2009.06.12
Cheating on the SOLs
For Monday we will call on the school board to fire William Fleming principal Susan Willis and possibly the other school administrators, depending on their level of involement, who schemed to boost the school's SOL scores by preventing some students from taking the exams.
Here's today's news story.
RSS feed 
As a woman who graduated from Hollins with Ms. Willis, she is a an embarrassement to my alma mater. As a person with a disability and an advocate for persons with disabilities, she makes me physically ill. She should step down immediately.
Comment by Teresa Zeigler — June 12, 2009 @ 3:26 pm
A high percentage of special education students are being placed on a 'separate, but not equal' track for SOL testing across school districts.
The Virginia Grade Level Alternate Assessment (an assortment of worksheets or a photograph of students pointing to the correct answer) is used for such students so that they can 'pass' their SOLs. It's the "Emperor's New Clothes" fairy tale for the students with disabilities.
I don't find this much different from what Fleming has done to raise SOL scores in response to the No Child Left Behind debacle.
Comment by J.M.Mabusth — June 12, 2009 @ 3:30 pm
I bet she's going to be gone pronto. I don't begin to defend what she did, but we had a thread about SOLs recently on this blog and this episode reinforces everything I think and say and believe about the SOLs.
Too much of what goes on in the classroom is dictated by the SOL. The schools have too much riding on the results. There's too much pressure - from the top down - to generate certain results. In this case it seems the principal didn't bother passing the pressure onto her teachers but took matters into her own hands. I seriously doubt that this is an isolated incidence of score manipulation.
Comment by Kristen — June 12, 2009 @ 3:32 pm
They should most definitely be fired. It's that kind of action that continues to degrade the public's trust in the school systems around the country, and it should not be tolerated at all. Reading the article made me sick. That stuff just has no place, and they should not be involved in the education of any kids.
Comment by Other John — June 12, 2009 @ 3:33 pm
Your tax money at its' best! Nice return yea!
Comment by Frank — June 12, 2009 @ 4:37 pm
Not only does the head of Fleming done a great injustice to all the students, she has violated so many aspects of the American's with Disability act, recently strenghten as ADA Restoration Act, that the students excluded hae effctively had their civil rights stripped away in the very environment mandated to protect them.
Comment by catspaw — June 12, 2009 @ 6:35 pm
Pardon the typos in the above post. Sticky keys...sticky SOLS
Comment by catspaw — June 12, 2009 @ 9:19 pm
It's always two steps forward and one step back for Roanoke City Schools. If you purposefully circumvent state testing requirements, that's a problem. There's no good explanation...it's outright cheating or if the staff at Fleming claims they didn't know the requirements, then it's an admission of organizational incompetence. The city schools also employ a director of testing who should be in a position to keep checks on each school's compliance. That's a no brainer. What a mess.
Comment by Mike Scott — June 13, 2009 @ 8:31 am
SOLs are ridiculous. Only a students actual real grade, and not on a curve, should count. How sick this country is dumbing down students in the first place. the lady and her fraudulent cohorts should be fired immediately and the parents should sue her butt
Comment by pammala — June 13, 2009 @ 9:34 am
I can tell you this.
I hear from a reliable inside source that thier
is much more to this then moving students around.
Comment by Herb Krebs — June 13, 2009 @ 10:53 am
Oh my.
The student speakers at PH's graduation on Friday were excellent. Their wisdom was beyond their years. Their comments were thoughtful on on target. In my opinion, they out - ranked the school administrators' speeches by light -years! The students elevated the thought that the graduates are NOT the sum of their scores on SOl tests, SAT, etc.
I am so sorry for the events at WF. I am so sorry that the RCPS has allowed "fear" to permeate the system - leaving many educators deeply troubled and constantly looking over their shoulders. The School Board ($) and the central administrators MUST conduct themselves ethically. Administrators MUST treat everyone in their buildings with respect. Teachers must demonstrate professional behaviors ... that doesn't mean wearing a tie or heels. Parents must become invested in their children's education... they ARE their children's primary teachers.
Please take a look at the site from which the information was copied below.
The following was taken from: http://www.wyoea.org/qualityschools/high-stakes-testing.html
The Perils of High-stakes Testing
"Far from improving education, high-stakes testing marks a major retreat from fairness, from accuracy, from quality and from equity."
The Late Senator Paul Wellstone, (1944-2002)
Nichols and Berliner cite Campbell' s Law, brought to the attention of social scientists in 1975 by Donald Campbell, which stipulates that:
"the more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it was intended to monitor."
Using examples from business, sports, and government, Nichols and Berliner point out multiple instances of what happens when indicators have high-stakes consequences attached. "the more importance that an indicator takes on, the more likely it, and the people who depend on it, will be corrupted."
Nichols and Berliner are not against accountability. They are not against standardized testing. They are against high-stakes tests, because they result in cheating, in exclusion of students, in erosion of test validity, and in damage to the professionalism of educators.
Some of the ways in which education has been corrupted to make school test scores appear higher, and to make it appear that students have learned more, include:
a narrowing of the curricula,
an increase in time devoted to activities focused on how to take the test,
apparent increases in cheating by administrators and teachers,
forcing out low-performing students,
manipulation of dropout, special education and ELL rates, and
increased retention rates.
Comment by Sally — June 13, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
Interesting data from the Clare Boothe Luce policy institute. They used 2005 data to determine which school districts in Virginia were getting the best bang for the buck. Neighboring school districts in Salem and Roanoke county were determined to be moderately cost effective when looking at academic achievement and cost per pupil. Roanoke city schools were in the LEAST EFFICIENT category along with 11 other school districts in this study. And now this....Will Carson and Bishop have the nerve, wisdom and "rope" to improve the city's schools?
Comment by BUD — June 13, 2009 @ 12:32 pm
I have to say...it's a pity this report couldn't have been held one day longer so that the kids could have their graduation without having to be under this cloud. It's not like lives were in danger.
Comment by Kristen — June 13, 2009 @ 5:36 pm
Bud, Please post a link to your study. I'd like to look at it. Is it simply per pupil cost or does it factor in socio-economic conditions, parental education levels and so on?
Comment by Luanne T. — June 13, 2009 @ 6:24 pm