Despite what you may read in the local and national press, ‘pass’ rates in the 6th grade in both the charter schools and in the regular DC public schools are generally flat or down over the past four years. Look for yourself:
In reading, the pass rate is ten percentage points lower than it was two years ago, and in math, there hasn’t really been much change over the past three years.
The graph above is for pass rates in reading and math for 6th grade, African-American, students in regular DC public schools. As you can see, the pass rate this year in reading is eleven percentage points lower than it was in 2009, just before IMPACT was implemented, and the pass rate this year in math is essentially the same as it was in 2009.
The graph and table above is for all 6th grade charter-school students in DC. As you can see, the pass rate in reading is still about 8 percentage points lower than it was in 2009. The pass rate in math for 6th grade charter students is moving up slowly, though it is still nowhere near the official nationally-required AYP percentage of about 73.7%.
The graph and table shown above are for African-American, 6th grade, charter school students. As you can see, the pass rates among them in reading are still about 9 percentage points lower than two years ago, and the math pass rate is unchanged from last year.
In the graph above, we see that just like in the lower grades, the fraction of the 6th grade population of the regular public schools has been dropping over the past four years, but not this past year. In the charter schools, the fraction the 6th grade that is African-American has been quite steady over this period: just about exactly eight-ninths.
Let me reiterate my conclusion:
In grades 3, 4, 5, and 6, after all of the upheavals and firings and punitive teacher evaluation schemes, and after replacing 50% of the teaching staff in the regular public schools, paying huge fees and salaries to self-described experts, and shipping over one-third of the student population to essentially unregulated charter schools, what do Rhee, Fenty, Henderson, and Gray have to show for it?
Basically, nothing.
GFBrandenburg's Blog 
Don’t forget the cheating scandal! they do have that to show for their efforts. And of course it accounts for the gains in 2009, mitigating the drops after that.
But Henderson can’t exactly acknowledge that, can she? I suppose that she and her media consultant are working on a way to dance around that and many other issues right now.
Then again, maybe she’s ready to throw in the towel. The sooner the better.
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[…] by Guy Brandenburg for his blog. Read the entire post here. “In grades 3, 4, 5, and 6, after all of the upheavals and firings and punitive teacher […]
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I would like to add a couple of things:
1–The loss of some of our democracy and self-determination in the law that gave the mayor control of the schools
2–The reaching into the democracy and self-determination we have left by the Walton and other Foundations that supplied money and obtained a say in our local government resulting in a very expensive and tricky to maintain contract with our teachers.
3–The negative impact on the people and the neighborhoods where schools have been closed.
You have disproved the market-reform “theory” now held by many, not just Rhee, beautifully and I believe it is time to put SOS into action in DC and use all this work of yours to get DCPS into condition to serve the children’s education needs. We know what is not working, now we must find what has or stands a good chance of working as needed for educational, not theoretical/profit oriented purposes.
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[…] what we really don’t need is another Michelle Rhee-type grand plan for “innovation” that, “after replacing 50% of the teaching staff in […]
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