Rachael Brown

That's a good point, but a subjective one. I'm a former DCPS teacher who has done DC-CAS benchmarking too. I agree that it can be seemingly arbitrary, but in the absence of course/grade exit exams t...

KittyLiteral - While it's true that not all agree on what should constitute "proficiency", on the DC-CAS, the "proficient" level is the measure used to determine "adequate yearly progress" under NCLB....

Scott, I agree that retention of gains into the upper grades is very important, and I wish a higher percentage of students were making progress at the secondary level. However, a better way to think...

That's a good point, thanks Ricky. It would be more accurate to say that of the students who entered 9th grade in 2002, more had dropped out by 1996 than ended up graduating. However, even considering...

Jakers - If you take a look at the Quick and the Ed post I linked to, Carey does lay out some of those specifics re: DCPS's position in relation to other districts, notably, that DCPS receives signi...