Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Posters are negative because when the scores were released in 2013 to great fanfare, the Chancellor and Mayor did not reveal that the uptick was due to a manipulation in the cut scores for Proficiency. Guy Brandenburg,David Catania's staff and The Washington Post investigated the results and found out that parents had been duped. Last year, the cut scores for Proficiency were lowered, resulting in many more students being labeled as Proficient. People are now wondering what trick will be pulled out of their (Chancellor and Mayor) bottomless bag of tricks.

And the Chancellor and Mayor don't do anything to mitigate suspicions by choosing NOT to release school-by-school data when they most certainly have it to give. And not even offering a deadline--"latter this summer" means nothing. We're 25 days away from school starting.

I agree. I also do not understand the delay in releasing the data when obviously, they are available.

One big reason: Muriel Bowser. Is it any wonder she still won't engage Catania on any substantive issue?

Remove tin foil hat. Unfortunately, this is the way OSSE has been doing it for years...nothing to do with current politics. Sheesh.

My understanding is that many schools still lack the bandwidth (in terms of Ethernet and wireless access) and sufficient number of desktops/laptops/tablets to support PARCC testing.

Forgive me if this was already posted in the thread. This is letter she sent out to teachers.

Dear Colleagues,

This year’s results from the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System exam (DC CAS) have arrived and the news is that we are making steady progress.

· Students improved their math proficiency by 1.6 points and their reading proficiency by 0.3 points over last year.
· For the first time ever, more than half of DCPS students are proficient in math.
· High school students showed 4.2 point growth in math and a 4.2 point growth in reading.

I’m proud that we’re continuing on an upward trajectory on the DC CAS, and that more children than ever are proficient in reading and math. I’m especially pleased that we’ve shown significant growth in our high schools. However, I’m somewhat disappointed that we weren’t able to demonstrate greater growth this year across all DCPS schools.

I know that all of you are working urgently with students to raise achievement, and our students are responding to the more challenging work that we’re putting in front of them. We’ll use this data to help us understand where to expand the practices that are working and where to eliminate strategies that aren’t effective. At the end of the day, we’re still on the right track-- we just need to accelerate our progress and I am confident that we will.

Finally, as you know, this past year was the last for DC CAS—this upcoming school year, we will be switching over to PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers), so please be on the lookout for more information.

We are DCPS and we can do this!

Sincerely,


Kaya Henderson

Next year will be the first year that students will take a test that aligns to common core.

Henderson really works hard for her salary, which approximates $300,000 a year. For a hint of how hard she works, read the following piece at http://gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/how-is-kaya-henderson-performing-as-chancellor-of-d-c-public-schools/

Isn't this the first year that common core was implemented by all schools in the district? Does this reflect the small gains/or dips for some schools in the DC CAS scores?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Posters are negative because when the scores were released in 2013 to great fanfare, the Chancellor and Mayor did not reveal that the uptick was due to a manipulation in the cut scores for Proficiency. Guy Brandenburg,David Catania's staff and The Washington Post investigated the results and found out that parents had been duped. Last year, the cut scores for Proficiency were lowered, resulting in many more students being labeled as Proficient. People are now wondering what trick will be pulled out of their (Chancellor and Mayor) bottomless bag of tricks.

And the Chancellor and Mayor don't do anything to mitigate suspicions by choosing NOT to release school-by-school data when they most certainly have it to give. And not even offering a deadline--"latter this summer" means nothing. We're 25 days away from school starting.

I agree. I also do not understand the delay in releasing the data when obviously, they are available.

One big reason: Muriel Bowser. Is it any wonder she still won't engage Catania on any substantive issue?

The reason for the delay-- it's obviously not good news and they are leading with the best news they have -- which isn't very good.

remember last year when the big headlines were about a 4 point gain - then later we find out about the change in cut scores. most people just remember the gain story -- plus they are still reporting the big gain, but the cut -- not so much.

