AJC cheating series: National Blue Ribbon Schools that may be red-faced at these revelations
The AJC has published the second installment in its major series on test score disparities nationwide. Today’s stories look at the improbable score patterns in some of the nation’s most highly decorated schools, National Blue Ribbon Schools.
AJC reporters included a winning school that even merited a visit from Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Highland Elementary in Maryland.
“This school, just four or five years ago, wasn’t a Blue Ribbon school,” Duncan said that morning in September 2009, according to video of thew award event. “It had the same type of children, same type of families, same type of community — but dramatically different results.” Now, he said, “this school has more students at the advanced level than any other school like it in the state. It’s absolutely remarkable.”
And remarkably unlikely, according to the AJC analysis. It is essential to verify the achievement at these heralded school as they are held up as role models.
The AJC examined Blue Ribbon winners as part of a nationwide analysis of test scores. In an article last month, the newspaper identified nearly 200 school districts where test-score changes reflected a pattern that, in Atlanta, pointed to widespread cheating by teachers and principals.
The full analysis of 69,000 public schools showed that Atlanta’s cheating was no fluke. The examination of 605 recent Blue Ribbon winners suggests that test manipulation may be even more prevalent among schools considered models for others to emulate.
Statistically improbable test scores spiked at dozens of schools in the year they applied for the award, the analysis found. In that year, suspicious gains occurred about three times more often in Blue Ribbon winners than at all schools nationwide.
Among all Blue Ribbon schools with suspicious scores, the analysis identified 27, including Highland Elementary, that had the most unlikely gains. In some grades and subjects, the odds against increases occurring without an intervention such as tampering were so high as to be virtually impossible.
No statistical analysis alone can prove that anyone cheated. But in data and documents and in interviews with school officials and testing experts, few other credible explanations surfaced for how the scores of so many students could shift so quickly to such odds-defying degrees.
“Those kinds of changes are just incomprehensible,” said Jaxk Reeves, director of the University of Georgia Statistical Consulting Center. Reeves was one of the academic experts who reviewed the AJC’s analysis.
Another researcher who advised the newspaper, James Wollack, director of testing and evaluation services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said many schools credit their instructional strategies for overnight success. But no changes in teaching methods, he said, are enough to account for “ridiculous, nonsensical gains.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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116 comments Add your comment
Beverly Fraud
April 28th, 2012
2:21 pm
I see the AJC is on its moral high horse again about cheating. Good work by the reporters. But given the AJC’s history, isn’t that moral high horse more like a Shetland pony?
Former AJC staffer Paul Donsky gave the AJC editorial board all the evidence any rational person would need that massive, widespread cheating was rampant at APS.
To steal a phrase from Bowers, they KNEW OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. No the data erasure analysis wasn’t there, but the EVIDENCE was there, as was Jean Dodd, the ONLY APS member with teaching experience who told the paper the scores weren’t real.
The story literally BEGGED for a follow up, if not MULTIPLE follow ups.
But they didn’t want to listen; instead, the editorial board made a deliberate conscious choice to “sell the narrative” of Hall and the Atlanta miracle.
This was 2001. Not 2011 mind you, 2001.
2001.
Word is AJC higher ups squashed Donsky’s follow up (what other reason would there be for not following up a story THAT explosive?)
And with the AJC and the “bidness” community behind her, the story died. For close to a decade.
For close to a decade.
For close to a decade, Atlanta’s children suffered in no small part because the AJC editorial board would not use their bully pulpit to shine a spotlight on the massive scam that was being foisted on the public.
Where’s the accountability? Where’s the acknowledgement “We were wrong. We should have done more.”
Sure, the AJC is doing yoeman’s work…now. And you can’t fairly call the board the (alleged) Jerry Sandusky of educational cheating.
But is it not far to ask if, from 2001 to 2008 they were they not the Joe Paterno of educational cheating in APS?
Is that not a fair and legitimate question to ask?
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 28th, 2012
2:39 pm
@Maureen, the AJC continues to be in complete denial. It still believes that it did “quality journalism,” when in fact, the research has been proven to be materially flawed. I am still waiting for the newspaper to retract its story. A sad story on the state of journalism in America.
Ron F.
April 28th, 2012
2:54 pm
If you read the entire article, at least part of the gain can be attributed to this:
“Myrtle emphasized reading and math, used data to diagnose students’ weaknesses, clamped down on students’ behavior. And he pushed out teachers who weren’t on board with his approach.”
Now that could either be good or bad. Either he got rid of ineffective teachers or he surrounded himself with a bunch who would do anything, including cheating, to make the school look good. Time will tell, I suppose, which is true.
The school began to go back down after Myrtle left. No surprise as any time there is administrative change, scores change. If the replacement wasn’t as focused and hard line, and the article doesn’t say anything about this, then the score trend begins slowly going back the other way. It’s hard to maintain the frenetic pace and pressure that Myrtle apparently ran the school with, and few schools continue it after an administrative change. Challenged schools will always be challenged, and working in one and maintaining spectacular growth is very unlikely.
That said, I’ll be waiting to hear the analysis of answer sheets and erasures. I wonder how many Blue Ribbon schools will have high enough numbers to be suspicious. This series of articles hopefully will shed some light on the fallibility of standardized testing. It’s laborious, often unreliable, and a costly system that encourages cheating. There has to be a better way to fairly test student achievement. How many more cheating scandals will it take to convince those in charge?
mift
April 28th, 2012
3:12 pm
Shameful, AJC. The first investigation was flawed and this builds on that mess. There are many places where education is not working but the flawed data AJC has used paints the entire profession with a broad brush. behind these damaging assumptions are real teachers and students working hard each day.
mift
April 28th, 2012
3:15 pm
Who investigates the AJC?
Beverly Fraud
April 28th, 2012
4:05 pm
@Maureen, the AJC continues to be in complete denial. It still believes that it did “quality journalism,” when in fact, the research has been proven to be materially flawed.
@Censored much as there are fair and legitimate questions about when the AJC was willing to FINALLY address what they knew or SHOULD HAVE KNOWN, I seriously doubt over 80 educators confessed because the AJC’s erasure analysis was bogus.
I ALSO seriously doubt the PRECIPITOUS drop in test scores the once it became known test erasure analysis was a real possibility was just a mere coincidence.
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 28th, 2012
4:10 pm
Several experts have debunked the study as materially flawed, and the AJC removed one city from the original story instead of publicly acknowledging that their list of methodology flaws were, in fact, VALID. Haven’t heard much in the national press since the story broke. It’s best to just ignore such pathetic journalism.
The mainstream media was quick to promote the story to the nation; however, the facts prove that they continue to parade flawed methodology and are scaring educators, parents and policy-makers.
The cat is out of the bag, and no one believes the AJC anymore!!!
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 28th, 2012
4:12 pm
@Beverly Fraud – I am talking about their accusations of school districts around the nation, not APS. There was a cultural failure at APS, but researchers have already pointed out that the study they unveiled on 3/25/12 was without merit.
catlady
April 28th, 2012
4:34 pm
A large group of students (a school) MIGHT show a little improvement from one year to the next, given the best of all situations. Measureable, slight. You would have to observe for quite a few years to be sure it isn’t an anomaly. Tremendous improvement in a large group of students in a year or two? No, and no.
The only individual kids I have ever seen (in 39 years) making earth-shaking changes academically or behaviorally over 2 or more years had something in common: Their mothers married or took up with men who demanded improvement, OR the kids were placed in stable foster homes leading to adoption (almost an oxymoron here in Georgia). If we want to help kids do better, put them in stable homes where there are expectations of doing well, Where education is valued and promoted, where the parents are willing to hold the student accountable and willing to help when needed.
Beverly Fraud
April 28th, 2012
4:34 pm
Well Censored, as much as I’d like to see the AJC (or anyone else) blow the lid off systemic cheating in this country, if indeed the methodology has been accused of being flawed, they should address that.
At first glance, the evidence seems just as compelling as the AJC story on APS. Where is it flawed?
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 28th, 2012
4:42 pm
Creative Loafing has written a terrific op-ed today and it is clear that the AJC is truly afraid of responding to the criticism, both locally and nationally. Seems they are afraid of being exposed as frauds!!
I am not going to list the long number of methodology flaws, but a good list can be found at the MNPS website which came from researchers at Vanderbilt University and other sources.
teacher&mom
April 28th, 2012
4:43 pm
Step back for a minute and look at the big picture called NCLB. No one. No one. wants to hear the policy was flawed from the very beginning.
Ask the average person on the street and they will tell you that 100% was a fool’s wish.
However, we were constantly bombarded with “success stories” which lead many to believe the impossible.
Slowly the public has been brainwashed to believe the myth.
100% is doable.
Just ask Beverly Hall and Michelle Rhee. The nation and media applauded these individuals. These ed. reformers took on the education establishment and swept out the incompetent administrators and teachers. We placed them on the covers of magazines and praised their heroic efforts. Then we insisted other leaders emulate their reforms.
Accountability was working!
The nation cheered….and began to demoralize those in the classroom who were trying to do it the right way but only showing modest gains.
Some tried to raise concerns about the quality of education under NCLB but they were quickly hushed with the dreaded “status quo” label.
Why? Because those schools proved it could be done quickly and efficiently.
So everyone turned their attention to the instructional practices at those schools. Word walls…CRCT pep rallies…scripted lessons…test prep books/computer programs…increased reading and math coupled with the loss of science, social studies, art, music and PE classes …etc. began to spring up throughout the U.S. Consultants descended on schools with the promise of higher scores (which is not to be confused with deeper learning).
Everything became centered around improving test scores.
