{"id":745,"date":"2011-04-04T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2011-04-04T16:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=745"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:58:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:58:05","slug":"dont-make-education-policy-based-on-cheaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2011\/04\/04\/dont-make-education-policy-based-on-cheaters\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Make Education Policy Based on Cheaters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danny Rosenthal<\/em><\/p>\n

Teachers at a school in D.C. probably\u00a0cheated<\/a>\u00a0on standardized tests. \u00a0Does that mean that then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee\u2019s<\/a>*<\/a>\u00a0education program is fatally flawed and that Rhee has lost her credibility as an advocate for reform? \u00a0Of course not. \u00a0The\u00a0expos\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0published by USA Today confirms the need for strong measures to catch cheating teachers. \u00a0But we shouldn\u2019t abandon efforts to measure student progress or make education decisions based on data.<\/p>\n

But first things first. \u00a0The heated debate over this issue has obscured the underlying facts. \u00a0Just as Rhee\u2019s supporters shouldn\u2019t reflexively dismiss the story, critics shouldn\u2019t assume that the article provides support for their view that Rhee is misguided, negligent or dishonest.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The documents relied on by USA Today are helpfully collected\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0and they are worth a look. \u00a0They indicate that cheating may have occurred in D.C. but that the school system took allegations seriously. \u00a0Many have seized on USA Today\u2019s statement that Rhee \u201cbalked\u201d at a request from the DC State Superintendent to investigate cheating. \u00a0A different story emerges from the actual response of the district\u2019s data chief, available on pages 17 to 19, and subsequent reports by the testing company (pages 20 to 22) and an independent investigator hired by the district (pages 106 to 108).<\/p>\n

In retrospect, the district probably should have investigated cheating more vigorously. \u00a0And Rhee\u2019s\u00a0brusque response<\/a>\u00a0to the newspaper last week was also a mistake, which she\u00a0corrected<\/a>\u00a0in a later statement. \u00a0But there\u2019s been no indication that Rhee or anyone in the district office acted dishonestly. \u00a0The district leadership concluded that a more extensive investigation based on the available data would have been unjustifiably expensive, intrusive, or unfair to teachers and administrators.<\/p>\n

Finally, the evidence for widespread cheating is far less overwhelming than some have suggested. \u00a0USA Today mentions but does not emphasize that two outside analyses recommended against concluding that cheating had occurred. \u00a0The article focuses on one school, Noyes Education Campus, and presents two main types of evidence for cheating at that school. \u00a0First, there were high rates of \u201cRight-to-Wrong Erasures,\u201d in which incorrect\u00a0answer<\/a>s were changed to correct ones. \u00a0This evidence is highly suggestive but not conclusive. \u00a0Second, the article highlights suspicions from a Noyes parent and former teacher \u2014 both occurring\u00a0before\u00a0<\/em>Rhee\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

Outside of Noyes, USA Today\u2019s evidence is much less clear. \u00a0For example,\u00a0the article notes that more than half of D.C. schools had an above-average erasure rate at least once in the last three years, a claim that Diane Ravitch\u00a0repeated<\/a>\u00a0in slamming Rhee on The Daily Beast. \u00a0But think about that for a second: If erasure rate were entirely random, and not a product of cheating, we would expect about half of schools to have an erasure rate above the district average\u00a0each year<\/em>. \u00a0And over three years, we would expect this to happen to almost every school at least once. \u00a0The article also notes that classrooms in many schools were \u201cflagged\u201d for investigation, but it\u2019s not clear what this means.<\/p>\n

With that series of disclaimers out of the way, let\u2019s now suppose that there\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>cheating at Noyes and maybe even other schools in D.C. \u00a0What should we make of that?<\/p>\n

Cheating at a few schools simply doesn\u2019t demonstrate that testing does not yield useful data or that test results should not be tied to rewards or penalties. \u00a0Critics have implied that there is no way to administer tests in such a way that cheating will be minimal enough to make results reliable. \u00a0But that\u2019s a colossal a leap from the evidence in this story. \u00a0A few cases do not prove a rule. \u00a0In fact, cheating is already rare and could be reduced even further through better procedures.<\/p>\n

Of course, the story also doesn\u2019t prove that testing and accountability is\u00a0the right approach to reform. \u00a0We\u2019ll have to save that debate for another day. \u00a0In the meantime, the story shows that\u00a0cheating can be a challenge for standardized testing. \u00a0Indeed, it can be a challenge in almost any situation where incentives are linked to performance (think Barry Bonds). But that doesn\u2019t mean we should abandon the project of measuring progress and acting based on data. \u00a0It means that we should take every possible step to ensure that our data is fair and accurate.<\/p>\n

*<\/a><\/a>\u00a0The author interned for the D.C. Public Schools while Michelle Rhee was chancellor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Danny Rosenthal Teachers at a school in D.C. probably\u00a0cheated\u00a0on standardized tests. \u00a0Does that mean that then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee\u2019s*\u00a0education program is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-c1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}