David Safier

by David Safier Our warming weather is a perfect time for some ed shorts — items cluttering up my computer desktop which I'll never have time to write about in detail. Some states are dropping the GED. Why? The cost of the tests has gone through the roof "since for-profit Pearson Vue Testing acquired a … Read more

by David Safier

A report on the 2012 testing in DC schools revealed cheating in 18 classrooms in 11 schools. The superintendent office's response is to say this shows there isn't rampant cheating because it only happened in 18 classrooms. Spin of that jaw-dropping magnitude makes it sound like someone is ready for higher office.

The only reason the biggest cheating scandal in the country — the one in Atlanta — was uncovered is because an investigative team went into schools repeatedly and asked the same questions over and over until one teacher who had denied the allegations a number of times (she even barred the investigators from entering her classroom) finally had an attack of conscience and confessed to rampant, systematic cheating at her school. Those 18 DC classrooms are the smoke that should lead investigators to probe for the larger fire that may be raging in schools across DC. If a thorough investigations reveals nothing, all the better. But without an investigation, no one will ever know if the cheating is widespread.

by David Safier I'll be on Robin Hiller's The State of Education radio show Saturday, 11am, on KVOI (1030 on your AM radio dial). The main topics of discussion will be the test-based nonrenewals of 3 TUSD principals and the education bills coming out of the state legislature. This is a call-in show. The last … Read more

by David Safier

Michelle Rhee is the tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoners ex-Chancellor of DC schools who became a conservative icon for creating dramatic increases in test scores during her tenure. The problem is, there have been serious allegations of cheating on standardized tests when she headed the school district, which Rhee adamantly denies. Now, a secret 2009 memo has surfaced where the person Rhee picked to investigate the possible cheating, Fay G. Sanford, wrote that more likely than not, there was systematic, widespread cheating at some DC schools.

Here's the memo, which is headed "Sensitive Information–Treat as Confidential." Sanford warns the recipients, "Don't make hard copies and leave them around." She knew the memo would be a bombshell if it got out. Rhee has never mentioned the memo, and when the journalist who just published it talked to Rhee, she claims she doesn't remember it, which means we can add "probable liar" to her resume. Sorry, no one forgets reading a memo like that.

In the memo, Sanford says evidence points to 191 teachers at 70 schools who very possibly erased students' wrong answers and bubbled in right answers. As an example, she cites Aiton Elementary where staff members were given hefty performance bonuses for their students' high test scores. Sanford says in some classes, student tests have an average of 6 to 7 wrong-to-right erasures while the district average is more like 2. She gives more statistical data that makes it look very unlikely these third to sixth graders made the erasures themselves.