Teachers who did not follow in step were written up and placed on professional development plans. If they left the profession or went into the private school system, leadership celebrated. They too, just like Rhee and other hardline reformers, were sweeping the out the incompetent.
High attrition rates for beginning teachers? Who cares? They were obviously ill-prepared or lazy was the subtle message given to the public.
Onward we, as a nation, marched to the beat of standardized tests. Come with us or leave the profession.
And now we find that perhaps those gains weren’t so miraculous after all.
*sigh*
So much damage has been wrought.
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 28th, 2012
4:50 pm
Sorry teacher&mom, but you’re wrong here. I don’t believe standardized testing should be given the weight it is given, but at the same time, do NOT think FOR A SECOND that mass cheating is taking place as the AJC believes it to be. Shame on the AJC!!
APS failed because of a poor leader. But that is not what is happening in some urban school districts. Turnarounds ARE happening, and what’s sinful is that the AJC released a study before it could be validated as BULLETPROOF. There are too many holes, and there is no need for me to outline the list of missteps the AJC did along the way.
teacher&mom
April 28th, 2012
5:06 pm
@Being Censored: I firmly believe turnaround can happen. A change in school leadership that focuses, to steal a phrase from John Trotter, on the the teaching and learning conditions will experience success. Exponential success? No. Small and steady gains? Absolutely.
Be careful. The testing empire will not be deposed so easily. It is a multi-billion dollar business that has spread its tentacles far and wide. They will fight back with every ounce of power they have. And they have a lot of power. Power to create their own studies. Power to hire their own researchers to refute anything that goes against their profit margin.
I’ve read the criticism regarding the AJC study. The language used to discredit the study is difficult for the average person to understand. Is that on purpose?
Why don’t you outline the lists of missteps? Break it down for us?
You won’t bore us. I sincerely look forward to your outline of missteps.
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 28th, 2012
5:09 pm
My last post here. Maybe the AJC is trying to place blame in the wrong place. If I were @Maureen, I would look myself in the mirror, and look at a spreadsheet I am looking at which lists all expenditures by category, and graduation rates, for ALL counties in Georgia! The data is mortifying! Look at these graduation rates! APS – 52%!; Gwinnett – 68%!; Dekalb: 59%! And in some rural districts like Taliafero County with 199 students – 40%! Even the best large school districts like Fulton and Cobb are not graduating 30% of their students! And most of these districts are spending more than $10K per student. Problem is, they’re spending far too little on teachers and digital learning and far too much on central office admin!! We should all be outraged at a system that is truly inefficient, and still running the same way it did 150 years ago!
Attentive Parent
April 28th, 2012
5:13 pm
Beverly Fraud-I have stated for years that APS’s numbers could not be real given the curriculum they mandated in their schools, the nature of the instructional policies and practices, and the poor track record of those curricula and practices with anyone but especially kids at high risk.
I also said part of the leverage Bev Hall has always had was the desire to make those practices the basis for what was to be mandated nationally as Common Core. Bev Hall knew why.
Last week a Harvard Ed Professor, Meira Levinson, published a book No Citizen Left Behind on her theories of what education should be about. She was a teacher at APS in the late 90s.
On page 310 she says that APS underwent a drastic change in its ed model in 1996 and that same school reform model is the basis for what Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is now mandating nationally under Race to the Top.
APS’ dysfunctionality and academic failures go national. Except this time they are getting rid of those pesky revealing tests so we are not supposed to recognize the true impact.
Too late. Plus I thought of you Thursday. Members of the Ga legislature have put together a report of which school systems spend the most per student on Central Office admin.
Not only was APS no 1 in Georgia, its CO admin costs about $3000 per student.
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 28th, 2012
5:16 pm
You want missteps – I’ll give you all missteps:
1. The research did NOT take into account mobility. In some districts, mobility rates were more than 40%. That means, from one year to the next, you may not be looking at the same students.
2. Obvious errors in data provided where children who were absent from testing were assigned a “zero” rather than being excluded from the analysis – resulting in average scores that were below the minimum score possible.
3. The AJC methodology will automatically identify 5% of the cases/classes analyzed statewide, but schools with changing populations (see previous bullet) or higher than usual numbers of highly effective or highly ineffective teachers (research supports that teacher effectiveness make the greatest difference in test score gains) are likely to have higher percentages.
4. A significant number of ALCs (Alternative Learning Centers) and special schools were flagged in the data; these schools often have very fluid populations – ALC populations have 100% annual turnover.
There are many others, but some of the list are district-specific. Each school district will have its own set of conditions as it relates to ELLs and other factors that the AJC study did not take into account.
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 28th, 2012
5:20 pm
Oh. I forgot a few others:
1. The analysis is based on school-level data and not individual student-level data. Accordingly, it was not possible to ensure that the same students were in the group in both years. I touched on this earlier.
2. The analysis of irregular jumps in test scores should have been coupled with irregularities in erasure data where this data was available
3. The analysis by the AJC generates predicted values for schools, but this does not incorporate demographic characteristics of the student population.
Maureen Downey
April 28th, 2012
5:27 pm
@Being Censored, You made the same claims when the series began and I printed a rebuttal from our database expert.
Let me say this and be clear: The same criticisms you are making about this series were made about our first series in 2008 on test disparities at APS. In fact, APS hired a national expert to debunk our analysis, but instead he confirmed the AJC’s findings. (That was the report that Dr. Hall did not release or even share with the school board.) Then, Gov. Perdue demanded a statewide audit that found the most severe evidence of tampering in the very same schools that the AJC’s own experts had found.
I can assure readers that this series and the methodology used went through multiple reviews and crosschecks, including experts at UGA. Those same experts have looked at everything that Being Censored has said and essentially said the criticisms are groundless.
The AJC spent a year on this project and spared no time or expense in getting it right.
Maureen
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 28th, 2012
5:30 pm
And the @AJC is getting it WRONG this time. Let me reiterate what I said weeks ago. I have experts to counter your experts. Why don’t you respond to Eric Celeste at Creative Loafing? Why didn’t the AJC respond to Nashville’s concerns and instead, quietly remove references to Nashville from the original story? You’re kidding yourself. Why did the AJC hire a PR firm to promote the story to more than 300 news outlets around the country? You got quotes from Duncan and Isakson in the original story because you put them in a corner! They had no choice but to say something without reviewing the integrity of the data.
What goes around comes around, and I have no doubt that eventually, this will come back full circle and the AJC will have to retract the story!
Maureen Downey
April 28th, 2012
5:38 pm
@Being Censored: You fail to address my point — our groundbreaking work on APS test scores has not been refuted but confirmed. Please note that one of the worst test score disparities the AJC found in APS was Parks Middle.
Our findings were not simply confirmed by the state audit ordered by the governor; they were confirmed in confessions from educators at the school about blatant test tampering. Have you read the testimony?
I don’t get your point. You persist in saying that we have gotten this wrong and will be exposed. We did the APS investigation in 2008. Four years ago.
You don’t think that was time enough to prove us wrong?
You ignore the fact that every attempt in that four years to discredit our analysis has failed to do so, and that our methodology has been proven accurate not only by the state audit but by the actual confessions from educators at the schools flagged by our investigation.
Maureen
Attentive Parent
April 28th, 2012
5:42 pm
Highland Elementary and what was really going on there just got much more interesting.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/SafetyGlance/fy2008/schools/02774.pdf
shows that Heath Morrison was the relevant super for that school and others undergoing “school improvement” plans. He rode the idea he was turning around high needs schools successfully to go from Montgomery County to be Washoe County, Nevada’s (Reno) Super to lead their “school improvement” efforts.
That turnaround plan, adopted May 2010, won him National Super of the Year for 2012.
It also just won him the job as Charlotte-Meck’s new Super, named just about a week ago.
Given the Charlotte-Meck alums all now having senior positions in Fulton it is important to monitor what was and is really going on there.
Just like Dallas hiring the Colorado Springs Super is relevant to what policies Hinojosa was pushing in Dallas and seems to be pushing now in Cobb.
One big national chess game but with our money and our children.
teacher&mom
April 28th, 2012
5:43 pm
Here’s where I take issue with current education reform efforts that are centered around standardized testing….and not centered around learning. There is a difference. Often times the public is led to believe they are one and the same. They aren’t.
I suspect that some of the Blue Ribbon schools raised test scores without cheating on the test. I believe that is possible. If you devote a large portion of the school year to test prep in math and reading, you’ll see gains. If you constantly feed students a large daily portion of practice test questions, isolated reading passages, Study Island, Success Maker, etc., you’ll get gains.
If you happen to purchase your test prep resources from the same publisher of the standardized test, I suspect you’ll stand even a greater chance of improving your test scores. It’s a win-win.
Or is it?
While we all rant and rave about erasures, we forget that a entire generation has been short changed and cheated out of a solid education. We still refuse to address how standardized testing has wrecked havoc on our schools.
Too many students have been cheated…without ever cheating on a standardized test.
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 28th, 2012
5:43 pm
APS had a leadership failure! It just so happened that in APS, there was a cheating scandal, and the state did their own investigation. But it is not happening en masse around the nation, and researchers have pointed out a series of flaws with how this recent study was conducted.
Your readers will believe anything you write, and it seems that the mainstream media just likes to talk about sensationalism and won’t ever have the guts to publish a retraction.
When the US Dept of Education and other “neutral” bodies corroborate your research and we start to see a wave of analysis that validates the AJC study, then I will be the first one to publish a “mea culpa” on my own blog.
But I truly doubt that will ever happen!
Maureen Downey
April 28th, 2012
5:52 pm
@Being,
Last response as this is getting idiotic. Your argument appears to be that while the AJC’s investigation and data analysis got it right with APS, we are getting it wrong with the other school districts — even though we used the same methodology.
