Cheating fears cast doubt on Rhee’s legacy in DC public schools
Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of public schools in Washington, D.C., became a conservative star of sorts for her willingness to take on the teachers’ union and the education establishment, among other things by firing teachers whose students did not improve on standardized testing. As chancellor, Rhee also instituted a lucrative bonus program for teachers and principals at schools that did show significant improvement.
The policy change had an effect; standardized scores rose significantly during Rhee’s three-year tenure. Eventually, however, her brash, combative style contributed to the re-election defeat of her most important champion, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty, and last year Rhee was forced to resign as DC chancellor.
However, that career setback conferred martyr status on Rhee, who launched a nationwide speaking tour to spread her message of reform. Earlier this year, she was welcomed at the Georgia Capitol with a hearing in her honor in the Legislature and a private session with Gov. Nathan Deal.
However, as USA Today reports, the claim of sudden, significant improvement in DC schools might not bear close scrutiny. Consider, for example, Washington’s Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus, which was lauded by Rhee and others as a shining illustration of what her new approach could accomplish. In 2006, only 10 percent of Noyes students tested as profiicent or advanced in math; two years later, that number had jumped to 58 percent.
A USA TODAY investigation, based on documents and data secured under D.C.’s Freedom of Information Act, found that for the past three school years most of Noyes’ classrooms had extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests. The consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones….
In 2007-08, six classrooms out of the eight taking tests at Noyes were flagged by McGraw-Hill because of high wrong-to-right erasure rates. The pattern was repeated in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, when 80% of Noyes classrooms were flagged by McGraw-Hill.
On the 2009 reading test, for example, seventh-graders in one Noyes classroom averaged 12.7 wrong-to-right erasures per student on answer sheets; the average for seventh-graders in all D.C. schools on that test was less than 1. The odds are better for winning the Powerball grand prize than having that many erasures by chance, according to statisticians consulted by USA TODAY.
Is any of this beginning to sound familiar? How about this part?
“In 2008, the office of the State Superintendent of Education recommended that the scores of many schools be investigated because of unusually high gains, but top D.C. public school officials balked and the recommendation was dropped.
After the 2009 tests, the school district hired an outside investigator to look at eight D.C. public schools –– one of them was Noyes, USA TODAY learned — and to interview some teachers.
John Fremer, president of Caveon Consulting Services, the company D.C. hired, says the investigations were limited. The teachers were asked what they knew about the erasure rates but not whether cheating had taken place, Fremer says. They told Caveon that they “did what they were supposed to do and they didn’t do anything wrong,” he says.
Henderson, the D.C. chancellor, says D.C. educators interviewed by Caveon “gave specific reasons for high erasure rates. … Some emphasized to their students that (they) … should always go back, review their answers and make corrections, if needed.
“Other teachers,” she says, “encouraged students to eliminate wrong answers in the test booklet by marking an ‘X’ next to wrong answers, which could account for an unusual number of erasures if students marked their ‘X’ on the answer sheet instead of the test booklet.”
School district officials would not release the reports Caveon compiled. Caveon has been hired again to investigate the results of 2010 tests in which 41 DCPS schools, including Noyes, had at least one classroom flagged for high erasure rates. USA TODAY could not determine which schools are being scrutinized.”
Like Superintendent Beverly Hall, her counterpart in Atlanta, Rhee put great stress on standardized testing results. In fact, Rhee offered both more severe consequences for failure and more lucrative rewards for success than Hall has. And as in Hall’s case, she apparently showed little curiosity about how those results were being achieved. Pushing the story about reform became more important than pushing the mission of reform.
– Jay Bookman
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322 comments Add your comment
Mr_B
March 28th, 2011
12:19 pm
Barry@11:52. By now, I’d have expected even you to know the lie when you see it. There are no, none, nada, zip teacher’s unions in the state of Georgia. They are prohibited by state law. There are two major associations of teachers in the state which have no collective bargaining rights, and which function primarily as lobbying organizations and as legal insurance for their members.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 28th, 2011
12:21 pm
Poor mullet.
When you’ve lost the debate, start slinging names. Sad that you did that even before you tried to reply. That means you already know the facts. Auburn JUST won their 2nd national championship. They still need 8 more to catch up with Alabama. An 8-3 record over the past 11 years only shows how far behind in the series Auburn was. You still have to win 6 more to tie the series record.
As I said before, Auburn is the Avis of college football in the state of Alabama…. “We’re #2… We try harder!”
Mr_B
March 28th, 2011
12:26 pm
Billings; You post of list of “10 Most Common Complaints Among Today’s Teachers” and then complain because they have complaints? How about a list of “10 Things Teachers Like Most about Their Jobs?”, or “10 Things Hedge Fund Managers COmplain About Most?”
