But Wednesday’s turnout signaled that getting a new message about education to resonate with parents had been a challenge. Darlene Boston, StudentsFirstNY’s chapter leader in Bedford-Stuyvesant, said some parents have grown accustomed to their local schools’ poor performance.

“If you have been around mediocrity all the time, it’s hard to understand how bad the situation is,” Boston said.

http://gothamschools.org/2013/04/18/bed-stuy-rally-shows-studentsfirstnys-organizing-challenges/#more-103310

Eventually, the chairman of the state school board acknowledged that this scam had occurred (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 3/23/06). But so what? Even though Virginia is part of the Washington Post’s local news beat, the Post never reported any part of this sad and startling story. Needless to say, the career liberal world just stared into space and tugged on its wieners too.
http://

The dozens and dozens of DCPS schools will great test scores.
Taken down here:
http://gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/where-are-these-dozens-and-dozens-of-dc-public-schools-with-continued-steady-growth-thanks-to-rhee-henderson/

and here:
http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2013/01/peddling-rhee-fuzzy-claims-no-actual.html

And Mr. Rotherham has the chutzpah to go on the PBS online chat and belittle the facts and those who mention them.

Watch out, future teachers of the …. . Daddy believes it is OK to lie.

The 1/12/13 WaPo editorial http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dc-schools-...
And Whitmire’s new column http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rhee-had-he...
claim “significant” or “unique” NAEP gains at DCPS during Rhee’s time here. While every district’s NAEP results are “unique” to that area, there is nothing “significant” about DC’s gains.

While there were some math increases in the 2011 NAEP, the increases are mainly less significant than previous recent math increases. For instance 4th grade math scores increased 3 percentage points (219 to 222) from ’09 to ’11. This is down from a five point increase between ’07 and ’09 (214 to 219) and is equal to or lower than increases in previous years (3 points between ’05 and ’07 and 4 points between ’03 and ’05. Check it out in the upper right hand column NAEP DC snapshot page: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/stt2011/2012451DC4.pdf

8th grade math scores increased by the same number of percentage points (6) between ’09 – ’11 as they did between ’07-’09. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/stt2011/2012451DC8.pdf This is nice but it says nothing about reform, because it’s no different than the rate of increase before reform, which had little effect at the school level until the start of the ‘08-09 school year when Rhee did her first round of principal firing and hiring. Meanwhile, 4th grade math increases are declining since reform and reading scores are not increasing at all – they are flat or declining.

Eighth grade reading between ’09 and ’11 is completely flat at 242. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/stt2011/2012454DC8.pdf There was a one point increase between ’07 and ’09 (from 241 to 242). Between ’05 and ’07, before reform came to DC, there was a three point increase (from 238 to 241).

While reading scores have been creeping upward for years, reform has been no help at all.

The situation is a bit worse in the 4th grade, where students have been exposed to “reform” since first grade. What officials are calling “flat” for the 4th grade reading scores is actually a one point decline, from 202 in ’09 to 201 in ’11. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/stt2011/2012454DC4.pdf
This is pitiful compared to the five point increase (193 to 202) between ’07 and ’09 and the six point increase (191-197) between’05 and ’07 – prior to reform.

Even in math, where the news is better, DC has “…the nation’s highest proportion of 4th and 8th graders in the “below basic” category–and the lowest in proficient/advanced http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-schools-insider/post/closer-look-puts-dc-naep-math-scores-in-context/2011/11/02/gIQAH8uxfM_blog.html

For further information the disappointing results of school reform in DC, including the widening of the achievement gap, read here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-schools-insider/post/naep-results-suggest-long-march-not-turnaround/2011/12/07/gIQAK6BKdO_blog.html#pagebreak

The landscape of “educational reform” is currently littered with rubble and ruin and wreckage on all sides. Sadly, your administration has contributed significantly to the mounting catastrophe. You’re not alone: The toxic materials have been assembled as a bipartisan endeavor over many years, and the efforts of the last several administrations are now organized into a coherent push mobilized and led by a merry band of billionaires including Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Sam Walton, and Eli Broad.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13813-bill-ayers-a-letter-to-the-president

“When the largest stakeholders in any endeavor are seen as the opposition, you will fail.”