At long last, the DC Inspector General issued his report, the one requested by DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson on whether there was or was not cheating on the 2008-09 DC-CAS standardized tests. His conclusion was that except for the one teacher who admitted to it, there wasn't any. Well...USA Today and the testing company themselves found probable cause that cheating had taken place in 103 schools. And the DC-CAS scores bumped up inexplicably that year, citywide, and then dropped each of the next two years. But the Chancellor only asked the IG to look into one school. He interviewed 32 people, and took their word for what they did or didn't do. End of investigation.
Jay Mathews and
Valarie Strauss, both columnists in the Washington Post who have been following this story, blogged that the "investigation" was a travesty.
Actually, the IG did what he was asked to do. It was Chancellor Kaya Henderson and the Mayor who decided they wanted a whitewash rather than a real investigation. Shame on them. Only under mayoral control could there be such a lack of accountability for educational malpractice and school district mismanagement.
