Dear Dr. Brandon,
I regret that I must write to you again about the false expulsion data (still) on the Virginia Department of Education website. It is truly baffling to see RPS still claiming there were no expulsions for 2004-2005, 2005-2006 and 2006-2007. Having served on the board during those years, most recently as co-Chair of the Student Disciplinary Committee, I can state with absolute certainty that this information is false.
Documents obtained by a Freedom of Information request to the Virginia Department of Education show that you wrote to Virginia State Superintendent Dr. Patricia Wright on August 6, 2009 requesting permission to re-submit expulsion data for the 2007-2008 and the 2008-2009 school years. She responded affirmatively to your request on August 12, 2009.
Given that this data was supposed to be already compiled and, per regulations, you had signed a verification certificate, why wasn't the data re-submitted immediately, instead of waiting until August 19th and 20th respectively? Would you please provide a copy of the original data that your staff maintains was lost in "transmission" and the verification certificates for the five years in question?
I would also appreciate knowing why you have not yet requested permission to submit the accurate data for the years 2004-2007?
I read with great interest Chris Dovi's article in Style Weekly concerning this issue, your Superintendent's Update of Oct.16th, the Press Release you posted Oct. 20th on the RPS website and sent to various media outlets and, of course, the response Scott Bass, Style Weekly's editor, posted on Style's website, on behalf of Style and reporter, Chris Dovi.
Various comments you have made about this "cauldron of confusion," as you put it in your Superintendent's Update and in the Press Release, prompt me to request the following:
- A copy of the information you reference in the following statement: "January 2009 quality audit of the multiple sets of data RPS was required to send to the VDOE beginning March 31, 2009. This data audit revealed that the data entry software used in one of our departments was not interfacing with our Comprehensive Information Management System (CIMS)."
- A copy of the inaccurate and accurate data that you referenced in this statement: "We immediately rectified inaccurate data previously submitted."
- An explanation as to why the data you sent me on August 17th was inaccurate, given that you further state that " .... were able to upload additional information during the correction and verification process the state allowed after August 16, 2009."
- A copy of the data report review process for all departments responsible for submitting VDOE required statistics.
And, from your August 6, 2009 letter to Dr. Patricia Wright, the State Supt. of Public Instruction:
- What do you mean when you state: "This re-submission will in no way alter the "cautioned" status that schools were sanctioned."
- Why did you only ask to re-submit two years of data, when there were actually five years of data that needed to be corrected?
- How many schools in Richmond have been sanctioned, the names of the schools and the dates and nature of the actions taken?
Lastly, but by no means least, I must reiterate that during my six-year tenure on the Richmond School Board, we always agreed that the number one mission was student achievement. I recall the many times we discussed community concerns about RPS zero-tolerance disciplinary policies that continue to generate extraordinarily high numbers of suspensions and expulsions. I completely agree with your statement in the press release "that in order to realize progress, a student must be in school."
Similarly, if the data we collect to drive decisions is to be of good use to us in school, then it must be accurate. By allowing inaccurate data to continue to exist, the district does itself and our children harm. By not acting with dispatch to correct these errors, we run the risk of causing our children, our families and our community to distrust our information.
Your unprecedented attack on Chris Dovi and Style Weekly was particularly ill-advised, given the irrefutable facts of the matter. Dovi and Style had their facts about RPS straight -- five years of false data that no one bothered to correct until I wrote to you about it. Dovi had no reason to doubt the accuracy of the information given to him by VDOE, an honest mistake immediately corrected in a calm and measured manner the very next business-day by VDOE and Style.
As we both know all too well, Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOLs) and the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) aren't simply about measuring how well our children, in or out of special education, do in public school. The SOLs and NCLB are supposed to help us measure how well the teacher, school, school district, Superintendent and state perform their jobs. And if a school district's problems are intentionally disguised and distorted, or if no one bothers to make sure the data is accurate, how can we ever expect to be able to use data to help fix the problems and give all our children the schools they deserve?
Sincerely,
Carol A.O. Wolf
As a Concerned Chesterfield County Parent who fears retaliation against my children, I wish I could allow my name to be published with the following comments. Please know that every word is true.
ReplyDelete*************
RPS does not have a monopoly on gaming the system in order to look good and make AYP under NCLB. Chesterfield County also devotes substantial time and energy devising creative ways to make the numbers come out right. I only wish as much time and energy were spent in improving classroom instruction.
CCPS, in my opinion, is worse than RPS in gaming the system. Their atrocities need to be exposed, but dissidents are crushed and discarded. The educRAT$ in CCPS use mafia-style tactics to keep people quiet. So teachers and parents are fearful of retaliation, intimidation, and terror tactics that result when they try to speak out. Teachers and parents who are ethical and try to right wrongs are "cleansed" from the system.
