A lot of the high SES families in DC with kids in public and private school care deeply about social issues throughout the county and the world, but sit quietly when bad things are happening right in their own back yards.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, JO Wilson is a hard core cheater. Best part is Kaya wouldn't let them investigate the school because it is "good."

Anyone and I mean ANYONE with their wits about them knew the DCCAS proficiency rates JO Wilson was posting were bogus given what was going on in the building.

Of course if you questioned the soaring scores, Rhee said you were a racist that didn't believe poor children of color could achieve.

This needs to be investigated. I'm thinking a well-funded Republican member of the House of Representatives just might be the ticket. Who else is willing to stick their neck out and go after the "reformers" that Obama and Duncan have publicly endorsed?

I say this sadly, as a DCPS parent and a lifelong Democrat.

Obviously. Ludlow-Taylor, too. How do test scores soar into the 60s then drop to the 30s and 40s a year later with most of the kids FARMs? Nobody much gives a damn.

good thoughts, Jeff -- and what about other current council members -- what would it take to get them to announce their support for an investigation.

At the national level, lots of Democratic congress members have come out in favor of gay marriage. Surely it isn't asking too much for DC council members to come out against cheating in the schools and for an investigation.

And who says the investigation has to be costly or "impractical?"

Journalists have already done a lot of it. If data experts were allowed to do what they should have done in the first place, the investigation would have been completed years ago.

Let's get Sandy Sanford on the job. He seems like an honorable man, just waiting to be asked to do something honorable.

Let's get just a couple of highly placed, knowledgeable DCPS staffers to "sing." There must be a few honorable souls there, as well, who have been disillusioned by what they once believed would be an educational miracle and now see is a fraud.

Anonymous wrote:This needs to be investigated. I'm thinking a well-funded Republican member of the House of Representatives just might be the ticket. Who else is willing to stick their neck out and go after the "reformers" that Obama and Duncan have publicly endorsed?

Rhee has enlisted with the most right-wing governors in the country and is a leading union buster. I don't think you will find many Republicans, particularly in the House, that will want to do anything that might reflect poorly on her. Besides, I don't like the idea of Congress getting involved in the District's affairs in any case. This is a task for the residents of DC to resolve through our elected officials. On April 23, there is an election for an At-Large member of the Council. Let's make sure that whoever is elected will support an investigation into this.

Aaaaaand. . . .this is why we're getting out of here before K.

11:50--fun facts! I didn't know that. That Kaya, she's a peach.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, JO Wilson is a hard core cheater. Best part is Kaya wouldn't let them investigate the school because it is "good."

Anyone and I mean ANYONE with their wits about them knew the DCCAS proficiency rates JO Wilson was posting were bogus given what was going on in the building.

Of course if you questioned the soaring scores, Rhee said you were a racist that didn't believe poor children of color could achieve.

This needs to be investigated. I'm thinking a well-funded Republican member of the House of Representatives just might be the ticket. Who else is willing to stick their neck out and go after the "reformers" that Obama and Duncan have publicly endorsed?

I say this sadly, as a DCPS parent and a lifelong Democrat.

Not to mention that Henderson had her partners child at J.O. Wilson when she insisted they not be investigated.

Yes. The information that points to widespread cheating during Michelle Rhee's time in DC has been known and public for a long time. Rhee and her staff knew it and continued merrily along awarding cash to cheaters, firing many who did not cheat, touting the success of their ideas and ignoring that there were actual children behind those test scores who needed help.

Anyone paying attention has known since the USA Today article that there was most likely widespread cheating. But we had to sit their bogus investigations and watch good teachers deemed failing due to the inflated scores of their students because NO ONE IN THE CITY WANTED THE TRUTH TO COME OUT. Not the school system, not the Mayor, not the City Council, not the Washington Post, not Arne Duncan or Obama ( busy with Race to the Top initiatives ) and not the rich bigwigs who donated to the cash bonuses for increased test scores. And definitely not the test designers and curriculum companies. And check out OSSE head Hosana Mahaley's corporate connections.

This cheating is not new news. It is simply news that no one in power wanted pursued. Thank goodness for Jay Matthews and John Merrow and other journalists who keep on the story.

Yes, JO Wilson is a hard core cheater. Best part is Kaya wouldn't let them investigate the school because it is "good."

Anyone and I mean ANYONE with their wits about them knew the DCCAS proficiency rates JO Wilson was posting were bogus given what was going on in the building.

Of course if you questioned the soaring scores, Rhee said you were a racist that didn't believe poor children of color could achieve.

This needs to be investigated. I'm thinking a well-funded Republican member of the House of Representatives just might be the ticket. Who else is willing to stick their neck out and go after the "reformers" that Obama and Duncan have publicly endorsed?

I say this sadly, as a DCPS parent and a lifelong Democrat.

Also looks like this was covered a year and a half ago in the Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/what-happened-at-wilson-elementary-school/2011/08/03/gIQAiJNqtI_blog.html

OP here - so, basically, this was available years ago, and USA Today updated it for the following years. And, scientifically speaking, there were no genius children who figured out how to magically erase the wrong answers and put in the right ones.

Wow! J.O. Wilson and Noyes look like hard-core cheaters based on these data.

Look on the OSSE website.

This is worth reading. I think the actual study might be linked somewhere in this piece...

Either way, the schools are listed in the following link:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-27-school-test-table_N.htm

The memo that came out discussing the test cheating says that "the raw erasure data for the Erasure study was supplied by CTB and the actual analysis was conducted by the American Institute of Research (AIR). The study concentrated on Wrong-to-Right (WTR) erasures on the 2008 CAS answer sheets. The AIR analysis used two statistical test to determine if the number of WTRs was significantly greater than what would have been observed if there was no teacher manipulation. The study covered both reading and math. There are 191 teachers representing 70 schools that are implicated in possible testing infractions by the study."

While Councilman Catania says he doesn't want to investigate further, I just want to see the Study.

Which were the 70 schools? How many classrooms in these schools had wrong-to-right erasures? It looks like that work has already been done.