That somehow our results for those other school districts cannot be accurate even though our results were accurate for Atlanta?
Because Atlanta is somehow extraordinary in its degree of test tampering but every other system with similarly improbable score gains is, in fact, just doing a great job?
Is that what you are telling us?
Let me add this part of today’s story to clarify the degree of improbability we are talking about here:
Maureen
Attentive Parent
April 28th, 2012
6:10 pm
Maureen-the Council of Great City Schools had a model. What APS was pushing is consistent with that model. That’s why they wanted Bev as their Pres.
That model has poor results on standardized testing because academics in the traditional sense is not the point of what is to be going on in the classroom.
If you have a culture that views the tests as an illegitimate measure of what should be going on in classrooms, it is easy to justify cheating. That’s another point in Levinson’s book. She only had the license to pursue the type of classroom experiences she believed to be empowering if she was teaching in an area not measured or had a principal who did not care about test results.
Some of this is a desperate attempt to protect constructivist pedagogy and methodologies from the inevitable poor results when dealing with ESL or high poverty kids who are much less likely to get remediation at home as a natural by-product of a language rich environment and analytical, fact-based interactions with available adults from an early age.
Never met a parent who would rather the school nurture a sense of grievance and group identity instead of teaching the knowledge and marketable skills to lead an independent adult life.
Jayne
April 28th, 2012
6:16 pm
I read through the states wrong to right erasure analysis and anyone who thinks that all was well at the AJC is not in the real world. The statistical liklihood of these wrong to write erasures is so small as to enter ricidulousness. Only the wilfull can deny the truth that the AJC and many other systems have engaged in wide spread and systemic cheating.
Brandy
April 28th, 2012
6:22 pm
@Being Censored, I am willing (if asked) to go on record confirming that cheating went on in Baltimore City during my tenure (2006-2007) there. Which district(s) do you dispute having cheated?
The only district I might (darn, I wish there was an italics function on here) agree may not have had mass cheating was Dallas. Why? Because, by-and-large, they were the only district that responded to the AJC’s expose like adults. They admitted they had screwed up, but also explained what they were doing differently. If other highlighted districts responded in kind, I would be more inclined to give your claims credence. Unfortunately, they did not and have not.
I would love to actually hear from these experts you keep alluding to. Please, enlighten us all by presenting links to their works. Otherwise, stop wasting our time and get off your soap box.
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 28th, 2012
6:36 pm
This is my LAST post. @Maureen, re-read my last comment. I will be the first person to write a “mea culpa” if it is proven that the AJC conducted sound research. When the US Dept of Education and other independent bodies validate the AJC report, then I will acquiesce. But believe me, it’s not happening.
All of the other readers on this blog who are commenting that there was cheating at their schools – I am sure there were isolated instances. But the AJC is not going to get the same “pass” from other state governments and the federal government.
Brandy, I have already made a list of methodology flaws and they come from MNPS and other sources. But the AJC refuses to respond to Eric Celeste, MNPS. or any of the other bodies that have listed a great many flaws with the methodology.
Believe what you want to believe, everyone. Until the AJC has the guts to let another blogger author a yang to @Maureens “yin,” then you will all believe one side of the story.
Atlanta is not getting balanced reporting on education policy!
Dr. John Trotter
April 28th, 2012
6:58 pm
A few quick points before delving into some home-cooked gumbo…
1. I am glad that the AJC finally has taken an interest in the riveting cheating scandals — not just in Atlanta but nationwide. By doing so, the AJC becomes significant. When an enterprise puts out a significant product, the consumer responds favorably. Thanks, Maureen, for keeping the topic before.
2. @ Bev: The AJC might have been a long time coming but it did in fact play and still is playing a very significant role in exposing this insidious sin (if my may use this word in this family newspaper – ha!). Thanks, Beverly Fraud, for always being so persistent!
3. Catlady is right. There can be incremental strides, but when you see the huge jumps, an alarm ought to go off in your head. Cheating! The Law of the Large Numbers simply does not permit such astronomical jumps. That’d be like South DeKalb county voting overwhelmingly for Romney in November. It’s not going to happen. If it does happen, you can be certain of voter fraud.
4. @ teacher&mom: It is indeed all about the money. The entire standardized test-driven culture which now dominates the public schooling ethos is driven by money. Too much money is being made by the tests and the preparations for the tests. Billions of dollars are at stake.
5. Is Arne Duncan really this naive or is he just engaging in unconscionable hucksterism?
Teachers Rule!
April 28th, 2012
7:13 pm
The whole problem is how the educrats at the central office administer these tests. Students should not fill in the answers. The teachers should fill in the answers. Teachers know what they taught their students and are so smart they know exactly what the students learned becasuse we all know Georgia has the best teachers in Amereica. They are more better than at least two whole other states full of teachers, Arkansas and Mississippi. They are 49 and 50 out of 50 and that is simply remarkable. They deserve a blue ribbon just for that alone.
Anyway, as I was saying, the teachers should just fill out the test answers because they know what they taught and their skills are perfect so every student should pass all areas. Erasing test answers from wrong to right is what should have been done. Teachers wen’t cheating. They were correcting what the students should have known and the teachers are alwasys honest and can never be bribed.
Maureen Downey only has a degree from Columbia, which is a shoddy school compared to A&M and online Universities like Phoenix. Phoenix is so much more selective than Columbia. ANyway, Maureen is just jealous that she is not as smart as a teacher and that is why she forced the AJC to make up all these false accusations against GA teachers. It’s a vast liberal right-wing conspiracy by Maureen and all the liberal Republicans to discredit teachers.
I’ll not stand for that. We should all just thank Jesus for Georgia taechers.
Prof
April 28th, 2012
7:30 pm
“Teachers Rule!” has to be a high school student.
Old Physics Teacher
April 28th, 2012
7:34 pm
Maureen,
There are additional ways to tell if “miraculous gains” on test scores are valid: What did the same kids score the next year when they were at different schools with different teachers? If the test scores stayed high, then you have some evidence the gains were valid. People do leave Las Vegas with a million dollars. Individuals do beat the Laws of Statistics. If the scores fell, then, well,… the laws of statistics are rarely violated.
Oh and before you goody two-shoes claim the teachers at the old school were so great that their teaching made all the difference, you might want to check out the thousands of studies that show teacher effect is extremely small. If the first teachers were that great, then the material the first teachers taught so well was remembered and could then be easily increased. if the scores fell, then the previous success DID NOT OCCUR.
And for the people who claim the principal was the causative effect, hahahahahaha. Tell me another good one.
Attentive Parent
April 28th, 2012
7:58 pm
One more point. What makes you think “student achievement” doesn’t have a meaning apart from test scores?
Redefine the terms without saying so.
Classic ed world gaming.
You show improvement because the criteria changed.
Footnotes are such a useful source of info.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
April 28th, 2012
9:06 pm
Maureen,
KUDOS to the AJC for confronting malfeasance in the APS, in GAPubEd, and in USPubEd.
It’s refreshing to see a corporation withstand the economic pressures which are assuredly being placed upon your executives to dissuade them from supporting your investigative reporting efforts. While “there isn’t much courage in Augusta, GA,” there’s quite a bit in your executive suite. You and we are lucky for it.
Beverly Fraud
April 28th, 2012
9:41 pm
Just as I suspected, Maureen would address @censored, as it is a comparative softball in relation to answering the fair and legitimate questions about Paul Donsky’s work back in 2001.
As Maureen is saying (rightly) that while the data doesn’t “prove” cheating, when no other viable alternative exists, we are left with cheating as the most logical explanation.
By that same token, Paul Donsky’s work back in 2001-yes 2001 was evidence enough that the most logical explanation was, (as has been proven with the 2008 follow up) WIDESPREAD MASSIVE cheating.
The question remains, where is the acknowledgement that the AJC sat on Donsky’s story for a full SEVEN years, because the editorial board (or other higher ups) thought it was more important to sell the Hall narrative than serve as a true watchdog advocate?
Where’s the apology to the children of APS?
Yet where is the acknowledgement from the AJC that they failed their r
Ron F.
April 28th, 2012
10:07 pm
Wow, this is fun to read!! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to read the numbers and wonder. You get a 10-20% gain in a year, maybe you really did do a good job of shoveling the test knowledge into kids. If they sustain that level of performance, then they learned it. If you double scores and go up 40,50, 60% in just a few years, you gotta wonder. If it’s not cheating, then it’s teaching almost exclusively to a test, which is just as bad. Either way, kids are robbed of a quality education. Teaching to the test has increasingly become the norm instead of teaching beyond it. I think the reason this upsets some so, and why they just cannot seem to accept the facts of the widespread cheating is that it challenges their blind acceptance that standardized tests are the only way to assess learning.
bootney farnsworth
April 28th, 2012
10:25 pm
public ed is broken beyond repair.
bootney farnsworth
April 28th, 2012
10:29 pm
@ beverly
knowing the potential heat which may come from this…
the AJC never was gonna look to closely at the so called APS turnaround. for political and social engineering, the Beverly Hall
mythos had to stand as correct, honest, and true.
in the most race obsessed city in the country, the far left of center
AJC was not ever gonna take a hard look at the reality in the classroom
Anonmom
April 28th, 2012
10:49 pm
To me this is a “duh” — if you hinge teacher and administrator jobs on “performance” and “improvement” as solely measured under NCLB as “being on grade level” and reaching 100% of kids at grade level, which is itself statistically impossible because of things like below-normal IQs and IEQs and economics and transience and then you layer onto that the fact that you’re going to make the teachers “pay” with bonuses and “dings” and “firings” if they don’t “succeed” with this effort and lable schools as “failing” and then add to that the fact that teachers are humans but have little control over their environments in many of these situations (e.g. give them classoroms that are stuffed with 30-35 kids at all sorts of levels, above and below grade level and tell them exactly and precisely how they are to teach the curriculum — pacing charts and pre-tests and post-tests so that they have little control over the outcome) — why is it that anyone is surprise that the schoolhouses have figured out how to “game” the system? Where it is as it was happening at my highly regarded DCSS high school by intentionally setting up tables of 4-6 with 1 or 2 “smart” kids with ones needing help so they could cheat off of each other or by someone within the schoolhouse erasing and changing answers or by someone filling in the bubbles or calling out the answers. How naive are we? The stakes are very high with jobs riding on the results. The teachers may be ones cheating or it may be the administrators. If the test-takiers are statiscially and IQ-wise unlikely to make it to “grade level” it is highly likely that something is askew. I’m sorry if this sounds cynical but that’s the way they’ve designed the program. Now, if they would design the program to look for improvement and give the teachers control over how to teach the curriculum then you could really look to see if improvement was takiing place. But it is completely unrealistic to expect some random set of children in a classroom to be at a fixed place by the end of the year the way we are currenlty doing it with the pressures being put in the places it is being put with the “controls” set the way they are…… Sorry to Rant. We are getting exactly what we “bargained” for at the rate of billions of dollars a year.
