Rhee's Credibility Questioned as High-Stakes Testing is Exposed Again
By Lisa SchiffLast week, high-stakes testing queen Michelle Rhee, was exposed. Thanks to the impressive investigative work of reporterJohn Merrow, the final dots have been connected making it clear that when Rhee was superintendent of Washington D.C.'s public schools, serious levels of cheating were occurring spurred on by the unrealistic pressure she put on principals and that she was fully aware of what was happening. This news comes on the heels of the Atlanta Public School cheating scandal in which the principals and teachers acted together to change students' test answers in order to improve standardized test scores under the pressure of threats by that district's superintendent, Beverly Hall.
Hall and the others went to jail earlier this month once their malfeasance was exposed - but only after receiving tremendous accolades from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama about the "success" represented by these test score gains. The value of those gains would have been questionable on their own, but the fact that they were fabricated and that Hall's resultant professional success came at the expense of children's education is reprehensible. Because of public exposure, those involved in Atlanta are being held accountable, and the same should be done for Michelle Rhee, especially given her
