Mad as Hell About RPS' Epic Fail

A Post-Mortem Anatomy of Incompetence

Sometimes, just when you start to think a situation couldn't possibly get any worse -- it does.  

Consider the startling revelation that one reason Richmond Public School (RPS) students did not do so well on the state mandated Standards of Learning (SOL) tests for the last two years is that RPS teachers and principals were using old information and preparing students for the wrong test.

Evidently, former RPS Superintendent Yvonne Brandon and former assistant superintendent for instruction and accountability, Victoria Oakley, never even bothered to make sure that the curriculum was aligned with the SOL tests, much less provide teachers, principals and parents with the up-to-date tools necessary to help children succeed and master the SOLs.

By not aligning the curriculum, Brandon and Oakley utterly failed to perform what ought to be seen as a fundamental duty of their jobs.  More's the pity that this epic failure is tantamount to academic abuse of students and a violation of trust and tax dollars that has left many parents, teachers and community leaders angry and discouraged.  As one parent put it:  

"Because the old superintendent (Yvonne Brandon) and her sidekick (Victoria Oakley) couldn't be bothered to do their jobs right, my family had to spend money we didn't really have to pay for tutors because they -- and their so-called experts -- never made sure the teachers had the training and test materials they needed to help our children prepare for this test!  What kind of sense does this make?"

Now, here's the part where things get worse.  

Rather than hold Brandon accountable, Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Education (VCU-SOE) rewarded  her with a fancy title -- Executive in Residence -- and is paying her $90,000 to teach future teachers and administrators all about strategies for success in urban school systems.  Officials in the public relations office for VCU's School of Education declined repeated requests for an interview with Brandon or to discuss their decision to hire Brandon and allow her to help "educate" the next generation of teachers and administrators. 

Bad enough that there are now some Brandon and Oakley loyalists attempting to rewrite history and blame the most recent batch of  truly dismal SOL scores on RPS' new superintendent and staff.  The following timeline should help to disabuse these well-meaning, but ultimately uninformed people of this notion.  As the timeline dates demonstrate -- these scores belong entirely to Brandon and Oakley. 

• Brandon's tenure officially ended in June 2013.
• Brandon was replaced by interim Superintendent Jonathan Lewis (who served from June until January 2014), 
• Oakley remained as assistant superintendent for instruction and accountability until June 2014. 
• Current Superintendent Dana T. Bedden was hired in January 2014 and spent the next three months cleaning house and assembling his administrative team.  
• His new director of curriculum and instruction, Terri Perkins, arrived last March and soon discovered the problem.  Given her arrival in March, it was too late to make any changes for the 2013-2014 academic year, but there has been enough time to prepare for the current (2014-2015) academic year.  

Perkins told WWBT Channel 12 news reporter, Laura Geller, that fixing this fundamental problem made for a "very intense summer for RPS administration."

Upon realizing the depth of this problem, Perkins told Geller that she and Bedden met with VDOE officials and made  immediate changes to that curriculum.  And in a welcome move  for greater accountability and transparency, RPS and VDOE now have the materials online so teachers can access it anywhere at any time. 

Furthermore, in preparation for school starting in September, district administrators held workshops for teachers.  "We're teaching the state framework [...] and that should help Richmond absolutely to see good improvements in those SOL pass rates this year," Perkins explained.

Will these changes be enough to help turn the system around?  Or at least to begin to turn the system around? One "good thing" about being at the bottom, is that you truly have nowhere to go but up.  

Rather than employ Brandon and other RPS administrative officials to teach the next generation of teachers and administrators, one can only hope that the VCU SOE officials or VCU President Michael Rao and VCU's Board of Visitors find the gumption truly to say to Brandon and her supporters, what the Republican Party would have had to say to former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon had he offered to campaign on behalf of GOP candidates after he resigned the Presidency: 

"Thanks, but no thanks -- you've done quite enough already."

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To understand the challenge that the School Board members, Bedden,  his administrative team, and our entire community are facing, consider the following information:  

In 2013 - 2014 school year, RPS has the worst scores in the Commonwealth in reading and was fourth from last in math.  As my colleague John R. Butcher noted on his "The Cranky Taxpayer" website:

Richmond's students with disabilities went from 3 points above the state average for students with disabilities to 15.2 points below [on the reading test] from 2012 to 2013.  Looking at these scores in context with the math test leaves only one explanation: the Richmond scores for students with disabilities were inflated until deflated by the new, VGLA-free math and reading tests.

Whether you credit that analysis or not, explain this: In 2013, Richmond had the lowest pass rate in the state in reading and the fourth lowest math.

Zach Reid, at the Richmond Times Dispatch reported: "Six of the nine city middle schools had lower numbers than last year, when widespread failure was attributed to then-new standards. At the time, school leaders promised more tutoring and focus on individual students.  

"Five of the city’s eight other middle school programs had pass rates on the test of 22 percent or lower. The second lowest was at Martin Luther King Jr., where the 11 percent rate was actually a substantial improvement from last year’s state-worst 3 percent."

Richmond Magazine reporter, Chris Dovi, noted: " … just 13 of the schools Brandon oversaw met full state accreditation standards; five of those are eligible for state takeover."

To read what my colleague, John Butcher, and I found when we investigated the use and abuse the Virginia Grade Level Alternative [VGLA], click here [Beware Their Cheating Hearts],  here [Disability Abuse], here [Beware Their Cheating Hearts III], Click on the following links to read what The Washington Post, The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Style Weekly, Richmond Magazine, RVA News and The Virginian Pilot said about this scam that was undertaken simply to boost scores.