William Casey
April 28th, 2012
11:31 pm
I remember thinking when NCLB was implemented that its unreasonable goals just begged people to CHEAT…… CHEAT….. CHEAT. I certainly wasn’t clairvoyant. I’d simply taught long enough to know that human beings faced with IMPOSSIBLE goals will “find a way.” This in no way JUSTIFIES what was done by administrators, teachers or Bev Hall. It was simply predictable Fear is a powerful motivator.
.
Old Physics Teacher
April 29th, 2012
12:29 am
bootney farnsworth
It’s not broken beyond repair.
All that is needed is for the legislators – federal and state – to say, “I’ve screwed this up; I’m sorry; I thought I could “fix” this, and I’ve done nothing but make a bad situation worse, AND for school administrators to say: “I have no idea why I thought that if you gave me more money, I could make all children learn. I’m sorry.” Then everybody let the TEACHERS DO WHAT THEY DO BEST – teach, and let PARENTS DO WHAT THE DO BEST – discipline their kids. It worked before. It produced the “Greatest Generation” and the people who put us into space.
Will they do it? Absolutely not. No person in power wants to admit they were the cause of a catastrophe. They want a scapegoat. They found the people with the least power and blamed it on them. Well, duh.
The problems would all sort themselves out once the idiots get off the playing field
bootney farnsworth
April 29th, 2012
7:01 am
@ old physics
you’re argueing my position for me
public education has become a lab for social engineering and profit.
we don’t teach HOW to think, we teach WHAT to think, and why.
our system is designed to do the following
1-keep those currently in power staying in power
2-propagandize kids
3-stifle any real creativity, initative, or curiousity
4-social engineering, especially in the arena of race
5-football
that’s broken. beyond repair broken
@Beverly Fraud
April 29th, 2012
7:43 am
Why would Maureen want to address your Paul Donsky question? After all she was to busy defending the great Bev Hall during those years…remember?
Dr. John Trotter
April 29th, 2012
8:13 am
My thoughts on a Sunday morning…
Not many honest educators are promoted within the school systems…especially the large school systems. Their integrity is a threat to the environment. It’s not just that cheating took place on a massive scale in these school systems; it’s that so much phony baloney takes places on a daily basis, and the professional bullsh1tters don’t want the honest educators to have a voice. A voice is too powerful. A voice is a ominous threat to the servile-ocracy which has been the culture of public school systems (and other large corporations) for many decades now.
If you will give up your voice, if you will renounce your integrity, if you will just be a number who is happy to receive your pay check, benefits, and nice retirement, then this servile-ocracy will reward you, beginning with the assistant principalship. If you demonstrate that you will continue to renounce your integrity and give up your voice, then you will move up the corporate ladder — and much quicker if you are a sexy woman or a handsome and athletic man. But, no matter how good looking you are, you first have to renounce your integrity and your voice. © JRAT.
Am I being too direct? Am I not telling the truth? You know that I am. Ha!
Good morning!
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 29th, 2012
8:25 am
@Maureen still won’t respond to all of my questions and the initial list of methodology flaws. I will guarantee you that the AJC will NEVER directly respond to each and every point brought up by Eric Celeste, Gary Miron, and other researchers, including MNPS.
I blogged about this – having been in the media industry for more than 20 years – rule #1 is that you NEVER publish research unless it is BULLETPROOF. You all believe want you want to believe. For most of you – you can’t teach an old dog new tricks! In twenty years, the Brandys of the world will WISH they had embraced change. Shame on you!
mountain man
April 29th, 2012
8:25 am
Anyone who thinks that you can turn around a school systemn with just “accountability” – without addressing issues such as parental involvement, attendance, discipline – they are fooling themselves. They are ripe for the snake-oil salesmen like Beverly Hall who supposedly make great gains in test ability magically by just “making teachers responsible”. Teachers were already responsible, but they lacked any authority – to discipline, to grade and fail, and thus were denied any pathways to success. That left them only one path to keep their jobs – cheating on the test. They are not miracle workers. You can’t take a group of students who have been socially promoted for eight years, who arrive several grade levels below where they need to be, in classes of thiry students, and , with no extra support, catch them up to their grade level in one year.
Maureen Downey
April 29th, 2012
8:35 am
@Beverly, I have to tell you that you are dreaming if you ever think there was ever a single discussion about how the AJC editorial board could spread the Hall narrative. There are far simpler reasons why the AJC could not do the story in 2001. We didn’t have the computer access, the computer know-how or the database reporters like John Perry back then to do what we did in 2008.
You focus on APS because that is your personal interest, but there are dozens of investigations that the AJC and other newspapers are now doing that were not possible a decade ago without access to massive databases and tools to compare the information.
Maureen
Dr. John Trotter
April 29th, 2012
8:37 am
Edited Edition of “Give Up Your Voice”:
Not many honest educators are promoted within the school systems…especially the large school systems. Their integrity is a threat to the environment. It’s not just that cheating took place on a massive scale in these school systems; it’s that so much phony baloney takes places on a daily basis, and the professional bullsh1tters don’t want the honest educators to have a voice. A voice is too powerful. A voice is an ominous threat to the servile-ocracy which has been the culture of public school systems (and other large corporations) for many decades now.
If you will give up your voice, if you will renounce your integrity, if you will just be a number who is happy to receive your pay check, benefits, and nice retirement, then this servile-ocracy will reward you, beginning with the assistant principalship. If you demonstrate that you will continue to renounce your integrity and give up your voice, then you will move up the corporate ladder — and much quicker if you are a sexy woman or a handsome and athletic man. But, no matter how good looking you are, you first have to renounce your integrity and give up your voice. © JRAT.
Am I being too direct? Am I not telling the truth? You know that I am. Ha!
Good morning!
mountain man
April 29th, 2012
8:40 am
“And he pushed out teachers who weren’t on board with his approach.”
Just like Beverly Hall. I am looking forward to a full investigation and see where the students who had such remarkable gains are today. Are they at MIT making straight A;s?
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 29th, 2012
8:42 am
I think you should all also know that @Maureen has been censoring my comments. ON previous blog posts, it has taken nearly 24 hours for my posts to go up.
What are you afraid of? Maybe the TRUTH? I dare the AJC to make a full and complete disclosure of not only data tables but also in responding to not only the researchers, but also MNPS. Still would love to know why Nashville was removed from the original story instead of the AJC publicly acknowledging that maybe their critique was VALID? Hmmmm. Interesting.
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 29th, 2012
8:51 am
OH. And lets be clear here. The AJC IS accusing these districts of cheating. Even though they sneaked some disclaimer content in the story, their headline is “Cheating our Children.” They did this TO SELL NEWSPAPERS and didn’t care that they scared an entire system, accused numerous teachers of cheating, and threw everyone in the system under the bus.
Ends justifies the means, right @Maureen?
Chris Murphy
April 29th, 2012
8:52 am
@Beverly: I can’t speak to why the AJC didn’t follow up Donsky’s particular findings, but it wasn’t the AJC’s fault Hall, et al, were able to institute a Wonderland-type system. APS and its Board and personnel have their own sins to deal with, but the parents and citizens are also (but not equally) culpable. There was no outcry after Donsky’s article, that I remember. And Jean Dodd was not known as a stellar member of the Board; lord knows what she was like as a teacher.
Hall came in to an abysmal system: APS had a graduation rate of about 45%, and the Board was kangaroo court of comedy available on public-access TV. The system, like the City, had been losing population for decades (some of that due to families having less kids, but also to families with kids fleeing the City). The Chamber of Commerce tried to help by promising to promote “good” candidates for the Board. As Hall made sweeping changes, backed by rhetoric and statistics, all wanted to believe all was well.
Thing was, just looking at gross measures- for ex., number of freshmen in a given class vs. number of seniors left in that class, showed that any gains were incremental, at best. In 12 years, graduation rate (for the class cohort) improved from 45% to 52%; a gain, yes, but still incredibly bad. And given the amount spent per pupil, unbelievably bad. Did any Board members cry out? Heck no. Parents? No. But they did institute rules where a kid could ‘march’ in cap and gown with their class if they met attendance standards (such as they are), even if they were to get a blank piece of paper instead of a diploma.
You can’t blame the AJC for that kind of apathy, and negligence.
