Education News

The chairman of the D.C. Council’s education committee said Sunday that he has no plans to launch a full-scale investigation into allegations of widespread cheating on standardized tests in 2008, during the tenure of former Chancellor Michelle Rhee.

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The Method

America’s Most Challenging High Schools ranks schools through an index invented by Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews. The index formula is a simple ratio: the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school in 2012, divided by the number of graduates that year. Noted in our national and local tables is the percentage of students eligible for government meal subsidies — a common benchmark for poverty — and each school’s average SAT score, a common college entrance exam with a national average of 1498 out of 2400. The list includes some private schools — noted with a (P) — for comparison. Certain public schools with highly selective admissions are omitted from the list, but information about them can be found online, along with full national lists, at www.washingtonpost.com/
highschoolchallenge. Mathews and Post researcher Bonnie Smith, working with local innovations editor Greg Linch, canvassed schools across the nation for data used to assemble the rankings. The Post’s Jason Bartz provided digital development support.

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New York City public school students are undergoing rigorous preparation for the redesigned exams, which are likely to cover some material that is not yet in the curriculum.    

How many ways did D.C. educators cheat on the 2102 high-stakes Comprehensive Assessment System tests given to students? Here are some excerpts from a new official report that details how teachers in 18 District classrooms cheated on the exams.

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The D.C. Council's Committee on Education is holding a hearing on test security this week, and the description of that event is written up on the council Web site. Someone was apparently in a rush, because the post is filled with spelling and other errors. Even the committee's name is missing a letter in one reference. Find all of them:

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(Update: Ed Committee chair won't call for new probe)

Don't expect much from the D.C. Council in the way of a serious investigation into cheating by educators on high-stakes standardized tests in the city's public schools when Michelle Rhee was chancellor.

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Sidwell Friends, the elite private school known for educating the children of presidents and members of Congress, has lent its support to a group of former students and faculty who are seeking to open a public charter school in the District.

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The project, backed by several universities, would build the world’s largest telescope atop the Mauna Kea volcano, at a cost of $1 billion.    

Spelman’s highly unusual move to eliminate the athletic department comes at a time when few institutions seem to be able to resist the lure of intercollegiate sports.    

The education world is abuzz over the publication by independent journalist John Merrow of a secret memo that says nearly 200 D.C. educators may have cheated on standardized tests in 2008 when Michelle Rhee was schools chancellor. (You can read the memo and more here.)

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Many people paying attention to corporate-based school reform in recent years will not be surprised by this, but a new study on the effects of this movement in Washington, D.C., New York City and Chicago concludes that little has been accomplished and some harm has been done to students, especially the underprivileged.

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(Update: Teacher put on leave)

For the really bad school assignment file: A high school English teacher in Albany actually gave this persuasive writing assignment to students: "Argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!"

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This week, our collaborators in New Jersey got playful with both their Times choices and the writing activities they suggest for them.    

Nassau County prosecutors are also looking into whether teachers helped students in Glen Cove.    

Questions for Robert Sanft, the chief executive of the Office of Student Enrollment in New York City’s Education Department.    

Some Washington State legislators are proposing a 20 percent tuition surcharge for international students at public universities and community colleges as a way to raise revenues.    

The City Council in Washington will hold a hearing after a memo warning officials of cheating on standardized tests during the chancellorship of Michelle A. Rhee surfaced on Thursday.    

Teachers in 18 District classrooms cheated on high-stakes standardized tests last year, according to a report released Friday by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.

The findings come one day after journalist John Merrow published a 2009 document that raised questions about whether the District adequately investigated past cheating allegations.

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Matthew Goldstein oversaw an expansion of the City University of New York, the city’s public college system, and set out to raise its prestige with a new honors college and other measures.    

An unidentified 10th-grade English teacher at Albany High School told students to construct an anti-Semitic argument using historical propaganda.