We have children with disabilities, and we have been victims of retribution in CCPS. Officials play psychological warfare against parents and teachers. Our children are no longer allowed to go to a "real" school in Chesterfield. Yes, they can go back for more abuse in the same "prison-type" school in which they were abused, however even though we obtained waiver approval from the central office to go to a different school, stalling and fillibuster tactics have resulted in my girls still at home with us 6 weeks into the school year, denied FAPE each passing day.
CCPS promotes violence and chaos in the schools. They give students office referrals for trivial offenses, most not even offenses at all. For instance, if a student drops a pencil and reaches down to pick it up, he/she gets written up and sent to the principal's office. If a student whispers while on silence in the cafeteria, office referral. If a student fails to keep a straight line in the hallway, office referral. If a student accidentally bumps into another student, office referral. If a student takes too long in the bathroom, office referral. If a teacher refuses to let a child go to the bathroom, and the child goes anyway to avoid another accident (because they were not allowed to go), they get an office referral. Yes, we are allowing educRAT$ to ABUSE students. However, true violence and bullying goes unaddressed. A student can get a bloody nose from a bully, and the entire school (teacher, principal, office staff) tells the parent that "6 year-olds will be 6 year olds.” The message to the bully is - Keep it up, you can do whatever you want. You will not be disciplined! The result? More chaos and violence. And the good kids who are getting the bogus office referrals begin to truly act out as would any adult. Maybe we should suspend these abusive Gestapo principals when they drop their pencils or treat students and parents with disrespect. Truly, I have realized that some schools in Chesterfield are School-To-Prison Pipelines that we hear about in the news.
Continued in next posting ... CCCP
CCPS also cheats to make AYP.
ReplyDelete(1) They give bright, non-disabled students an IEP for a slight speech articulation issue such as a student may say PWAY instead of PLAY. One minority student was simply “quiet”. Imagine giving a child a label for being “quiet”. I was quiet in school, maybe I had a disability! Usually these students fall into several minority subgroups. This harmful practice of stigmatizing children with labels is pathetic - just to bring up the disaggregated scores of the subgroups. Also, these students bring in more federal funding into the system and help two indicators on the Special Education Performance Report - Least Restrictive Environment and Parent Involvement (since parents are usually pleased with the 1/2 hour of speech their kids get with this bogus label). It was my understanding that the VDOE was supposed to terminate the use of Speech / Language Impairment only labels, but I believe our school is continuing this practice.
(2) They delay as long as possible giving IEPS to truly eligible students with disabilities. They do not want these students' scores to be disaggregated with the disability subgroup.
(3) If schools in CCPS think that a child will not pass the SOL test, they will not allow that child to take the test. Only kids who can pass the test are taking the tests. That's why the scores look so good! If you only test the kids you know will pass, then you will have high pass rates! But schools are supposed to test all the kids. Well, any adult in the building can sit down and take the test for the student. How does any citizen know this is not happening? We do not know this, of course, unless a teacher will come clean, but we do not know that it is not happening either. Remember, ethical teachers are being cleansed from the system, so now you have a school full of teachers whose value-system is compromised who will blindly follow orders to keep a small paycheck. Schools do not allow parents to walk past the lobby on SOL test days. They have the hallways blocked off. This explains a lot. They don't do this when students are taking a test!
My kids with disabilities were not allowed to take the reading SOL even though they were supposed to. They were whisked off to a small conference room (sound-proof btw) off the library by their aide, and given a "paper test" when the school ordered no paper tests - all tests, no exceptions, were to be taken ONLINE.
(3) Our school had all online testing but yet the scores were not available to the students and parents until weeks later, when they were sent out in the mail. We were told that not all the scores have "come back". When the test is taken online, the score comes back immediately to the screen. Any fool knows that the computer scores the test. Period. This alone is a indication that the scores must be "doctored" by someone.
Continued in next comment .....
(4) CCPS situates the CBG (gifted) programs in otherwise failing schools, in order to ensure these schools make AYP. They spent $$ busing these students long distances in order to avoid improving these schools.
ReplyDelete(5) CCPS excessively gives the read-aloud accommodation on the reading SOL test? Students listen to an audio recording of the reading SOL test. If the student passes the reading SOL test with this read-aloud accommodation, is he/she declared to be reading on grade level? When these students graduate from high school and go to apply for jobs, will their prospective employers provide them with the “read-aloud accommodation” to help them fill out the job application?
Maybe it is time for Virginia to bow out of NCLB since it is causing lawlessness in some school districts and even More Children Left Behind than ever before!
Whether the issue is violence, bullying, curriculum, lack of scientifically research-based reading instruction, restraint and seclusion, abuse and neglect of children with disabilities, our schools are not predominantly places of learning anymore. Most of this can be explained in Karen Horwitz's book, White Chalk Crime, which is available at Central and LaPrade libraries in Chesterfield County. Citizens will understand why our schools are dysfunctional after reading this book.
Thank you! Concerned Chesterfield County Parent [CCCP]