Remember back to the spring of 2010, when the district superintendent Frances Gallo in Central Falls, Rhode Island, threatened to close the high school and fire the entire staff because performance was so poor? Gallo was vigorously supported by State Superintendent Deborah Gist, and the threat of mass firings won the praise of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama.
Eventually an agreement was worked out with the teachers’ union, large numbers of staff left, and the tumult died down.
Now we learn that Central Falls High School has a much higher graduation rate, but teachers are saying–anonymously and off the record–that the graduation rate is phony. Students who were persistently absent graduated. Teachers say that students got quick and easy credits by credit recovery, by sitting in a front of a computer for a couple of days and answering multiple-choice questions. Similar questions have been raised about the graduation rate from middle school to high school.
But Gallo and Gist say they trust the higher graduation rate.
Here’s the deal: The data are closely scrutinized and criticized when they want to close your school. But when the reformers take over, the data are taken at face value.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
BINGO! It’s just another way of scamming parents. Tell them how great their school is doing and they have NO idea that the diploma is meaningless.
Diane,
It is clear to me that NCLB ultimately has created NCER…No Child Ever Retained. Grade and credit recovery schemes are all over the place. It is not simply the spirit of improvement that has caused this, it is the punitive nature of NCLB that has (you elaborate on this brilliantly in your book).
I suggest replacing ALL school-wide accountability calculations with ONE simple indicator: an up or down arrow indicating what happened to the enrollment the prior year. That is it. In LA, our Governor wants to ’empower’ parent to make choices about which school to sent their children. What better way than a simple, consistent, unchanging indicator, up or down? No calculations needed. No thresholds being defined then re-defined to make things better or worse. Just a simple arrow.
Color code those arrows to make it even easier. Green for up. Red for down. A yellow one in a horizontal fashion might work for no change.
Credit recovery is a joke. The computer lessons are easy to manipulate. You just guess, guess again. The old adage used to be if you don’t succeed try, try again. They are learning nothing but how to game the system. This is a huge disservice to the students and the incompetent adminstrators can pat themselves on the back. I wonder how they rationalize pushing kids through just to make it look like their reforms are working.
I agree about the computer credit recovery. From my experience with it in my high school, it is a failed idea.
Reblogged this on Kmareka.com and commented:
Diane Ravitch discusses the recent education reform drama in Central Falls.
It’s not the only system in RI that screwed their teachers and finagle data….
The move in Central Falls had only one true purpose: to break the union. We saw similar moves here in Providence though the teachers eventually won out.
This does not bode well for public education in general. I see increasing efforts to privatize education and should that come to fruition, it will end very badly.
You sure nailed it, Diane, in the last paragraph.
If what you’re saying is correct it is truly criminal.
I found an April 2012 PowerPoint presentation done by the district entitled “Lessons Learned From A High School In Transformation” where additional information can be found.
Click to access Board-Presentation-3.27.12.pdf
Interesting to look at the graduation rate over the last five years:
2008: 75%
2009: 52%
2010: 48%
2011: 54%
2012: 71%
The only thing more unbelievable than the 2012 graduation rate of 71% is the 2008 graduation rate of 75% !
The gaming of graduation rates may have happened pre-reform and post-reform. We may never know.
I would love to see a reform-neutral, tenacious investigative reporter get in there and do her best to tell us what really has been happening at Central Falls High School over the last 5 years.
Central Falls is being reorganized due to bankruptcy. The punch in the gut is, everyone’s pay will be cut, but not bond holders, they will get 100%. RI has a new law that says bond holders get paid first, not faithful public servants, not RI vendors, but bond holders.