After a lengthy investigation, NYC Chancellor Carmen Farina fired the principal of John Dewey High School for faking graduation rates.
Teachers at the school had complained about the principal for years. They had also reported the fakery.
The Bloomberg administration had selected the principal Kathleen Elvin to lead the “turnaround” of 33 schools but the courts blocked the closures. She then became principal of John Dewey, where teachers frequently complained about her harsh methods.
Geoffrey Decker of NY Chalkbeat writes:
“When Kathleen Elvin took over troubled John Dewey High School in March 2012, she had a mandate to turn it around. And by at least one measure, she pulled off the job in barely two years.
“But Dewey’s soaring graduation rates, which increased 13 points under Elvin, were bolstered by an illicit credit recovery program, a city investigation has found. A long-awaited report on the probe, released Wednesday by the city’s Office of Special Investigations, concluded that Elvin supervised the set-up, in which students received credits toward graduation with no instruction from teachers.”
One of the boasts of the Bloomberg-era “reformers” was the city’s rising graduation rates. To what extent was that due to similar tactics?
Campbell’s Law rules again. When test scores or graduation rates become the basis for rewards and punishments, people go to extraordinary and sometimes unethical lengths to reach the target.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is this RheeFormer going to go to prison for her cheating or are RheeFormers exempt from the law?
She should have let everyone graduate, four years in the school “jail” is long enough.
School jail? How is high school a jail? What would be the alternative?
Joe, excellent
“the alternative”
“a self examined life is not worth living” said Socrates.
Hang Down Your Head, John Dewey …
Thanks to MORE’s Norm Scott working with inestimably courageous teachers and exposure by a TV reporter, the story became too hot to squash.
Farina is proving to be a well-compensated hack, who would let teachers cringe and suffer in the dark–unless forced grudgingly to take action that gives them relief and, by the way, also helps their students. Don’t anyone ever say that all teachers are worried about is collecting their paychecks.
This is happening everywhere. “Credit recovery” programs are generally self-directed, self-paced, on-line computer courses. There are some “teachers” available sometimes, but most often there is a proctor (non-teacher). I put the “teachers” in parentheses above because you can imagine that a principal is not going to assign the best teachers to walk around a room and answer questions from students working independently. I’m sure there are exceptions.
Yes, this is what I was going to say. I hope someone puts a stop to it. Is there an outside agency that would respond to teacher and parent complaints?
In Louisiana, online teachers and alternate course provider teachers are not evaluated with the Compass evaluation system (the VAM system that uses student test scores to evaluate teachers) as are regular teachers.
The argument used by the Louisiana State Department of Education that every child deserves an excellent teacher is hypocritical. On one hand they argue “student achievement” as measured by state tests should be the determiner of teacher quality. On the other hand, they do not evaluate these alternate teachers AT ALL!!
The goal is to use the evaluations to get rid of the real teachers and replace them with the alternates.
Credit recovery? what an idea, sounds like an economic policy. After four years, students should have an excellent education in the nonsense of mandatory schooling. This could give new meaning to “Valedictorian” against nonsense.
New York limits student to earn no more than six and one half credits earned through alternative means. This fraud is going on in many locations. It was comical to hear Chancellor Tisch act surprised that kids were graduating based upon fraudulant use of Credit Recovery. Tisch and King wanted to make it look like their reforms were improving HS completion rates–as a result NYSED chose to look the other way on this type of fraud. Just a few weeks before he was rejected in his effort for reappointment former Chancellor Bob Bennett visited a WNY school districts where the HS Principal and Superintendent should be fired for fraud based upon their fraudulent use of Credit Recovery. Bennett congratulated the leaders for the improvement in their graduation rate and suggested all schools should be as corrupt. Check that story out if you want to see abuse and fraud!
Unearned credits are rampant throughout the system. I was a programmer at a large H.S. that was divided into 4 small schools (SLC’s). The A.P. head of one of the SLC’s instructed me to add 1 credit (made up course) to about 60 students in order to be on track to graduate and maintain a good graduation statistic. I reported this but nothing happened. This was in the spring of 2009.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
The state Education Department is dropping its provider of standardized tests, Pearson LLC and has awarded the job to a competing firm, Questar Assessment, for grades 3-8. This test will also be given on line. This was just announced by NYSUT. http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/238350/new-york-chooses-a-new-3-8-testing-firm/
WOW! Thanks RT.
Online testing will be optional.
No mention of test transparency.
Most interesting is what was missing from the announcement:
NO mention of Common Core standards! ? ? ? ? ?
Link to QA
http://www.questarai.com/
YEARS ago when I was teaching at our High School, and this was an upper middle class exemplary school, we figured that from 50 to 60% of our students cheated on tests. With the emphasis on test scores, not on learning, I sincerely doubt if these statistics have improved.
We don’t have that much cheating. Too few students know the answers.
Forget the answers…. too few students even know what the QUESTION is.
Chicago has had two major examples of these frauds. The biggest one is the “alternative” high schools, where kids supposedly get on line credit, even though many said they do nothing, after leaving their regular schools. Then their credits are accumulated and they are given diplomas from the high schools they dropped out of — without anyone telling the high school that the kids are carrying a diploma from that school!
The other involves Arne Duncan himself. Last year, Duncan went out of his way to do a publicity stunt at Benito Juarez High School, which had just produced miraculous attendance gains. When the school’s union delegate, backed by the majority of the teachers, challenged the claims and gave evidence of the fraud, the principal got rid of the delegate, Manuel Bermudez. Manny just won a union grievance and got his old job back — after a year and hard fight.
But the principal who oversaw the cheating is still there, and Arne Duncan hasn’t returned to correct the record.
