It’s been over three years since the first reports of cheating on standardized tests surfaced in D.C. public schools, and yet many questions remain unanswered. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education recommended in November 2008 that DCPS investigate suspicious rates of wrong-to-right answer changes on standardized tests in the District. Then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee and her office balked, and OSSE dropped the recommendation.
In March of the same year, a USA Today investigation brought the issue under national scrutiny. It showed that 103 of DCPS schools—over half—had provided suspicious levels of wrong-to-right erasures on tests to testing company CTB McGraw Hill. One of these schools, Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus, had recently been designated a “Blue Ribbon School of Excellence” by the Department of Education. In 2006, 10% of Noyes students scored “proficient” or “advanced” in math on the standardized tests mandated by No Child Left Behind. In two years, that number increased to 58%. In 2008 and 2010, Rhee awarded the teachers at Noyes $8000 in bonuses, and Principal Wayne Ryan pocketed $10,000 in bonuses each time. The higher-ups at DCPS liked the story so much they even ran recruitment ads with his picture, asking “Are you the next Wayne Ryan?” Now Ryan is gone, along with a third grade teacher and special-ed teacher at Noyes. No explanation was given for the departures, but it seems likely they were pressured to quit over the testing irregularities.
This shifty response to the resignations has come to characterize the DCPS response to the issue. John Fermer, founder of Caveon, the company hired to investigate the suspicious erasures, says Chancellor Kaya Henderson never conducted an extensive investigation. Indeed, Caveon was never even given raw test data from McGraw Hill, which would allow them to see student cooperation, prior student performance on tests, and results for classrooms under different teachers. But, since OSSE hired McGraw Hill to provide the test, it was required to release the results. It never did.
Meanwhile, DCPS is trumpeting a new report that says suspicious erasures fell in 2011, continuing the downward trend since 2008. However, OSSE only released a nine-page summary of the testing company’s original data. The public version breaks down data by citywide grade level rather than by school, and does not specify which schools are involved with cheating. The report refers to an omitted Excel file with school-based data. What’s more, the report was completed in July, but OSSE waited until the last week of December to release the information.
Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising, for the findings that any real investigation will uncover are likely to be quite inconvenient for Chancellor Henderson and supporters of standardized testing. Although suspicious erasures have fallen since 2011, DCPS won’t say that the decline in suspected cheating has been coupled with either stagnant or falling test scores. This is a serious conundrum for the school district. DCPS under Rhee-Henderson touted their commitment to accountability under the IMPACT program for teacher evaluation. Now that regime appears to be tearing at the seams.
It’s clear that job pressure is persuading at least some teachers and even principals to inflate test scores. The teaching methods that come with these numerous tests don’t seem to be inspiring student growth in many of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. When teachers must cover an abundance of set material in a short time to prepare for standardized tests, they often resort to rote memorization, lecture-format classes, and heavy homework loads.
Although these techniques usually serve affluent students well, educational research has repeatedly shown they do not reach disadvantaged populations. Poorer students, usually with less structured home lives and less educational assistance outside the classroom, typically learn better through physical interaction with course material, interpersonal activities, interactive teaching styles, and lighter homework loads, especially during earlier years. However, these teaching practices are often too time-consuming for classes under tight testing schedules and are demanding on overworked teachers. The increased testing demands and lack of classroom flexibility under IMPACT are likely exacerbating educational divides rather than bridging them.
In short, DCPS and OSSE are reluctant to release information on testing irregularities because it has the potential to discredit one of the central facts of their educational regime so influential in recent reform efforts around the nation. If their system is so stressful on teachers that it causes them to cheat, imagine what it does to their classroom performance. And if it proves to be the case that these artificially inflated scores are covering up stagnant or falling test results, Henderson and company have a problem. Nothing’s proven yet, but if the DCPS administration is really confident in their educational ideology and the integrity of their faculty, it seems they would have gotten to the bottom of this long ago. But now the scandal festers, and every day that it does it raises more doubts about the D.C. reform model and its capability to change the face of schools and equalize economic opportunity across the nation.
Want to learn how to read good and do other stuff good too? Talk to Gavin at gbade@georgetownvoice.com