WOW
March 28th, 2011
12:27 pm
“When you’ve lost the debate”
LOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dude, quit while you’re behind.
“They still need 8 more to catch up with Alabama.”
LOL!!!!!!!! Dude, Auburn GRADS don’t live and die by championships. Then again, you never attended the U of Bama, did ya?
“An 8-3 record over the past 11 years only shows how far behind in the series Auburn was.”
Considering we won 6 in a row, something only Bear has done against Auburn in the 70s…..
“You still have to win 6 more to tie the series record.”
Which is very easy to do.
“As I said before, Auburn is the Avis of college football in the state of Alabama…. “We’re #2… We try harder!””
Right now, we’z number one. Oh, I hear WalMart has leftover XXXXX-L clothing on their sale rack 28-27% off.
Mary Elizabeth
March 28th, 2011
12:36 pm
Ken Hoagland @ 11:48
You have some “neat and tidy” thoughts put together, but they don’t ring true to me from what I have witnessed in classrooms from 1970 to 2006. Not to be discourteous to you, for I believe that you have genuinely tried to come up with answers as you see public/private education, but have you ever taught school yourself in either public or private schools? Your writing indicates, to me, that you have not. And, there are no teacher’s unions in Georgia.
Public monies should not be used for private education. Any parent can send his child to a private school, using his own private money. I have no children any longer living in my home, but I still pay taxes for public education based on my property taxes, and I expect to continue doing so, for I wish to see the society-at-large educated through public schools with public money – including my own. I do not wish to see private school deplete the resources of public schools with my tax dollars.
Looking more deeply at what is occurring regarding education throughout our nation, political interests are deliberately demeaning public schools in order to dismantle them for private markets. Private markets have become answers to all problems, in their ideological mindsets, and they have recently been targeting public schools, and will continue to do so, as long as their agenda to malign public schools succeeds. The drop-out rate in Georgia has been low for decades. It is not a new phenomenon and I will continue to give my thoughts of (1) correct placement and (2) targeted instruction to improve the drop out rate which must be improved, but not through private schools.
Private schools have been selective in the students they have accepted, and they have not had to teach to a wide range of student variables. I do not believe it is even realistic to think that private schools could service the masses of students in Georgia. And if that design (massive private schools) were to be implemented by those who are not educators, private schools would fare no better than public schools in educating the masses. In fact, I believe they would do worse, because private schools don’t have the experience behind them in knowing how to educate masses of students, on their myriad of levels of instructional needs.
Lil' Barry Bailout
March 28th, 2011
12:37 pm
Then how do you explain the successful schools in unionized Wisconsin?
——-
Wisconsin schools aren’t significantly better than any other state. Any minuscule difference in performance is due to higher percentage of two-parent families and lower incidence of the fear of “acting white”.
Mary Elizabeth
March 28th, 2011
12:39 pm
Correction: The drop-out rate has been high for decades in Georgia, not low.
Thulsa Doom
March 28th, 2011
1:51 pm
How does someone expain the successful unionized schools in Wisconsin?
Easy. Demographics and culture. Wisconsin is a very white state and its no secret that states with low numbers of minorities are going to score higher on standardized testing.
Also Wisconsin has a heavy influx of German descended Americans and people of Germanic heritage tend to value and have a greater emphasis on education than many other peoples. Ever heard of “German engineering”?
Thulsa Doom
March 28th, 2011
1:53 pm
Good Grief. Ya’ll still having the Alabama-Auburn football debate? Ya’ll should go back to debating politics- the AU-Alabama quarrel can get really nasty.
Paulo977
March 28th, 2011
1:59 pm
Bosch
Setting a benchmark that all students must meet is goofy.”
Exactly.
Setting a benchmark that all students must meet is goofy.”
Exactly.
And EXACTLY again!!!
oldguy
March 28th, 2011
3:51 pm
you don’t want to set a benchmark for students? Fine with me. Then maybe everyone should get a diploma…..thus making it worth nothing (which is about where it is now!)
Teachers can’t make students learn…..everyone knows that….but good teachers can work to challenge student’s interests…..and it woul help to be able to reward quality teachers and (gasp!) get rid of dead waight rather than promoting them with longevity pay. Teacher unions will NEVER support that.
Teacher unions do one thing – Protect the incompetent.
The only way to break the cycle….give parents the choice to send their kids to private schools—with their tax money!
Lil' Barry Bailout
March 28th, 2011
4:53 pm
Amen, oldguy. The libbtards will scream about “starving our schools of resources”, but if they lose kids due to the poor job they do, why would they need the resources that should follow the child?
Teachers: Greedy.
BFD
March 28th, 2011
5:03 pm
Vouchers. Get the government out of education.
mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack the Liar Obama - BEND OVER, Here comes the CHANGE!
