March 31, 2011
Washington Post reporter Jay Mathews had a column on former DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee’s initial response to a USA Today article that finds evidence of widespread cheating on the exam scores reported by one of the District’s star schools. Ms. Rhee denounced the article and described the reporters who researched it as flat earthers who opposed school reform.
The next day Rhee apologized for her previous comments and acknowledged that there were important questions about the integrity of the test scores that need to be examined. Mathews praised Rhee’s reversal and commented that:
“I sensed from my talk with Rhee that one reason she misspoke on Monday was that she had not had time to read either the USA Today story or the investigators’ reports, or to probe the weaknesses of test security protocols in Washington and other districts.”
If true, this would be astounding. There have been major testing scandals in many cities around the country dating back to the mid-90s. In the wake of these scandals it is difficult to believe that a school administrator who substantially increased the importance of standardized tests in the assessment of teachers and schools had not given careful consideration to test security protocols.
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