Chris Murphy
April 29th, 2012
8:54 am
@Being: I thought you made your last post?
mountain man
April 29th, 2012
9:11 am
The cure to solving the education crisis is simple and I have touted it repeatedly – the trouble is that is is politically a non-starter. It would also take many years to implement and the gains would be slow. It would start with strict attendance requirements – and parents of truant children would face jail time (what else is ther, they cannot be fined). Schools should be year-roud, but the summer is devoted to intensive tutoring in low student-teacher ratio classes. Teachers would teach year-round and their pay would go up (there, I’ve lost another segment when I said TAXES would have to be increased). Students are tested at the end of the year by independent tester, and those not on grade level are FAILED, and must go to summer school. At the end of summer school, they are tested again and any that fail to pass are RETAINED. Special alternative classes are set up for those students who are 16 years old and in the first grade. Discipline is handled by giving the TEACHER sole authority to remove students who are problems, such student may not be placed in ANY other teacher’s class until discipline issues have been dealt with. Teachers are allowed and encouraged to make homework mandatory and give zeroes if it is not handed in on time. Same for tests missed without a proper excuse – zero. SPED students are evaluated as to their disruptive effect on other students and, if there is disruption, they are shifted to their own classroom so as not to affect the other students.
And we need to accept that we cannot force some horses to drink, and there will be the inevitable drop-outs because some students just do not want to learn. We just need to get them out of the way of those that do.
Education is not rocket science, but we have gone so far off the rails that it will take a major effort to get ourselves straight again.
Prof
April 29th, 2012
9:25 am
He/she who asserts must prove. The burden of proof that the AJC cheating story has used “flawed data” and “flawed methodology” rests upon “Being Censored” who has made the accusation, not Maureen or the AJC in their defense.
Several here have asked “Being Censored” for specifics, but the only reply is to make the same accusation over and over, while citing an op-ed column written by Eric Celeste in Creative Loafing. What is his statistical expertise exactly and how/why does it outweigh that of the University Professors of Statistics hired by the AJC for their studies?
I am wondering whether there is some private agenda in all of this repetitive attacking by “Being Censored by @Maureen.” As bloggers here have been saying so often in all contexts relating to public education: follow the money.
bootney farnsworth
April 29th, 2012
9:33 am
@ Dr. John,
you may have phrased it more gently and so I missed it, but you
seem to have left out two critical issues for educational success
1-a willingness to kiss butt
2-a willingness to to destroy anyone, be they a threat or not, for political gain
Being Censored by @Maureen
April 29th, 2012
9:33 am
Prof, you apparently haven’t been reading the posts. I will not respond to ignorance. I gave you plenty of facts – you just choose to ignore them!
You want my agenda? Well it’s not money, prof. The textbook publishers already get monopoly profits from K-12. My agenda is very simple. I want the facts, not sensationalism. As a concerned citizen, I don’t like baseless accusations and newspapers disclosing faulty research and scaring the electorate. If you think that the problem with our education system is test security, boy are you people misguided! Have you looked at the graduation rates lately? And are we really graduating qualified workers? Have you looked at how much remedial work our college professors have to do? It’s pathetic.
I think for all of you folks, the old saying “ignorance is bliss” probably sticks.
Feel free to lambast me all you like, because I won’t be monitoring this blog anymore.
Dr. John Trotter
April 29th, 2012
9:48 am
Bootney: As usual, you are right. I was being gentle by using “servile” for b-tt kissing. And, yes, the corporate school systems will try to destroy anyone who doesn’t toe the line. Then, every now and then, a crazy one like me comes on the scene and fights back. They really don’t know how to deal with someone who fights back…except try to malign or marginalize him or her with false and anonymous accusations that they never step up to the plate to defend. They don’t have the guts. Why does this remind me of Mark Elgart and SACS? Ha!
Ron F.
April 29th, 2012
9:56 am
mountain man: @8:40. You hit on a very important point. I’d love to see the data on kids from the blue ribbon schools over time. If they made a high score while in the blue ribbon school but then failed everything thereafter, I’d have to wonder. Part of the problem is that we don’t see the longitudinal data. They move, they end up scattered through several middle schools and high schools, and we never know for sure. I’d love to be able to dig in and get a sample group and see.
Attentive Parent
April 29th, 2012
10:00 am
I think Being Censored’s agenda is to be so painfully redundant with poor syntax that the thread is too painful to read so that little accurate and damning info results.
Maureen- I will make one point. Before your erasure stories when I pointed out problems you published a letter from the Pres of Education Trust, Kati Hancock, where she asserted that the criticisms of APS were basically a racist assertion that poor minority kids could not learn. I made the point I have made above that certain materials and practices are in fact lethal. And that those were what APS used.
On a different occasion I made a similar point and somehow Kristin Chenowith appeared posting by name as a rebuttal making a similar point to Kati’s within 15 minutes or so of my posting. I responded from my arsenal of facts and Kristin disappeared from the debate.
The AJC went out of its way for as long as possible to protect APS based on my experience.
My take on the current set of stories is that it is designed to rehab APS and advance the current Common Core implementation agenda by tainting standardized testing in general. It helps create a belief that new forms of assessment which effectively remove objective measures of knowledge are in fact better.
It takes some of the opprobrium of the City of Atlanta as it recruits business if the cheating can be attributed to urban districts generally. That way it can also be a strategy for arguing that there must be economic equity first before we try to obtain common levels of academic achievement.
It then gets back to our little Finland exchange and whether relatively equal socioeconomic levels for the Finns are behind their results on PISA.
Anonmom
April 29th, 2012
10:06 am
In partial support of “being censored” — I firmly believe that the AJC spent many years “protecting” DCSS — I firmly believe that Dr. Lewis and Others had “placed” people in position at the AJC (who probably are not there at the moment as the AJC has had some turn over and Dr. Lewis has had some misfortune befall him as well) who seemed to bury stories about the things going on at DCSS that are now the subject of the pending criminal charges… when parents brought various aspects of these stories to the attention of various journalists (at the AJC and to the others in the news) –somehow it gets (still does) turned around and the parents are the “bad guys” –the stories are not (and have not) been investigated the way I think they might have been under more “ideal” journalistic guidelines and the stories would have been busted (compare the scrutiny given to, say one of the Republican presidential nominees and to President Obama in 2008) — I think stories have been suppressed due to “connections” and education reporters had to find new jobs because of the “thoroughness” of these connections. I appreciate the fact that the AJC is finally willing to tackle these issues. I wish, however, that the forensic accounting nature of the billions of dollars that are being spent, year by year, along with “friends and family” connections and “resume qualifications” layered with the diploma mill discussions we’ve also had to fully understand the “ride” the taxpayers and children have been experiencing over the past decade (or more).
Attentive Parent
April 29th, 2012
10:08 am
Maureen-I seem to be in your filter.
John-have you ever seen the correspondence between Mark Elgart and SACS and the Wake County school board where he tells them they are not free to hire legal representation as they see fit and basically claiming the right to preapprove the lawyers?
Then he tells the board that they must meet with him without any legal representation at the meeting.
Apparently he sees school boards as SACS’ vassals instead of fiduciaries for taxpayers and students.
Good to be King I suppose.
bootney farnsworth
April 29th, 2012
10:10 am
@ Dr. John,
I may be a bit touchy on the subject, but it comes from honest and painful experience.
over my far too many years at GPC I have seen several good, honest, dedicated people try to conscienciously(sp)object to an initative or unnecessary spending and be personally and/or professionally destroyed in the process
andthen replaced by less talented, less dedicated slugs who are gladly willing to do as told in exchange for promotion, a fancy title, and (biggest here) a minor place at the political trough
Attentive Parent
April 29th, 2012
10:11 am
I guess I will try again with a slightly different lead-in. AnonMom’s recollection on DCSS has now appeared and is not inconsistent with what I saw on APS or the whole integrated math fiasco for that matter.
I think Being Censored’s agenda is to be so painfully redundant with poor syntax that the thread is too painful to read so that little accurate and damning info results.
Maureen- I will make one point. Before your erasure stories when I pointed out problems you published a letter from the Pres of Education Trust, Kati Hancock, where she asserted that the criticisms of APS were basically a racist assertion that poor minority kids could not learn. I made the point I have made above that certain materials and practices are in fact lethal. And that those were what APS used.
On a different occasion I made a similar point and somehow Kristin Chenowith appeared posting by name as a rebuttal making a similar point to Kati’s within 15 minutes or so of my posting. I responded from my arsenal of facts and Kristin disappeared from the debate.
The AJC went out of its way for as long as possible to protect APS based on my experience.
My take on the current set of stories is that it is designed to rehab APS and advance the current Common Core implementation agenda by tainting standardized testing in general. It helps create a belief that new forms of assessment which effectively remove objective measures of knowledge are in fact better.
It takes some of the opprobrium of the City of Atlanta as it recruits business if the cheating can be attributed to urban districts generally. That way it can also be a strategy for arguing that there must be economic equity first before we try to obtain common levels of academic achievement.
It then gets back to our little Finland exchange and whether relatively equal socioeconomic levels for the Finns are behind their results on PISA.
Attentive Parent
April 29th, 2012
10:14 am
Definitely in the filter. Second revised posting still got pulled.
Interesting.
bootney farnsworth
April 29th, 2012
10:14 am
@ attentive
he knows better, he’s just resorting to old fashioned intimidation. and I can’t blame him – it usually works.
The sad part of the story...
April 29th, 2012
10:46 am
…Dr. Totter is always right!
Dr. John Trotter
April 29th, 2012
8:13 am
mountain man
April 29th, 2012
11:02 am
Being Censored – so YOU believe that these Blue Ribbon Schools ACTUALLY did produce the dramatic results that they claimed. So what was their “magic bullet” other than firing anyone who disagreed with them (the Beverly Hall method)? I am automatically suspicious of any person who says they can overcome years of “social promotion” and bring kids to grade level with no additional resources. Let’s get those kids and re-test them, and see how they fare on an independent testing agency test. I know how I think it will turn out.
