John Merrow has written a blistering critique of the Establishment’s cover-up of the cheating scandal in D.C.
The article he wrote exposing the cover up was rejected by a national magazine, unnamed.
When Merrow directly asked Duncan about the scandal, Duncan bobbed and weaved.
But Merrow reserves his greatest ire for the editorial writers at the Washington Post, who were cheerleaders for Michelle Rhee and who dismissed anyone who dared to criticize her.
Why? This is the newspaper that revealed Watergate.
What is the mysterious power of Michelle Rhee over the Washington Post editorial board?
Are they afraid of her?
Why?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I suppose The Washington Post doesn’t want egg on their faces. Or, is their hatred for teachers so deep they are willing to turn a blind eye? And I am sure Obama would be upset if his little princess was brought down by the paper, so expect Duncan to play stupid.
And the mayor must have a very strong influence on city council members. This same mayor who made a name for himself by taking on Rhee. What a sham?? There’s a show on TV called “Boss” about a Chicago mayor who stops at nothing, including murder, to get his way. We know in NYC Quinn takes away money from districts if she is crossed, and DC has always had a bad reputation when it came to corruption. Even the former Unity head of the teachers union took a job with Rhee. If people don’t see a story here, they are not journalists. But journalism has a new paradigm–bias trumps facts when it comes to certain issues.
I have a petition on the white house petitions site to have the feds investigate Rhee and the cheating scandal. Please sign it at the following URL.
http://wh.gov/Sj8y
The Post owns Kaplan Inc. They are invested in testing as a revenue stream. Simple.
I just started a petition on the White House petitions site, We the
People. Will you sign it? http://wh.gov/Sj8y
Teacher Highlights Washington Post Conflict of Interest in Education Arena – Living in Dialogue – Education Week Teacher
…
“Kaplan K12 Learning Services is a for-profit private company which does extensive business with the public school system of the District of Columbia. It also sells online “virtual” elementary and high school programs to public districts all over the country. It operates publicly funded, for-profit online elementary and secondary charter schools, statewide in six states. Kaplan has recently moved to increase its investment in services that are mandated by the Race to the Top competition. It is actively investing in “compliance” services.
It aims to provide, at a profit, the expensive data monitoring and management services required to implement “value added” teacher pay formulas.
At the same time as the Post Corporation’s Kaplan arm is marketing products to public K-12 education, the Post’s editorial and journalistic arm is heavily involved in political advocacy.”
More:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/04/teacher_highlights_washington_.html
A story in GF Brandenburgs blog featured a name “Harold Levy?”
This guy is the “Where’s Waldo?” Of school reform: former NYC school chancellor, former Kaplan exec, present mover and shaker in Hedge fund school privatization, while still a ‘trusted’ advisor at Columbia University:
Harold Levy
Harold Levy is Managing Director of Palm Ventures, a family office that makes early stage capital investments that have a positive and transformative impact on society. He leads the education practice. Mr. Levy was formerly the New York City Schools Chancellor, where he created and published the first set of accountability metrics, started the Teaching Fellows program, instituted a math initiative that resulted in significant test score increases and led the system during the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath. He has also served as Executive Vice President of Kaplan, Inc., a subsidiary of the Washington Post Company, where he started Kaplan University’s online School of Education.
http://hechinger.tc.columbia.edu/who-we-are/committees/
In January, a firm called Capital Roundtable – which touts itself as “America’s leading conference company for the middle-market private equity community” – held a Master Class called “Private Equity Investing in For-Profit Education Companies.” The conference website noted, “For-profit education is one of the largest U.S. investment markets, currently topping $1.3 trillion in value.” The event was hosted by Harold Levy, a former chancellor of the New York City Schools System who promoted charter proliferation during his tenure. Now he manages Connecticut investment company Palm Ventures.
