school. It actually has everything to do with money and AYP. School is not about the kids anymore in the higher levels of administration. The teachers care and they work hard, but the admin is out for the money, and that is sad. This point was proven to me in 98 when my oldest dd was having serious problems relating to the death of my mother and was out a lot. We were in a tiny town where the school officials knew my family and knew what was going on. I recieved the coldest letter I have ever gotten, and it changed my whole outlook on schools run by the government. It said XXXX has missed ### of FUNDABLE days. FUNDABLE days, people. What does that tell you?
Rosie
February 5th, 2011
4:41 pm
Read the book The Missing Heart, by Teri Pinney. She is a former administrator at a Florida high school. She writes about this practice in her book.
ScienceTeacher671
February 5th, 2011
8:50 pm
@No name used, “Her CRCT scores for last year ranged from 838 being the lowest to 898-which is off the charts basically. For those that don’t know, 800 is passing, 850 is exceeding expectations.”
YOU may not know it – most parents don’t – but a passing score on the CRCT means little or nothing. Students generally must be at least “exceeding expectations” to even be working at grade level, so if I were you I’d be very concerned about the subject in which my child scored only 838.
8th grade students who make only the minimal 800 score are working at about a 4th grade level.
Mary
February 6th, 2011
10:36 am
Schools do this all the time! Only not for testing. Our diverse population takes trips out of the country for 2 weeks at a time and the schools withdraw them so it does not affect their AYP. Absences count against you so it is better to withdraw them. They may not even tell the parents and if they do they tell them it’s so it won’t affect the students attendance. What does this tell you about the effectiveness of “No Child Left Behind”? Schools will do whatever it takes to meet their goal, but I wonder how helpful that is for the students???
Economics Teacher
February 8th, 2011
10:50 am
This is very old news. It has been going on since No child left behind was passed.