Clever, eh? sure helps with spin for the adults, but does nothing for the kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you wait to see the actual data from the schools before getting all bent out of shape? Also, consider that LAMB and Stokes are also teaching their children in other languages, which might impact the time spent on English and math.

That's a poor excuse. What college is going to care that you are bilingual but functionally illiterate and innumerate?

+1 that excuse is unacceptable

What do you want? Even BASIS has a math proficiency of 81% and reading of 84%, and that's among the highest scoring schools in the city. Yes, we should be pushing for all DC students, whether DCPS or DCPCS, to be proficient. The DC CAS is not a difficult test. But why are you pulling out certain charters, particularly those that are also teaching another language, for an extra heaping of scorn?

Anonymous wrote:Emma Brown just tweeted an Excel spreadsheet of charter school data by school (not by grade): http://t.co/p0hGn7BZDL

Thanks!

Great job by DCPCSB posting the information same day! Emma tweeted it, but it was DCPCSB getting the info out same day. Excellent work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ten public charter schools whose students scored highest on DC CAS were (in order of overall proficiency):
1. St. Coletta Special Education PCS (87.9 percent)
2. DC Prep PCS – Edgewood Middle (86.3 percent)
3. KIPP DC – College Preparatory PCS (83.2 percent)
4. BASIS DC PCS (82.9 percent)
5. DC Prep PCS – Benning Middle (81.1 percent)
6. KIPP DC – KEY Academy PCS (80.0 percent)
7. Washington Latin PCS – Middle School (77.9 percent)
8. Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS (77.1 percent)
9. DC Prep PCS – Edgewood Elementary (75.4 percent)
10. Washington Yu Ying PCS (74.9 percent)

"Other" charter schools continue to trounce DCUM's HRCSs.

Latin, Basis and YY always get lots of DCUM love. And even DCUM acknowledges that KIPP and DC Prep do a great job.

Other charter schools that get "lots of DCUM love" are: LAMB, Stokes, Mundo Verde, Inspired Teaching, Creative Minds, Two Rivers, E.L. Haynes and Cap City. Where are the high scores to back up the love?

You of course are aware that some of these schools don't yet have the date to provide. CM is only in year two - so only had one year of scores to provide. IT will only have the their second year of scores this year.

Perhaps before you insult a school - you get someone educated on how testing and charters work.

Thanks for the advice So now we're up to two schools that don't have testing data (MV and CM). Can you answer my question now regarding the others? Or do you have more excuses (i.e., someone was mean to the proctor, it rained on test day, the dog ate the test sheets, etc)?

This is summary information, before YOU get your panties in a bunch why don't we wait for the raw data. A summary press release is just a story (and I know, I write them for a living).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you wait to see the actual data from the schools before getting all bent out of shape? Also, consider that LAMB and Stokes are also teaching their children in other languages, which might impact the time spent on English and math.

That's a poor excuse. What college is going to care that you are bilingual but functionally illiterate and innumerate?

+1 that excuse is unacceptable

Emma Brown just tweeted an Excel spreadsheet of charter school data by school (not by grade): http://t.co/p0hGn7BZDL

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Posters are negative because when the scores were released in 2013 to great fanfare, the Chancellor and Mayor did not reveal that the uptick was due to a manipulation in the cut scores for Proficiency. Guy Brandenburg,David Catania's staff and The Washington Post investigated the results and found out that parents had been duped. Last year, the cut scores for Proficiency were lowered, resulting in many more students being labeled as Proficient. People are now wondering what trick will be pulled out of their (Chancellor and Mayor) bottomless bag of tricks.

And the Chancellor and Mayor don't do anything to mitigate suspicions by choosing NOT to release school-by-school data when they most certainly have it to give. And not even offering a deadline--"latter this summer" means nothing. We're 25 days away from school starting.

I agree. I also do not understand the delay in releasing the data when obviously, they are available.

One big reason: Muriel Bowser. Is it any wonder she still won't engage Catania on any substantive issue?