I believe there are some very complex kickback arrangements associated with Michelle Rhee. Deals have been made. Reputations have been constructed on lies. Major reform entities will crumble if the truth of Rhee is revealed.
Question: Does Rhee’s cheating connect directly to the Oval Office?
Absolutely. I will never forget the sickness I felt in my stomach to see them (Duncan and Rhee) on stage embracing DURING THE CHEATING INVESTIGATION.
These people are all buddies. They are high up and have the power to cover up.
The rich cover up, while the poor go bankrupt when we do something wrong.
Michelle Rhee has too many buddies that share her views – all for the sake of $$$$$$$$$$.
“while the poor go bankrupt when we do something wrong.”
Yep.
And sometimes we go bankrupt when we do nothing wrong (unless you count getting sick as doing something wrong)
I have a petition on the whitehouse petitions site to have the federal government investigate Rhee and the cheating scandal. Just follow the following URL.
http://wh.gov/Sj8y
Can you add the link to John Merrow’s reports in that petition?
Wondering that myself, M. Schneider. Will the IRS investigate you if you put your name on that White House petition site?
I don’t trust it at all.
I decided a long time ago that the only way to fight any government retribution against those who take a stand is to actually take a stand. We would still be stuck in the days of Jim Crow if Rosa Parks hadn’t sat at the front of the bus. Similarly, we will still be stuck with the likes of Michelle Rhee if we sit tacitly by.
As for the IRS investigating anyone who signs a petition on the White House petition site, they could just as easily investigate anyone who posts on Diane’s site or on Jonathan Pelto’s site, or on any other site.
I sincerely apologize to those who think that I have been a little aggressive with listing my petition, but, in order to receive the necessary 100,000 signatures for it to go to the President, it needs to average 3,333 signatures per day for a month. As of the time of this posting, it has received 104. We have a choice; either we sit quietly back and allow the like of Rhee to get away with corruption, or we do something about it. At least, a petition on We The People is an attempt to do something about Rhee. I refuse to just sit back and complain. Will you join me?
You can’t shame people who are shameless.
I can think of several reasons: 1.)The Post has feasted on the DCPS teat through Kaplan and the contracts they’ve had in the past. 2.) Jo-Ann holds a lot of sway with the editorial board. Why admit a mistake when you can double down? 3.) Maybe they actually believe the PR. 4.) Until December 2010 Melinda Gates was on the Post’s board.
There are so many more possible answers and theories. The WaPo is a joke nowadays. So much for the Bradley/Graham tradition of the 1970’s and 1980’s.
I’d ask the ombudsman, but they eliminated that position. Too bad they won’t look into the story. It has all the makings of a movie and Pulitzer.
I just started a petition on the White House Petitions site, We the
People. Will you sign it? http://wh.gov/Sj8y
My petition is calling for a federal investigation of Michelle Rhee and the D.C. testing scandal.
You might want to read Larry Cuban’s take on Rhee. He explains why she is history. bit.ly/11261J9
I just started a petition on the White House petitions site, We the
People. Will you sign it? http://wh.gov/Sj8y
Cuban may be right that MIchelle Rhee is “damaged goods.”
But in the crowd that she runs with (the corporate “reformers”), that label is like a medal.
Rhee is anathema to anyone who cares seriously about public education, but she’s still a darling to conservatives and those who want to milk public schooling of its funding.
New York Post, Washington Post, same thing?
First Teacher’s College now, The Post, sorry to see them go.
I just started a petition on the White House petitions site, We the
People. Will you sign it? http://wh.gov/Sj8y
Bill, Can you edit it? People may blow it off because it claims “there has been no investigation” when the Rhee camp is claiming there were something like six investigations. They were just cursory though, similar to what was initially done in Atlanta, and there have been no IN-DEPTH investigations, with subpoena powers, of multiple schools and erasure analysis of answer sheets.
Thanks for the suggestion but I do not know how to edit once it has been published. I will try.
Bill, I will not sign.
Good luck to you.
