Indirect allegations that improved its test scores by cheating have provoked strong reactions in Montgomery County.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an investigative story yesterday calling into question the Wheaton school's National Blue Ribbon status.
Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr and denounced what he saw as allegations that the school must have tampered with test scores. Furthermore, he said in a statement Monday morning that the story perpetuated racial and socioeconomic stereotypes.
And he offered up a more succinct criticism on Twitter:
"Alan Judd and @AJC assume that when black, brown and poor kids achievement improves it must be cheating rather than hard work of staff."
“That tweet is right on the money,” said Jean Claude Zenklusen, the Montgomery County PTA coordinator for the Albert Einstein High School cluster, which includes Highland. “I read that article, and I was fuming.”
Highland has a lot of factors working against it, Zenklusen said, particularly a high percentage of students on free or reduced lunch. But improvements have come about not by cheating, but by sheer hard work.
"Between the administration and the parents, they have turned this school around," he said.
Zenklusen, whose own children attend , said that whenever he visits Highland, he's struck by the students' enthusiasm for their work.
Zenklusen remembers when the administration was scratching their heads, trying to figure out why so few parents came to PTA meetings. Then they changed the time from evening to morning, inviting parents to stay for meetings after walking their child to school. Attendance sharply increased.
Although the Highland PTA recently lost its incorporation because of some confusion with English-language application forms, Zenklusen said the cluster is working to get them reinstated.
What do you think? Did the Atlanta Journal-Constitution raise fair questions about how the school achieved dramatic improvement? Or does the article just perpetuate stereotypes in public education? Tell us in the comments.
Its conclusions regarding Highland Elementary School (where my wife teaches ESOL) in Montgomery County, MD, is libelous. It is based entirely on a statistical review and concludes there is cheating. There is no evidence, no proof, no sign of altered tests (as was the case in Atlanta). The “investigation” does not exist. This is a school that has been turned upside down over the past decade as administrators, the county and state have obsessed over raising test scores. Curricula have been scrapped, rebuilt and scrapped and rebuilt again. Teachers have been purged every year. Demands on students have been raised and their school year revolves around preparing for statewide tests. This will improve scores. Once. Then you have to start with a whole new cohort of kindergarten students coming into the school from illiterate homes and the testing clock starts anew. This is no surprise. Is it a scandal? Maybe, if you think students should learn more than penciling in little circles. But that seems to be a subject beyond the command of the AJC reporters, Alan Judd, Heather Vogell and John Perry. Sonny Goldreich, freelance reporter, former staff reporter at the Baltimore Sun, Washington Times, Congressional Quarterly, etc.
Second, other than insinuations, there are no facts to support the article's hypothesis that Highland cheated. What I do know is that when things hit bottom, the County gave the school funds, and the teacher-student ratio became incredible, especially for k-2. The ratio was below 10:1 for kindergartners, and the teachers were excellent. Just because there was rampant cheating in Atlanata does not make it so at Highland. And, yes, if they've had to cut reading, language, and other specialists, or if pressure to perform is lessened, it will make a difference in a location where most students do not speak English at home. We sent our child to one of the foreign language public schools but we visited Highland and would have been very happy sending our child there. The principal and teachers seemed excellent--extremely knowledgeable and caring. If there is any evidence of wrongdoing, please point it out, but simply implying that teachers and educators cheated--as happened in Atlanta--unfairly damages the reputation of the school and its students.