March 28th, 2011
5:35 pm
Since the NObama girls aren’t going to a public school, why don’t they HOME SCOOL and save the taxpayers all that extra security in watching the little brats at a PRIVATE SCHOOL?….Yeah, the man for the little man”.
captguitarman
March 28th, 2011
5:35 pm
Despite the comments made by a few on this board, this is one “conservative” who would not give Michelle Rhee, or anyone else, a free pass if she created and nutured a culture in the D.C. schools where cheating on standardized tests was encouraged and rewarded and covered up. The facts need to come out, and they will — they always do, just like they did here in Atlanta. In Atlanta the situation was basically that the “end all” and “be all” of education in the APS during Hall’s tenure was getting those standardized test scores up (see article in yesterday’s AJC). When it became clear that administrators and teachers were doctoring the tests to achive the boss’s most cherished heart’s desire, an attempt was made to cover it up that involved Hall’s minions, school principals, adminstrators, some teachers, some membes of the Board of Education, and the Chamber of Commerce and the Atlanta business community. The cover up failed, the state stepped in, and the investigation is pending. There is no direct evidence that Hall knew about the cheating – despite its widespread practice. Possibly the successful intimidation tactics used against potential whistle blowers was successful in keeping it all under wraps — for a while. It will be interesting to see if there was cheating (doctoring of tests by teachers and administrators) in D.C. and if so, if Mchelle Rhee was obsessed with the scores (as Hall was because they brought her much fame and notoriety as and educator) and if she actually facilitated and promoted it, or turned a negligent blind eye to it as Hall did to keep the kudos coming. Also, if D.C cheating who was involved and did it go all the way into the Board of Education and the business community. If the facts show that Rhee was involved or should have known better and was negligent, she should be held responsible, just like Hall and her crew.
mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack the Liar Obama - BEND OVER, Here comes the CHANGE!
March 28th, 2011
5:39 pm
Mary Elizabeth – Oh come one, what is PAGE? It might need be a “union”, but its missions are about the same. TELL THE TRUTH, not half lies.
Adam
March 28th, 2011
6:53 pm
Harry: the poor are poor EXACTLY because of the choices they make in life, i.e. not finishing school, drug and alcohol abuse, kids out of wedlock, spending more than they earn, etc, etc.
It is exactly that false impression that is making you believe that all of THOSE PEOPLE don’t deserve to be associated with you, nor do they deserve any help, because you believe they are ALL (all of them) parasites. Even when it is the rare exception that is simply hyped up for emotional hysteria in media.
williebkind: Teachers are scapegoats! That is propoganda!
Not what I said. I said teacher’s unions are being used as scapegoats, both for educational problems and for budget problems, when neither is true.
Miserably failing schools are failing because of the demographic they represent. Yea and most of them are liberal!
Cite please.
The rest of your post makes no sense and is not worth respnding to as a result.
Harry: No, BBA and MBA here, with 98th percentile scores on both SAT and GMAT.
It’s a shame you wasted all that talent by sitting here on the internet telling everyone else how wrong they are and believing yourself to be a legend.
Murano
March 28th, 2011
9:02 pm
The federal funds were flowing and Michelle was handing out big cash bunuses to principals at schools with the best test scores. Naturally what followed was large scale cheating, just like in Atlanta. You get what you incentivize.
| Conducting the Inner Light
March 28th, 2011
10:21 pm
[...] Jones (which I think covers the political spectrum pretty darn well) and many have titles such as: Cheating fears cast doubts on Michelle Rhee’s legacy in DC Public Schools and Testing fraud at heart of Michelle Rhee success or Cooking the school books on [...]
US child poverty- 25 percent
March 28th, 2011
11:35 pm
Low test scores are a problem because of the way our society is headed and because of child poverty. Kids are being raised by MTV and video games. Yet, we expect people who make $40k a year to wave a magic wand and solve everything.
No Cheater Left Behind
March 31st, 2011
10:39 am
[...] According to an article published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, evidence of dramatic improvement in Washington D.C.’s public schools is powered by conspicuously falsified test results. The article points to such schools as Washington’s Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus, which has received high praise for its seemingly impossible leap in testing proficiency in just two years. A close assessment of the standardized tests produced by Noyes shows an extraordinary number of erasure marks in which wrong answers have been changed to correct answers. [...]
Crown
April 4th, 2011
10:15 am
Somebody should straighten up DCPS fast. Part of the reason Rhee used her master teachers and principals to give minimally effective rating to some teachers was that they refused to cooperate in cheating endeavous in their schools . If these teachers had complied to get the children to do well by all means( including cheating) they should have been allowed to remain on their jobs. These teachers were terminated while the ones who didn’t teach well but did the test with the children were rewarded with bonuses .It was grossly unfair.. USA Today should conduct a thorough investigative journalism NOW that another annual testing activity is in progress. The same situation may still be occuring.