Galton,
I respect your decision not to sign. May I ask why not?
Bill
Then start all over again and say it right, Bill, or people won’t sign and, at best, you’ll get another investigation that only scratches the surface.
Demand an in-depth investigation of all schools implicated, with subpoena powers, and detailed erasure analysis of answer sheets.
Bill,
I have friends and family that work as, and do business with, public servants in NJ.
Our Governor and Education Commissioner are dishonest, and vengeful men. They are doing the bidding of powerful businesses and enjoy personal witch hunting!
Galton,
I sincerely appreciate what you are saying. We have the same situation here in CT. That’s why I have decided to stand up and fight. I’m tired of simply sitting and complaining to the same people on these websites over and over again. I feel frustrated and believe that I have to do something about corporate reformers destroying our profession.
I am also trying to organize a revolution within my union; our union state-president doesn’t want us to get involved in fighting the corporate reformers.
Anyway, thank you for your reply to me. Don’t sign if you think that doing so could be a threat.
The Post and Jo-Ann Armao are all in for Michelle Rhee and her bogus “reform” credentials and policies. They have been from the get-go. And no facts can get in their way.
I posted this comment at The Post more than two years ago when Armao wrote an editorial (titled “Cheating allegations can’t mask real gains in D.C.’s schools”) after a report from Caveon Consulting Services suggested “innocent explanations” for rampant cheating in the DC schools under Rhee.
____________________________________________
Apparently Jo-Ann Armao not only doesn’t read her own paper, but also she’s badly misread the USA Today investigative report on the rampant wrong-to-right erasure problems in the DC schools under MIchelle Rhee.
Even Rhee is now admitting that “some cheating” may have occurred during her reign as superintendent of the DC schools. But it’s a whole lot more than that.
Perhaps both Armao and Rhee too should re-read the USA Today investigative piece. When half of all the schools in the system are flagged for grossly abnormal wrong-to-right erasures on tests and ” the odds are better for winning the Powerball grand prize than having that many erasures by chance,” then it’s more than likely that “some cheating” took place. And much more likely that a whole lot of cheating took place.
According to the USA Today report, for a school to be “flagged” for possible cheating a “classroom had to have so many wrong-to-right erasures that the average for each student was 4 standard deviations higher than the average for all D.C. students in that grade on that test, meaning that ” a classroom corrected its answers so much more often than the rest of the district that it could have occurred roughly one in 30,000 times by chance. D.C. classrooms corrected answers much more often.”
Consider also that Rhee and her top minions, including current chancellor Kay Henderson, were very reluctant to have any kind of investigation. Consider also that the “investigations” that finally took place were quite limited. And, the school system refused to release the names of the schools that were investigated. And, the school system refused to release the limited-in-scope “investigative” reports.
This scandal was swept under the rug. Covered up. And you can be sure that the current DC schools “leadership,” if it can be called that, does not want to reopen this can of worms if it can possibly avoid it.
The Post (Armao) drooled over Rhee. The critics told The Post (Armao) that Rhee was a charlatan, a liar. That’s been proved. Not only did Rhee lie repeatedly about her so-called “miraculous” accomplishments as a teacher in Baltimore, but she lied about the so-called “achievement gains” under her tenure in DC. The Post continues to make that lie for Rhee.
As to the “test security” company, Caveon, that performed the very limited inquiries into the DC testing irregularities, it performed much like the Wall Street ratings agencies (Fitch’s, Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s) that signed off on the toxic, collateralized securities peddled by the investment banks. Those agencies took the big fees and gave the banks what they wanted: a clean bill of health (AAA ratings) for securities that were dogs. So too, Caveon took the money and looked the other way. It said that all the red flags suggesting rampant cheating might be due to students who just checked their work. Always wrong to right.
This editorial lacks honesty. It’s without basis. It’s shameless.
