The Office of the State Superintendent of Education has made the District's 2010 DC-CAS individual school scores available online, through a searchable database. Check it out to see how your neighborhood's public and public charter schools fared in math, reading, and science this year. The DC-CAS is the test that measures whether D.C. schools are making "Adequate Yearly Progress" under the No Child Left Behind law, and is taken by students in grades 3-8 and 10. Overall, 2010 DC-CAS scores fell for elementary schools and rose slightly at the secondary level. (Both elementary and secondary test scores had seen a rise in both 2008 and 2009.) DCPS and charter elementary schools largely fared the same, while secondary passing rates were higher for charter schools. more ›

Remember the early allegations of cheating on the DC-CAS (the standardized test that determines school progress under NCLB)? Bill Turque has done some digging, and reports in the Post that two teachers and one administrator at Howard Road Academy Public Charter School in Southeast have been fired after realizations that the two teachers were given advance copies of the exam so students could have "extra practice." The scores of 27 4th and 6th grade students at the school have been invalidated, and the campus will lose $10,000 of Title 1 funding in order to cover the costs of the tests. How did the teachers get caught? An exam proctor was suspicious when a student finished the exam's math section extremely quickly and said, "We did this yesterday. I know all of the answers." more ›

The first results from the District Of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System (DC-CAS) tests are out, and the results are encouraging. Bill Turque summarizes the gains in the Post:

Nearly half the District's public elementary students (49 percent) scored at proficiency levels in reading and math. Reading scores last year were 46 percent; math scores rose from 40 percent proficiency. In 2007, fewer than a third of elementary students were proficient in either category. Gains at the middle and high school levels were more modest. Reading proficiency grew from 39 percent to 41 percent; math proficiency rose from 36 percent to 40 percent.