Why Rhee Escaped Cheating Allegations While Atlanta Superintendent Faces 45 Years in Jail

[Anonymous]

Interesting article that attempts to explain how one facing jail while the other has emerged as an educational reformer.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/how_one_superindentent_avoided_jailand_another_didnt_comments.html#disqus_thread

April 6, 2013
How One School Superindentent Avoided Facing Jail...and Another Didn't

By M. Catharine Evans and Ann Kane
Atlanta's now-disgraced former school superintendent Beverly Hall faces 45 years in prison. Her high-stakes testing strategy led to a massive cheating scandal which took over ten years to uncover. D.C.'s former chancellor, Michelle Rhee, also employed the same testing tactics during her tenure from 2007 to 2010 and had her own cheating scandal, with 103 schools flagged. So why isn't Rhee facing the same outcome as Hall?


[ edited to comply with copyright laws. ]

[Anonymous]

Conspiracy theories are soooooooooo boring.

[Anonymous]

I think it is more plausible that any cheating that took place in DC, took place without Rhee's knowledge .I fault the cheaters and not Rhee. I also think Rhee had only just begun reform in DC. It will take years and years to undo the mess of DCPS. She made a good start despite push back with her every move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is more plausible that any cheating that took place in DC, took place without Rhee's knowledge .I fault the cheaters and not Rhee. I also think Rhee had only just begun reform in DC. It will take years and years to undo the mess of DCPS. She made a good start despite push back with her every move.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

disagree

[Anonymous]

Clearly the racial politics in Atlanta are very different (for the worse). The images of all of the African American teachers and administrators being jailed by white law enforcement say it all, IMHO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly the racial politics in Atlanta are very different (for the worse). The images of all of the African American teachers and administrators being jailed by white law enforcement say it all, IMHO.

Gimme me a break. I am sure there was extensive investigations in Atlanta before there were any arrests. I do not think this is about race

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is more plausible that any cheating that took place in DC, took place without Rhee's knowledge .I fault the cheaters and not Rhee. I also think Rhee had only just begun reform in DC. It will take years and years to undo the mess of DCPS. She made a good start despite push back with her every move.

I don't think Rhee knew about the cheating but her incompetence led her to develop a system which strongly encouraged cheating. And once it became obvious there was a problem her arrogance kept her from investigating it appropriately.

[Anonymous]

Interesting question. If Rhee was as good at actually improving schools as she has been at promoting herself, we'd be in a different situation. If Hall was as good at promoting herself, she'd be in a different situation.

BTW, why on earth were the bonds set so high for these individuals?

[Anonymous]

I've read that the Atlanta tedt scores resulted in as much as. $500k bonus for the superintendent. That's jail-worthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly the racial politics in Atlanta are very different (for the worse). The images of all of the African American teachers and administrators being jailed by white law enforcement say it all, IMHO.

Gimme me a break. I am sure there was extensive investigations in Atlanta before there were any arrests. I do not think this is about race

Ok, so for the sake of argument, let's say Rhee didn't know about the cheating upfront.

So why was she so eager to believe that the scores could have improved so drastically? The teachers of these star students, were, after all,part of the deadwood she had vowed to get rid of. This was all before IMPACT, remember -- these teachers had not been rated as effective by her own system. They weren't TFA stars - just regular DCPS hangers-on.

If she believed for a second that the kids had actually improved dramatically, why didn't she ever visit the school to witness the reading progress herself -- congratulate the kids for reading at grade level after being so behind? Wouldn't she be proud of them and happy for them? Why no debriefing with the teachers to determine their magical teaching methods that could be used at other schools to close the achievement gap, as she promised her reform would do?


What about when the scores dropped precipitously the following year -- where was the remedial help for those kids? Nowhere - because they were just an embarrassment to cover up.

Why was the principal at Noyes, Wayne Ryan, promoted when the scores went up, then "disappeared" when the cheating accusations surfaced?

He had gone from hero to embarrassment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is more plausible that any cheating that took place in DC, took place without Rhee's knowledge .I fault the cheaters and not Rhee. I also think Rhee had only just begun reform in DC. It will take years and years to undo the mess of DCPS. She made a good start despite push back with her every move.

I don't think Rhee knew about the cheating but her incompetence led her to develop a system which strongly encouraged cheating. And once it became obvious there was a problem her arrogance kept her from investigating it appropriately.

SHe gave principals numbers they had to reach to keep their jobs -- you don't think that encouraged cheating?


What push-back did she get? She had a mayor who had control over the schools who let her do anything she wanted.

And where is the good start? Nothing she did has worked to help students. We've had reform for almost 6 years now -- where's the improvement?

[Anonymous]

I doubt it's about race, as Atlanta is a predominately black town with a black mayor, yes? Chances are, the police dept is predominately black, and the people I saw leading the charge against those educators are black.

Fortunately, the article doesn't suggest race was a factor either.

But, I have the following question: Wouldn't Beverly Hall be just as far removed from the actual cheating that took place in her schools as Rhee was? Wouldn't she be in her high-rise office on test day like Rhee? No one's suggested Hall was in the schools erasing and changing answers. Sure, her system received money for the high scores, but so did DC. So while she received whatever amount, I'm certain Rhee did as well. But because DC's cheating was swept under the rug, no one bothered to look into that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is more plausible that any cheating that took place in DC, took place without Rhee's knowledge .I fault the cheaters and not Rhee. I also think Rhee had only just begun reform in DC. It will take years and years to undo the mess of DCPS. She made a good start despite push back with her every move.

Chances are great that the erasures and answer changing took place without Hall's knowledge as well, as I'm sure she wasn't in the schools on test day.

And what push back did Rhee receive? She was given complete rein to do whatever she wanted.

And she did.

Too no one's benefit but her own.

I actually hope the gov't steps in and looks into the DC cheating scandal, as it really hurt the kids of DC and I'm certain has something to do with why the achievement gap hasn't closed there and why true academic achievement hasn't taken place. Not only that, but she's able to continue to lie about the 'gains' made in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've read that the Atlanta tedt scores resulted in as much as. $500k bonus for the superintendent. That's jail-worthy.

DC's scores also resulted in thousands of dollars worth of bonuses.

Did you not see the principals and teachers at that school receive their bonuses in the Education of Michelle Rhee documentary?

I'm certain she got a share of the pie too.

And remember the principal who blew the whistle and sued because of the cheating going on in her school? Part of her lawsuit asked for (part of) the money the District received for their scores.