___________________________________________________
The Post has yet to back off its support for the Rhee-Kaya Henderson regime. It has yet to admit that more standardized testing, more charter schools, and merit pay based on student test scores have no research foundation as a basis for school “reform.”
Of course, Fred Hiatt, editorial page editorial, has yet to apologize for his endorsement of the war in Iraq either.
The Post remains shameless.
I have a petition on the white house petitions site to have the feds investigate Rhee and the cheating scandal. Please sign it at the following URL.
http://wh.gov/Sj8y
Alright, we get it. You don’t need to reply to every post.
I’m sorry, Dienne, to have irritated you. You might get it, but I have one month to raise 100,000 signatures. Although I have 46 signatures currently, that is far short of the 3,333 average per day I need. Therefore, I would greatly appreciate any help that you would be willing to give in spreading the word about the petition. We need to do everything we can do to torpedo Ms. Rhee.
The Armao editorial is here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/cheating-allegations-cant-mask-real-gains-in-dcs-schools/2011/03/30/AFeh8Q5B_story.html
The mysterious power is called “Kaplan.” They’re invested (literally) in for-profit ed, and Rhee’s a force for that. No mystery. Just sad and scary.
Basically, if you allow people to cheat, it makes a mockery of measurement.
It doesn’t take a 50 million dollar study to know that ignoring cheating is the destruction of civilization.
Cheating is value subtracted,
TC, thank you for your statement of truth. You throw a spotlight on how desperate and deliberate a sea change of social engineering is crashing directly onto the most important system we have, Education. What else controls and directs how our society will function? The minds of the future, the children, are what is being changed. For some it will mean a life of purpose, for others a constant search and questioning of why they were not included, and for others a dark hole to endlessly sink and die.This may well be another of the “Too Big To Fail” well designed, manipulated, and funded experiments of our time or any time.
Michelle Rhee appears to be a perfect handmaiden for the true architects and beneficiaries of this change which impacts the whole of our community (the internet is the game changer….this is a global initiative). Books, articles, papers, movies one after the other, written by brilliant minds to the inside of the coming of this change over decades, have shouted a warning and it went silent on the eyes and ears of those that could have made a difference. Instead, people were seduced to the dark side because of greed or narcissism and used as tools to create this nightmare. Media can count themselves in as another of the handmaidens to this change of life as we have known it, for good or bad.
Now there is an awakening by enough of these people, shared with the assistance of the internet , to try and stem this tide, this Tsunami which is about to head-on hit the minds of our children leaving millions to serfdom and a select group to survive and flourish. Even those that survive will still be the servants of the technological robotic future envisioned by the social engineers who are reshaping our foundation. If the world is not about people (people need purpose)
then we have embarked on our own demise without giving ourselves
permission. Others have decided for us. Lemmings we!
People with conscious are trying to slow this down or turn it around but it may be too late. But it is never too late to try! That is a personal decision, as seen in the desperation of those responding to blogs (many sound like they are drowning), those that are willing to look hard at the mistake or misguided place they allowed themselves to be led (as Mr. Merrow has bravely done and shown himself to be a seeker of the truth through his own integrity, character, and professionalism), those willing to stand shoulder to shoulder and examine how we got here, where are we going, and how can we make this benefit humanity?
As of now this is a sell-out of mega proportions and to quote TC “It doesn’t take a 50 million dollar study to know that ignoring cheating is the destruction of civilization.” What does not measure up are all the “good” people who are going along with this sinking of our own ship. If you tell a lie long enough you will begin to believe it and a sociopath to think it is okay to tape a child to a chair and tape over it’s mouth and then rip off the tape causing pain and suffering.
Sorry this is so long but my heart is breaking for the children. They are being tested beyond the questions and the paper.
I further believe the people on both sides of the isle have been
seduced to a wrongheaded belief that what they are doing must be done to win some race at the cost of destroying the very people they are supposed to work for and protect.