There is certainly a need for accountability with graduation. I had a middle school and one of my special needs students went to the high school only to drop out after 3 years. I went to the graduation the following year to see many of my students graduate. And there, across the stage walked that girl with diploma in hand.
Those who brag about graduation rates should take a look at how kids are graduating. That is why I support a system that assures students are prepared when they graduate. However, the “test” is not an indicator of student preparedness. It is also a scam allowing teach to the test to falsely indicate whether a not a child is prepared for life.
To achieve this end, several things must happen. In today’s system of education there are two choices for teachers regarding students who are not on target. One is to fail them into oblivion and the other is to pass them with a D-. Both are not only unethical but immoral. But that’s the choices given.
The outdated system of failure must be changed to allow failure to be a learning experience. Where students who fail a whole child assessment can take it over when they are ready, be it one week or one month.
The system of education was never designed to serve all children. That system must change!
I am a SPED teacher too and I agree with you wholeheartedly. It upsets me when I have to teach to the test because the kids have to pass it to graduate. If they pass, it is because they have memorized things not because they know it. But, of course, kids are all the same and have to be at the same place at the same time, right? And that is how we are judged. Our students are not measured by their progress but by whether they meet the exact same benchmarks as everyone else at the same time.
Drop testing, drop cheating. go to portfolios.
Video portfolios, portfolios of all types that demonstrate learning. Actually the Collins amendment to ESEA allows this but no one seems to want to talk about that. I guess there are not enough speakers fees for positive solutions
Tell me more about this Collins amendment.
o read the Collins amendment go to http://www.wholechildreform.com
The big dog (students, parents, families, communities, culture) will always wag the tail (teachers, grades, tests).
If the Chancellor, Carmen Farina, knew about this for a year, why did it take so long for her to finally remove Principal Elvin from the school?
If this was a teacher that was accused, the teacher would have immediately been put on “administrative duty”, and I’m sure the investigation would have moved a lot faster, resulting in a quick removal of the teacher.
Why is it that principals in the NYCDOE receive favored treatment, even though in Elvin’s case, the Chancellor had no recourse BUT to remove her in light of an investigation by CBS. Helped along by people in MORE, a caucus within the UFT.
Wonder what kind of administrator beleaguered Dewey will get now, and what other consequences Elvin will face for so blatantly encouraging cheating and educational neglect?
As an aside- the NY Post, has run a story about this saying that “school choice” is the only way to ensure “accountability”. I disagree. For years, teachers have been bashed by this tabloid. Isn’t it time that the Post looked to the administration and the leaders of the NYCDOE to find out why these shenanigans continue?
I think it’s clear. When you set up goals, people will try to fulfill them by whatever means they have at their disposal. The problem with this principal is that the goals meant nothing (graduation rate can clearly be manipulated, and is it, really, all that important?). I suppose the principal should suffer some penalty for ‘faking it’, but what about those who set the standards which invited the result in the pursuit of a meaningless end? Aren’t they far more culpable? Who is asking for their resignation?
For a succinct recap of Campbell’s Law see this blog—
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2012/05/25/what-is-campbells-law/
Before Donald Campbell, Charles Goodhart (an economist no less!) noted:
“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”
So many examples of what Raj Chetty of VAManiacal “fame” (see Vergara Trial) casually dismisses as “Campbell’s Conjecture” but note the wonderful numbers of the Potemkin Villages of the now-vanished Soviet Union, the “ghost cars” of the Los Angeles PD (google LATIMES), and the 12% graduation rate of the now-dismissed LAUSD Supt. John Deasy that was touted as 12% but was really 2% (see this blog 10-4-2014 on same, comments by KrazyTA that reference LATIMES).
Numbers & stats in the hands of rheephormsters will produce miraculous results—when subjected to EIT [EnhancedInterrogationTechniques].
Rheeally. And they will sing and dance a merry rheephormista tune in the most Johnsonally sort of ways too!
But here on Planet Reality, you can’t make 30% or 40% or 50% attrition rate of a 9th grade charter school cohort a 100% graduation rate for 12th graders. Not really. Because ethics and honesty and logic and consistency and compassion demand otherwise.
And there is a 98% “satisfactory” [thank you, Bill Gates!] chance of certainty that I am correct.
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Thanks, KTA.
You might be interested in this fun little bit of history that also illustrates Campbell’s Law in action:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704853404575323000497763856
Custer might have avoided Little Big Horn if he’d had some idea of just how many armed and ready Indians were in the area, but bureaucrats on the local reservations were paid according to how many Indians were living under their supervision. Any guesses why official information caused Custer to greatly underestimate the number of warriors his men might be facing?
Thank you for pointing out this delightful example of Campbell’s Conjecture in action.
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Sorry. I meant Campbell’s Law. I am still reeling from, and affected by, all the noise by a Chetty fanboy/fangirl on another of this day’s (7-9-15) threads.
And once you start humming that old Chetty standby, “If I had VAMhammer, I’d hammer you in the morning, I’d hammer you in the evening, All over this land” and so on… well, the mind can only take so much rheephrorm EITs…
¿? Yeah, according to the latest unconfirmed rumor on the Gates Foundation digital grapevine, Pete Seeger copied this from a current cage buster via VAM time travel.
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And trust me, there is a 98% “satisfactory” [thank you, Bill Gates!] chance of certainty that the rumor is rheeally true.
But really, I wouldn’t bet the house on it…
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KTA,
Is there an easy way to access my prior posts? You do a good job of referencing prior posts. I’d like to be able to go back and see my posts. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Mil gracias.
Duane
Duane Swacker—
Alas, I just google “dianeravitch” and “blog” and (as best as I can remember in any given case) two or three key words.
I am sorry I cannot be of more help.
Best of luck. I never miss a comment by you.
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