Did Michelle Rhee cheat on test scores?

USA Today investigates standardized test scores from D.C. schools that improved rapidly after the polarizing new chancellor took over — and finds disturbing patterns

It is not looking good for Michelle Rhee: USA Today uncovered a suspicious pattern of changed test scores that occurred during the former Washington, D.C., chancellor's tenure.
(Image credit: Getty)

The controversial school reform efforts of former Washington, D.C., chancellor Michelle Rhee came under scrutiny this week, after a USA Today investigation uncovered evidence of possible impropriety on standardized tests administered during her tenure. At a school held up as a model of achievement under Rhee, 7th graders in one classroom erased an average of 12.7 wrong answers on reading tests and changed them to the correct ones. Their counterparts in all D.C. classrooms, on average, did so less than once. Rhee called the report "an insult" to dedicated teachers and students. Was the report a hatchet job, or is cheating Rhee's secret to success?

Statistics don't lie: It's simply statistically improbable that so many kids would erase and correct their answers at the schools that just happen to have rocketing test scores, says Alex Pareene in Salon. Rhee pointed to the performance gains as evidence that her reforms, which focused on privatizing schools, worked. But the evidence suggests the real reason might have been "an epidemic of cheating during Rhee's tenure, if not outright fraud."

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