RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras Releases Statement on Carver Elementary SOL Testing Irregularities

Earlier this year the Virginia Department of Education was informed about possible cheating going on with the SOL testing at Carver Elementary School. An investigation was initiated and the final 34 page report was released yesterday. The findings in the report were worst than people feared.

Students and teachers confirmed that all sorts of violations of testing standards occurred. Ross Catrow at Good Morning, RVA has one of the better summaries of the irregularities and how unprepared student were once they moved on from Carver.

Again, there’s solid data that shows students from Carver moved on to middle school unprepared. For example, a single cohort of students left Carver with a Grade 5 Reading SOL pass rate of 100%. That same cohort had a 63.2% fail rate on the Grade 6 Reading SOL. Like I said, it’s real bad, and most likely has been going on for awhile: Take a look at these charts plotting Carver’s pass rates on various SOL tests over the last six years against the city- and state-wide rates. Most show significant spikes during the 2013–2014 school year—so this is likely not a new phenomenon.

RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras has promised changes and is setting up a working group of teachers and principals to provide feedback and propose changes before the Spring 2019 SOL testing.

The statement in full:

Dear RPS Family,

I’m writing today to proactively share the Virginia Department of Education’s final report regarding SOL testing at Carver Elementary School. I was briefed on the report this morning and received it this afternoon.

The report is deeply troubling. It presents abundant evidence of what amounts to cheating by a small group of adults on the SOL examinations for the past several years at Carver. To be clear: our students did nothing wrong; they merely followed the instructions of the adults responsible for them.

Cheating is unacceptable. Full stop. Above all else, my administration will be one of integrity – which, as one of my favorite elementary teachers so aptly put it, means doing the right thing even when no one is looking. We ask this of our students; the least we can do is model it ourselves.

To safeguard the integrity of our testing processes across the division, I have asked Dr. Tracy Epp, our Chief Academic Officer, to convene a working group of teachers and principals to provide recommendations about both policy and practice in time for the Spring 2019 SOL testing.

What most disturbs me about what occurred at Carver is that it effectively robbed our young people of the opportunity to demonstrate their learning free from suspicion. In doing so, it helped perpetuate pernicious stereotypes about what children from low-income families and children of color can achieve.

To be blunt: too many people thought, “How could Carver, which serves nearly 100% low-income students and students of color, have such high scores? There must be something going on.” With those suspicions now confirmed, corrosive biases about our students, as well as the inequities that flow from them, have the potential to become even more ingrained in our city.

We can’t let that happen.

To the entire City of Richmond, I want to say this as clearly as I possibly can: High achievement at every one of our high-poverty schools is unequivocally possible. I’ve seen it with my own students when I taught in a high-poverty neighborhood in Washington DC, and I’ve seen it in countless classrooms across the country – including Richmond.

At the same time, I am the first to admit that high-performing, high-poverty classrooms are the exception, not the rule, in RPS. We have a moral obligation to change that – and we will.

I’m under no illusion that doing so will be easy. It’s going to require us to confront biases and stereotypes head-on; to provide more and better support to our students and teachers alike; to be bold and innovative; to fiercely advocate for more resources; and to be unrelenting in the face of challenges ahead.

Every one of our students, from every single neighborhood and every single family, has the capacity for greatness. It is our collective responsibility to create the conditions that will allow that greatness to shine. And that is exactly what we will do.

Sincerely,

Jason Kamras

RPS Superintendent

The value of the SOL as a whole is questioned by many. The Facebook group RVA OptOut urges parents and guardians to consider opting their children out of these optional tests. The local group is part of a national movement. Sites like United Opt Out serve as models for changing the current standardized approach to learning.