Teacher2
April 29th, 2012
11:04 am
@Being Censored by @Maureen
“Feel free to lambast me all you like, because I won’t be monitoring this blog anymore”
You have stated that you it was your LAST post several times on this blog. So follow through with your statement. Futhermore, do not change your blog name and start the last time all over again. I would offer that you are on at least your second blog name.
Dr. John Trotter
April 29th, 2012
11:07 am
Dear “sad”: I will happily take that as a complement — or is this compliment? Thank you.
Dear “attentive parent”: I have not read this correspondence between Wake County and SACS but have been loosely keeping up with the situation. I have just finished writing a fairly long article for my personal blog about SACS’s interaction in Clayton County, but I haven’t posted it yet (perhaps I will post it here). It is sickening how SACS works. S-A-C-S. Still Advocating for Cronies and Shills. SACS and Mark Elgart are, in my opinion, professional jokes and hacks and thugs.
Questioning AJC's Methods, Not Necessarily Questioning Its Overall Results
April 29th, 2012
11:07 am
@Maureen-
Whatever happened with the investigation of Morningside Elementary School’s 5th grade CRCT jumps? In July 2011, AJC wrote an article essentially accusing Morningside of cheating, based solely on an increase in CRCT scores from one year to the next. When it was pointed out to the AJC that in the year that the CRCT scores increased, a third of Morningside’s population had been redistricted to a new school (leaving Morningside with an overall higher SES population than it had had previously, and also relieving MES of potentially performance-depressing overcrowding), you (Maureen) said:
“If it’s true, obviously that could affect the scores. … We … gave the district our results well in advance of the story running and asked them if they knew of any possible explanations. They said that their own analysis produced the same results and they’re going to look into what’s behind the big jumps. So I guess we should stay tuned.”
So … what ever happened with that?
Although the possibility of cheating (or, for that matter, harmful forms of teaching to the test) should always be considered when there are strange jumps in test scores, the fact that the AJC did not even notice that there had been a huge change in population at that school (which its own quoted expert later said was an extremely relevant fact in any analysis of the cause of CRCT score jump) before it published an article essentially accusing the staff of cheating, makes me reluctant to rely on its analysis in these other articles.
I think it’s very likely that most of the APS teachers and administrators accused by GA and the AJC were guilty of serious wrongdoing. I think it’s very likely that many or most of the “miracle” results around the country (Rhee and others) are, as the AJC articles imply, faked (and that many or most of those that aren’t outright faked are the result of harmful forms of teaching to very low standards tests).
But it’s dangerous to sweep with a broad net as well. Especially because it sometimes seems that the AJC (whose job is, in the end, to sell papers) may not be checking the net so carefully at this point.
Prof
April 29th, 2012
11:19 am
@ Being Censored by @Maureen, April 29th, 9:33 am: “You want my agenda? Well it’s not money, prof. The textbook publishers already get monopoly profits from K-12….”
Well, I was thinking more along the lines of your being associated with one of the National Blue Ribbon Schools.
The sad part of the story...
April 29th, 2012
11:21 am
@ DR T,
It was most certainly a compliment!
Teacher2
April 29th, 2012
11:32 am
Correction- @Being Censored by @Maureen- You have stated that it was your LAST post several times on this blog. So follow through with your statement. Futhermore, do not change your blog name and start the “last time” all over again. I would offer that you are on at least your second blog name.
Ed Johnson
April 29th, 2012
11:49 am
July 17, 2001 (Yes, 2001)
Ms. Cynthia Tucker, Editor
The Atlanta Constitution
Post Office Box 4689
Atlanta, Georgia 30302
Dear Ms. Tucker:
The enclosed charts highlight the Atlanta Public Schools’ [lack of] systemic capability to impart better and better reading and math competencies to elementary and middle school children. The charts were derived from the Spring 2000 Iowa Tests of Basic Skills school grade average percentile scores published on the APS web site.
The various charts are of 1) the APS as a whole and 2) each APS district bounded by the APS as a whole. I encourage you to view the charts and share them with other parties, including readers of the AJC.
The charts make clear the almost continuous grade to grade degeneration of the APS systemic capability to impart reading and math competencies to children. The situation generally starts from first grade. Moreover, the degeneration apparently occurs no matter teachers’ best efforts, parents’ involvement, and children’s social, cultural, and economic features.
From the standpoint of systemacy, it is unwise to label any APS district “low achieving,” “high achieving,” or anything in between, as the charts portray an educational system that is itself continually driving down all students’ learning. Therefore, significant improvement must happen systemically, not locally.
Ms. Tucker, I look forward to the day you and I and others will work together to bring to the Atlanta Public Schools quality principles known to give rise to significant systemic improvement of student learning. I also look forward to opportunities to discuss any of this with you and interested parties, at any time.
Sincerely,
Ed Johnson
Enclosures
PS. The enclosures also include two scatter diagrams, which beg this question: Does extensive involvement with the APS by businesses and corporations impede the APS systemic capability to drive up student learning? If so, would not it be wise to institute for businesses and corporations “qualified involvement” with the APS? It is laudable the APS accepts outside help without qualification; however, outside help that engenders misguided noise and unnecessary waste suboptimizes the APS system. Therefore, I must ask this and other tough and potentially risky questions; it is a matter of the well being of Atlanta’s children and their families.
Attentive Parent
April 29th, 2012
11:51 am
Dr Trotter and anyone else-here’s the link to Wake correspondence.
http://www.wakeedpartnership.org/news/d/AdvancEDExchange.pdf
I think it is a mistake in general to refer just to SACS instead of AdvancEd. Most of the regional accreditation bodies are now wholly owned subs of AdvancEd. Just referring to SACS mischaracterizes the immense power Elgart now has over what goes on in colleges and universities and K-12 system all over US and to some extent the world.
I have some fascinating and troubling minutes of what he told a Dubai ed group would be necessary to obtain AdvancEd’s decal.
Plus are you aware that in December, Knowledge Alliance, the lobbying trade group for all those expensive, federally financed ed labs, elected Elgart as its Pres? Certainly its privilege but if AdvancEd’s vision for education is not in fact academic in its orientation, there’s virtually nothing right now in the way.
Cartel power for what vision?
Still in the filter on the other comments.
Dr. John Trotter
April 29th, 2012
12:08 pm
Mark Elgart is so full of it. Ha! He’s power tripping big time. I don’t understand why school systems and entire states don’t just tell him to take his power tripping and trip somewhere else.
Here’s a little bit on how abusive SACS was in Clayton County. It is under the section of the worst and best school board members in Clayton County in the last 30 years. S-A-C-S. Still Advocating for Cronies and Shills. This is what it did in Clayton County. It came to the rescue of Chairperson Ericka Davis and Vice Chair Rod Johnson. At the time, they were getting their butts handed to them on the school board. Mark Elgart and SACS came to rescue them and wrote a worse than half-a$$ “report” that Norreese Haynes so ably and aptly called “a sham and a farce.”
http://www.georgiateachersspeakout.com
bu2
April 29th, 2012
12:43 pm
This series strikes me as the chamber of commerce trying to distract attention from the enormity of the APS scandal by saying, “Look everyone else does it.” In fact, that is NOT what this study does. The articles are very misleading. What is shows is that the changes were not by chance. i.e. they may have been due to better teaching. They are basically accusing anyone who improved by more than caused by simple random chance of cheating. That’s dishonest.
If this was a study showing drops following those gains, either in the same school or feeder schools, it would be more significant. The articles do mention drops in the same school, but that is not what the study is focusing on.
I asked a question after an earlier article why their front page talked about the Houston ISD being one of the worst in the nation (you had to read the article very carefully to see that noone was as bad as Atlanta). Their detail data showed several districts in the Houston area with more deviation than the Houston ISD, so it was not at all clear why HISD would be the one mentioned as among the worst. I was told someone would get back to me separately, but that never happened. It leads one to suspect that it was simply sloppy work. Or maybe noone had heard of the North Forest district (the worst of the Houston areas districts in their detail data), so they used the Houston ISD since it was recognizable. Or maybe its because HISD with former super Rod Paige is connected to George W. Bush and NCLB and the articles are clear efforts to try to discredit testing which is a component of NCLB.
The statistics may be perfectly sound. But the logic of going from “not random” to “must be cheating” is deeply flawed.
Attentive Parent
April 29th, 2012
1:16 pm
I see I am out of filter at 10 and 10:11 now. Thanks for the liberation.
John-I think that is what is going to happen as the extent to which the federal and state governments are giving AdvancED the government sanctioned privilege to collect money and require things that would be unconstitutional for the governments to enact in their own name. One example is the White House issued Crucible Report from January (AACU also involved) where the feds asked the accreditors to make graduate personal beliefs of certain types a basis of who would be getting a college degree in the future. Raises clear First Amendment issues to designate the accreditors to be the enforcers denying freedom of thought and expression as part of who gets a diploma. Especially once credentials are the gatekeeper for jobs.
I have others but that is the most recent I am aware of.
My real concern is an apparent belief among supers and principals that they need only satisfy Elgart’s vision and their back is covered. Any problems with the elected school boards result in a threat over losing accreditation for exceeding the limited nature of their supervising authority.
Satisfy Elgart’s vision and you get that next salary increase in the great national job switch among districts. Insist on the transmission of academic knowledge and you’ve had your last job promotion.