Well, the Post lost a great editor and reporter when Larry Stern died in August 1979.He created the term “credibility gap.” He would not be welcomed at the Post today.
As long as the Post has vested interests in testing companies, it will never be an objective paper with regard to education. Testing is a big business. How vile that a newspaper would pull a Susan Fuhrman and think it can pose itself as a vessel for journalism to the public.
Yet, testing is VERY BIG business in our very own country, the United Corporations of America:
http://thetruthoneducationreform.blogspot.com/2012/12/blog-post_7246.html?view=snapshot
http://thetruthoneducationreform.blogspot.com/2012/12/blog-post_5636.html?view=snapshot
http://thetruthoneducationreform.blogspot.com/2013/02/pampered-vs-punished.html?view=snapshot
http://thetruthoneducationreform.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-downfall-of-democracy.html?view=snapshot
Diane wrote about Susan Fuhrman and her conflict of interest here:
There remains the question of conflict of interest when the president of the nation’s most prestigious graduate school of education (and the president of the National Academy of Education) is also a member of the board of directors of [Pearson] a profit-seeking seller of standardized testing, online instruction, online charter schools, and course materials for the Common Core.
And this may explain why Columbia’s school of education has a man Like Harold Levy as an advisor to their committee on journalism and education.
Some personal experience with the Washington Post on the subject of education. I got involved in education issues 20 years ago because of an incident their editorial board wrote outrageously wrong things about. The incident was at our local high school, South Lakes High School, in Reston VA, where our older daughter was a student.
Some principals have an obsession with student attendance percentage numbers, and ours was one. Somebody on her staff had the bright idea that they could increase attendance by automatically failing students who had more than a certain number of absences in a semester. Then the student could appeal and show doctor’s notes etc., to clear themselves. A bunch of us parents had the quaint idea that a presumption of innocence should apply to students, and started protesting.
A Post reporter wrote an article about it that was rather shallow, but at least not false. But one of the editorial board wrote an editorial against the parents, saying two things. First of all there was never any preemptive failure. This was flat out false, as the policy was in black and white, and the author of it—a P.E. teacher—admitted to me it was her idea. But by then the principal (who was subsequently pushed out by the county) was lying about it. The point is that the Post Editorial board assumed that those in power were right, without checking the facts.
It was an eye-opening experience that the Post had become in large parts an ‘establishment’ newspaper, believing whatever authorities said, without checking the facts. The bravery in exposing Watergate was ancient history, even twenty years ago.
The second thing in the editorial was an attack on us parents who protested; the Post said, if I remember correctly, that we were just the sort of parents who were responsible for the decline in SAT scores!
Merrow’s experience is depressing, but not surprising to me. How many news outlets, including MSNBC, are actually covering this massive story of the failure of current educational reform efforts, and the tens of thousands of voices crying out against it? I see just in the past week the Nation actually did something. This is maybe a first crack, but there is a long way to go.
I wish Merrow would also name The New York Times. They did a complete overhaul of their Education staff and put Winerip out to pasture writing about Baby Boomers. Other good reporters were ousted out by refusing to make them full-time employees. Winerip did not want to leave Education. This was a calculated decision to spin Education news to match the editorials. Yet there was only one outcry, and that was by Norm Scott on Ednotes. But I am sure a post from Diane on that subject would ruffle the editors feathers. And they need ruffling.
So what newspaper does have a good education reporter? Valerie Strauss is the only one I know. (Jay Matthews is so addicted to AP testing that he’s worthless.)
Mathcs, I agree that Valerie Strauss is very good. But isn’t she on-line only? Jay Matthews, who I also agree is exasperating, is the one who gets ink. The Post does have some good reporters, I should have made that clear. But the editorial board is awful. And unfortunately a lot of the reporting has a right leaning bias as well. Economist Dean Baker calls it “Fox on Fifteenth,” which is an exaggeration, there is plenty of provocation. But some of the reporters do do good work.
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