Bennett Resigns; White Continues to Flaunt Authority

The Washington Post reports in this article that Tony Bennett, Commissioner of Education in Florida has resigned as a result of favored treatment given to a charter school owner when he was still Superintendent in Indiana. The Indiana Association of Educators pointed out that what Bennett did for the charter school amounted to cheating and that such actions should never be tolerated.

What about in Louisiana where it has been known for years that various charter schools and some regular schools have repeatedly used cheating on state tests to boost their scores and prevent state takeover? (See this recent LENS story) The former Director of Accountability in Louisiana, Dr Scott Norton, told me over a year ago that the DOE has a policy of not investigating alleged incidents of cheating on state tests even when erasure analysis and whistle blowers indicate that cheating has probably taken place. The state policy is that local authorities are informed when there are allegations of cheating and it is the responsibility of the local superintendent to investigate and take action against cheaters. All the state does is invalidate the school scores in the most blatant cases. This is like the IRS telling a taxpayer that even though your records show you cheated on your income tax, the government is going to leave it up to you to investigate yourself and determine if you should pay a penalty.

In addition recently, BESE members meeting with Recovery District parents in New Orleans were told by a parent that her child had received credit for a course he had never taken. There have been regular reports by teachers in the Recovery District who tried to warn students that they were failing classes necessary for graduation. Some students responded that they were told by administrators  "not to worry, they would get to take credit recovery classes", where students are often given a passing grade after just a few hours of computer review. So apparently in Louisiana, cheating is accepted if it is done for the purpose of helping Recovery District Schools.

Did you notice that even though most Recovery District schools tout their college prep program with banners of Ivy League universities all over the halls, ACT scores continue to average around 16, and the recent report on Advanced Placement courses from our DOE forgot to mention that the Recovery District schools had an average pass rate of only 5.9% compared to the state average of 33%. Also researchers who have been denied vital public record information about dropouts and transfers from the Recovery District still note that the graduating classes in the RSD have suspiciously fewer students compared to freshman classes.

Now we have a situation where White obviously colluded with state Representative Seabaugh to invalidate the VAM scores of some teachers at favored magnet and gifted programs (after the fact) without the approval of BESE. The post just below this one describes how teachers of high achieving students can go from an ineffective rating to a highly effective rating because of White usurping authority that should belong to BESE. Meanwhile teachers of the same type of students who actually perform a bit better on VAM are stuck with a mediocre rating. This will probably be challenged by the same two BESE members who are all alone in demanding accountability of our Superintendent and DOE. But the rest of BESE is willing to look the other way.  At least someone in Florida must have insisted that there be accountability for their new superintendent.