Brandy
April 29th, 2012
2:18 pm
@Maureen, I applaud any group’s effort to expose the antics going on at APS and any other district. I have one suggestion:
Can the AJC’s team of statisticians, researchers, et cetera, exam the score patterns for the GHSGT and the (newer) EOCTs? If cheating was as rampant as it appears to have been in APS elementary and middle schools (and I don’t doubt that is was and probably still is, to some extent), then it is ludicrous to assume the high schools were doing any better. Did/do the high schools cheat, as well? If not, what were they doing right that kept them from bowing to the pressure?
My suspicion, though, is that examining GHSGT and EOCT score patterns is unpopular because it might effect the diplomas earned by former students. It also might have more of an impact on SACs accreditation since APS’ high schools are all certified by SACs–something I believe is not true for many of the district’s elementary and middle schools.
Ladies and gents, do you honestly believe only the elementary and middle schools were cheating?
carlosgvv
April 29th, 2012
2:30 pm
After 50+ years of one social experiment after another trying to bring minority test scores up to the level of white students, nothing was found to work. So, as a last resort, it looks as though cheating was the only option left. Now that this is being exposed, I guess it’s back to the drawing board. Politicians and educators alike will try something, anything, rather than acknowledge the obvious and therefore feel the full and certain fury of the self appointed political correctness police.
Digger
April 29th, 2012
2:52 pm
The elephant in the room is about to break the walls down.
@Maureen--When is the follow up report?
April 29th, 2012
3:02 pm
@Questioning , you brought up a good question. Whatever happened with the investigation of Morningside Elementary School’s CRCT jump in scores? When can we expect the follow up report? I too am interested and waiting for the story. @Maureen can you tell us when the rest of this report will be published?
Mary Lin Elementary on the Cheating List
April 29th, 2012
3:29 pm
Mary Lin Elementary made the “concerns” list this year. 10% of the classes were flagged with cheating. What is found to be very concerning is the explanation in the principal’s blog. He said that students “got off track” and that caused all the wrong answers, then the student got back on track again and then made the right answers. I find that rationale suspect.
What I also find concerning is the method they are going to use to “ensure” there is no cheating. They are going to swap the teachers so that no teacher is administering the test to their own students. I find that full of holes and not at all a way to ensure no cheating.
Teachers who admitted to cheating gathered together in their homes and had erasure parties. They colluded. They planned it together.
If this school is serious about protecting its image and ensuring there is no cheating, they need to have someone else in those classrooms witnessing the administration of the test and walking with the tests all the way until they are delivered to the state.
Many assistant principals were involved in the cheating in the past and they are responsible for the tests. Assistant principals were erasing answers.
There is an easy to ensure no cheating by erasures: cameras in the classroom and all the way to the delivery of the tests to the state.
If I was the head of that school who consistenty brags about zero test cheating in the past, I’d do anything I could to ensure cheating never happens. Just switching teachers around is a lame and impotent response.
This school needs to get serious about ensuring the tests are valid. There should be no excuse for cheating at this relatively affluent school. If a cheating scandal is found at this school, parents won’t move into that neighborhood and they’ll move if they are already in.
Mary Lin Elementary could become another Parks Middle (a big cheating school) and the leadership of that school needs to take his or her role more seriously.
GwinnettParentz
April 29th, 2012
3:59 pm
Another romp into the testing debate … attracting all the same tired rants and excuses from the teachers’ union apologist(s).
Yes, achievement testing is the sorriest way imaginable to measure student learning—EXCEPT for all the other alternatives!
Northern School Parents
April 29th, 2012
4:08 pm
Brandy has one of the best questions ever presented on this blog “Ladies and gents, do you honestly believe only the elementary and middle schools were cheating?”
No, I don’t believe for a minute that APS high schools are immune to cheating. The corruption in APS is so deep it is in the bone marrow.
Northern School Parents
April 29th, 2012
4:27 pm
I read all the AJC stories about the erasure analysis and cheating scandal this weekend. What I learned is something that is never talked out in this blog — the motivation.
I encourage everyone to read it.
The motivation for cheating is to win the Blue Ribbon of Excellence. When schools with challenges (poverty, illegal aliens) make dramatic changes in test scores, the government awards the blue ribbon of excellence, which is described as the academy awards of education.
The winning schools are treated like movie stars and go to an extravagant banquet and awards ceremony. Promotions for teachers and principals are guaranteed for those who win the award.
The whole reason blue ribbons were awarded in the first place is that a scandal was about to be created when a report titled “A Nation in Crisis” was about to be unveiled which describes how awful America’s public schools are.
The gov’t wanted to cover up and hid the report by creating the blue ribbons of excellence awards.
Which brings me to the point:
Greed caused the cheating scandal. Pride caused the cheating scandal.
Pride and greed go before a fall.
bootney farnsworth
April 29th, 2012
4:52 pm
@ Northern
sadly, you’re not pointing out anything we don’t already know.
except in education, pride and greed, combined with a willingness to do whatever you can get away with no matter how sleazy
win. usually big time
Drew on moderate concern list?
April 29th, 2012
6:21 pm
Am I reading the 2011 CRCT erasure report correctly? Is Drew on the “moderate” concern list with 12.5% of classrooms flagged? Gosh I hope not.
Ed Johnson
April 29th, 2012
6:34 pm
Hmm. NBC’s Education Nation coming to Atlanta, with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Atlanta business community involvement.
http://www.atlantaga.gov/index.aspx?recordid=981&page=672
catlady
April 29th, 2012
9:13 pm
Dr. T: Why does it seem that SACS/Mark/AdvancED want to stifle all discussion/debate/disagreement among school board members? Our school board apparently meets privately with the supt and comes up with their decision (ie what he proposes to do) and then has their meeting and asks virtually NO questions (as you would expect if there was not a foregone conclusion), and votes in lockstep with NO desentions (slam, bam, thank you, ma’m). Why is SACS et al promoting this? Power? Why are our school boards so terrified? Why don’t they tell him to go to h3ll?
They are coming to see us soon for reaccred. and I am the only one screaming, “Hey, this is crazy! What a waste of money! And time! And what about free speech that we used to hold so dear?
Anonmom
April 29th, 2012
9:17 pm
I think it’s time that AdvancEd and Elgart stopped being allowed to be Judge, Prosecutor and Jury…. the state needs to take back accreditng districts. The thought that billions and billions of taxpayer money can be poured into “accredited” school systems and that no one is really looking into whether that means kids are actually learning anything is appalling. Yet another sign of the rampant corruption in education and another reason for vouchers and free market (although I’ll admit that the college discussion has pointed up a negative for vouchers for me….– I’m looking for clear checks and balances not an open checkbook — right now I see the public system as an open check book. To me the student loan program has become an open checkbook for colleges… There must be some “happy medium.”).
Anonmom
April 29th, 2012
9:20 pm
If we must continue with a system whereby kids are measuered by annual tests, then I don’t understand why the kids don’t take the tests on computers wherein they answer the question and hit “submit” (akin to how we vote) — then there can be no oppotunity for there to be erasures. That won’t stop the looking over shoulers kind of cheating or the teachers reading things out loud cheating but the questions could be in a different order per computer or it could be given by mixed grade levels to make it more difficult. Then if you add cameras to the room — technology could make it much more difficult to cheat. But then, I really think we should just be looking for improvement and not “fixed” “end” results.
Attentive Parent
April 29th, 2012
9:34 pm
Catlady-I have a copy of the current accred standards that AdvancEd is using.
It essentially requires the districts to stop the transmission of knowledge as it has been traditionally understood for a millenia. The focus instead to be on the students’ physical, emotional, and social needs.
We have supers who believe they are not really answerable to anyone because Elgart has their back. Yet the standards blow up the whole mystique of accreditation.
You read the new Quality Standards and the decal will mean “so you’ve agreed to gut academics?”
I had been suspicious of SACS from the behavior with APS and then warning Cobb when its majority shifted. Then at a parent forum I asked some well-informed but respectful questions on directions and concerns of a new Super. When I went up after to introduce myself he wouldn’t shake my hand and just glared at me with the dark menacing look every lawyer associates with someone who is running a con and has been caught out.
The look left AdvancED as the only explanation so I started researching.
Oh MY. At least it turned out to be a fruitful menacing look. Luckily I did not melt.
N. GA Teacher
April 29th, 2012
9:46 pm
Enter your comments here
First, standardized tests such as CRCT, EOCT, need to go. They basically just reinforce research that says that socioeconomic conditions correlate higher with scores than do other factors. Also, those of us over 40 never took these and did just fine!! Why in heaven’s name did this situation ever come about? But the fact of the matter is that tests ARE here, so: Why aren’t all standardized tests such as the CRCT now given on computer? The answers go immediately to be electronically scored. No erasures, no “fill in the blank” weekends in the principal’s office or at some frightened flunky’s home. Testing should have an adult moderator from the state or an eyewitness from the press to make sure the administrator or teacher does not hint at the answers. Because everything is electronic, scores can be returned almost immediately!! A benefit of this would be that the schools who are commanded to “remediate” CRCT failures will know who needs it so there is not a need for “blanket remediation” which is currently done in districts that cannot afford summer school.
Attentive Parent
April 29th, 2012
9:47 pm
Maureen,
Am I in time out again?
Help. It is a nasty rumor that I moonlight as the Kracken.
ScienceTeacher671
April 29th, 2012
10:00 pm
Apparently this is the poster who is currently posting as “Being Censored @ Maureen”
http://www.reinventedsolutions.com/about-me/
And I still can’t figure out what sorts of data analysis credentials Eric Celeste is supposed to have. Creative Loafing isn’t what I’d regard as a reputed or peer-reviewed academic journal, or even a credible source on much besides nightlife.
Atlanta Mom
April 29th, 2012
10:17 pm
Anonmom, you said “I don’t understand why the kids don’t take the tests on computers wherein they answer the question and hit “submit” (akin to how we vote)”
Does your school have that many working computers??? I don’t know of a single school that has computers for every student let alone working computers for every student.
Let’s for grins say that you do have a school with a computer for every child. What do you do when one/two/a hundred fail on test day? Because, you know, they will.
ScienceTeacher671
April 30th, 2012
6:32 am
Our computer labs don’t even have enough working computers for every student in some of our larger classes, so if those classes use the computer lab for instruction, students have to share.
And we don’t have enough computer labs for every class to go at the same time…
Attentive Parent
April 30th, 2012
7:17 am
I guess I am still in time out. All night long.
Wow.
This is interesting. In attempting to be a bulwark, please remember I have put together all the pieces carefully and based on function. And the history behind these ideas.
And that Attentive Parent Glossary.
TimeOut
April 30th, 2012
8:35 am
I suppose that there is value in evaluating participants’ past behaviors. But, too much time spent on “hindsight is 20/20″ takes away from what we can be doing now to improve our situation. School systems have been operating a “jobs program” via nepotism and cronyism for quite some time. We may not be able to counter completely the negative impacts of those who have used public money for personal gain, but even Standard Oil fell, eventually. Education is such a huge portion of every community’s budget. It seems that it will be difficult to trim the reach of the greedy into this communal kitty, but we have to try. NCLB was idiocy and teachers knew that it was so. Race to The Top is more idiocy, and again, the teachers know that it is so. It has become quite an act of bravery to do the right thing for children in the classroom, on a daily basis. I’ve never liked unions. I wonder what type of organization or movement we could create that could outmaneouver the self-seeking machinations of legislatures, corporations, etc.
Let's get real
April 30th, 2012
10:16 am
First of all what a LAME response by the principal of Mary Lin; “The students got off track and that caused all the wrong answers, then the students got back on track again and then made the right answers”. That is the most ridiculous response ever. Why didn’t Beverly Hall give that answer? It seems as though she would still be the superintendent.
I feel just by the negative stigma, cheating will NOT happen again. Never mind relocating teachers. Get rid of those that were implemented in the scandal and let’s start fresh. You all forget that we have some GREAT teachers in Atlanta Public Schools. I am a product of APS. Cheating hasn’t always been going on. Teachers haven’t always been pressured.
I am sick and tired of all the negativity. Okay…it happened…Let’s move forward. Don’t get it twisted, this is a NATIONWIDE problem planted in 2002 with implementation of NCLB. Because of Beverly Hall’s arrogance, APS got caught. Cheating is wrong. If a student makes 800 on the CRCT and the next year the student makes an 802 THAT IS A GAIN!!! APS like other districts are pressured to make AYP. How the heck can schools make AYP when special education students, English language learners, and learning disabled students are required to take the exact SAME test as the regular education students. Many can NOT read and the test, and their comprehension skills are not as sharp. I think these APS and students from other urban school districts around the nation are set up for failure from the onset.
The schools like Mary Lin, Morningside, Grady and Inman are JUST as guilty. They are protected from scandal for reasons I am sure you can guess. Schools are redistricted to shift low performing students so schools scores will shift in their favor. Several years ago, there was a redistricting battle in Cobb County with McEachern HS for this exact same issue.
I have worked summer school at Inman and have talked with some Inman students who were discipline problems during the regular school year. As it turns out INMAN is no different than a lot of the other urban schools. The difference is Inman, like Mary Lin and others schools who claim to have these high test scores will send their failing students to other schools and teachers at these other urban schools are expected to perform miracles in teaching these disruptive and/ or learning challenged students. Therefore Inman, Mary Lin and the other “high performing schools” do well on the overall CRCT and the urban schools do not. YOU DO THE MATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If these teachers and principals are so great at these high performing schools, I would like to see them do the same thing in urban and inner city schools where there is little parental involvement, disruptions, and little resources WITHOUT getting rid of students.
@maureen, I too would like to see the report mentioned by @questioning about Morningside. And if the AJC wants to do something worthy for education , something worth reading, do an investigative report on redistricting around the nation That’s where the meat is. There has never been so much redistricting across the nation like there is now with schools under pressure to keep scores up. I will be waiting.
Attentive Parent
April 30th, 2012
10:33 am
Thanks for liberating me from 9:34 last night. Previous page now for anyone curious of what triggered a 12 hour detention.
Someone sent me this morning’s AJC article on the changes Common Core will be bringing to Georgia’s classroom’s next fall.
There are people quoted in that article who we should just nicknamed Pinocchio. They must be just hoping we will all attribute all the changes to Common Core and not recognize the underlying reality. What a deception given what is simultaneously going on.
The Common Core Deception. What will be the long term effects of Georgia’s push to be at the forefront of what are collosally bad ideas once you strip away the PR rhetoric?
Atlanta Mom
April 30th, 2012
10:47 am
Let’s get real,
Those kids you talked to in the summer at Inman middle school? Are you sure they were Inman students? Because that summer school program has kids from all over the district.
As for the explanation of erasures at Mary Lin–have you never gotten “off line” on a multiple choice test? Get to the end of the 60 question test and realize you just bubbled on line 59? I have. And then I had many erasures. That was one thing that was always troubling to me about the erasure analysis. It only takes one child to make that mistake to flag an entire class room.
Maureen Downey
April 30th, 2012
11:41 am
@Attentive, I am puzzled by why your posts were auto-filtered this weekend. I will just keep releasing them, which is supposed to reassure the automated program that you are a validated poster.
Maureen
vince
April 30th, 2012
12:03 pm
One year our school won the state’s Platinum Award for greatest gains.
We didn’t cheat
Why did we make such huge gains? About 80% of our non-English speaking students withdrew from the previous year because their parents got upset with their apartment manager. That alone was enough to make our scores jump.
I think the AJC sometimes assumes cheating took place when in fact the reasons for big gains….or losses…were demographic in nature.
Attentive Parent
April 30th, 2012
12:32 pm
Thanks Maureen. You and I may not agree on issues but I do have good cause for my concerns and a deep knowledge of the underlying literature.
I see you have the story up on Common Core. I am already calling this the summer of Common Core as teachers and parents reach out to people like you and me trying to get solid info as to the what and why of the actual implementation.
Sonny Goldreich
April 30th, 2012
5:09 pm
I’m stunned by your shoddy “expose” on Blue Ribbon School cheating.
Its conclusions regarding Highland Elementary School (where my wife teaches ESOL) in Montgomery County, MD, is libelous. It is based entirely on a statistical review and concludes there is cheating. There is no evidence, no proof, no sign of altered tests (as was the case in Atlanta). The “investigation” does not exist.
This is a school that has been turned upside down over the past decade as administrators, the county and state have obsessed over raising test scores.
Curricula have been scrapped, rebuilt and scrapped and rebuilt again.
Teachers have been purged every year.
Demands on students have been raised and their school year revolves around preparing for statewide tests.
This will improve scores. Once. Then you have to start with a whole new cohort of kindergarten students coming into the school from illiterate homes and the testing clock starts anew.
This is no surprise.
Is it a scandal? Maybe, if you think students should learn more than penciling in little circles. But that seems to be a subject beyond the command of the AJC reporters, Alan Judd, Heather Vogell and John Perry.
Nicole
April 30th, 2012
5:30 pm
What that Common Core article failed to address was the fact that it’s so basic In the primary grades.
Take a look at what my fellow parents up here in Montgomery County, MD have to say about it (we implemented it this year): http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/230899.page
Ron F.
April 30th, 2012
7:49 pm
Nicole: too many in decision making positions forgot that it’s common CORE- as in, basic, fundamental foundation for building upon. Since tests will be geared to it in the near future, it sounds like your leaders “drank the Kool-Aid” and the common core has become the common EVERYTHING. Pitiful, isn’t it?
Brandy
April 30th, 2012
8:51 pm
Oops, the AJC has p*ssed off the Montgomery County crowd. Watch out!…Sadly, I’m not really kidding.
I’d bet dollars to donuts that there is some type of cheating going on in every high-achieving school or district out there. There is probably also some type of cheating going on in the low-performing ones. Here in East Cobb, I (personally) know of 1 teacher who lost her job last year for telling students answers on the CRCT and another who is on leave for allegedly doing the same thing this year (the student in question may not be a reliable source in that case). How about the other teachers on this blog? Have you guys heard of any other examples in above reproach schools or districts?
Anonmom
April 30th, 2012
10:30 pm
No — none of my kids’ schools have enough computers (partially because they kept getting stolen)… but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t the right way to do the testing…. Dr. Atkinson is working on getting IPads into everyone’s hands and they are now programming computers to report locations when taken so in this day and age everyone being able to take the test by computer should be a possibility…..
Cobb Taxpayer
April 30th, 2012
11:27 pm
It was obvious that the academic test “improvements” had little to do with performance or knowledge – cheating was so evident and nothing was being done to curb the cheating – still, APS is just the tip of the Iceburg.
The current Blue Ribbon Schools under Duncan and NCLB is a complete joke -
real teacher
May 1st, 2012
10:05 am
@vince you are dead on. Demographic shifts shift scores. That is the reason for so much redistricting– shift communities, to shift scores, to shift real estate value.
Larry C
May 2nd, 2012
8:56 am
Let’s see. The Dept. of Education said major improvement merited an award and the AJC decided that major improvements provided clear evidence that something was amiss. Where is the disconnect? The AJC has used statistics to strongly imply that the only real explanation for the improvement is cheating, when in fact there are a whole host of other possibilities. In the Maryland example Montgomery county poured in lots of money and new people. That alone completely invalidates the probability calculations that the AJC seems to so fervently worship.