CCSD Accountability: Fire Janet Rose

For those of you who remember George Orwell's 1984, the protagonist's job was actually to rewrite history in the Ministry of Truth. Apparently, CCSD Superintendent Nancy McGinley has taken this policy to heart, judging by her self-serving comments in Sunday's P & C in regard to the discrepancies discovered between PACT and MAP scores at Sanders-Clyde. [See Analysis Reveals Scores Don't Jibe.]

Doesn't she realize that the more she obfuscates, the bigger the hole she digs?

McGinley's Ministry-of-Truth version of events is that an alert CCSD notified the state of problems at Sanders-Clyde; thus, the problems came to light. It doesn't pass the smell test. At about the same time she named MiShawna Moore as principal of Fraser Elementary over the objections of District 20 parents and community.

Forget McGinley for a moment. Let's get to the bottom line here. Who is responsible for testing oversight in CCSD? Her title says it all: Janet Rose in her position of Director of Assessment and Accountability. She is the person responsible for oversight of all testing in the district and the one who should have noticed how Sanders-Clyde's PACT scores skewed in relation to its MAP scores. It's no good to say that the discrepancy is hindsight or couldn't have been noticed at the time; watching a school's scores that were being touted as miraculous should have been seen as careful stewardship of her job.

Do we live in a district where no one is held accountable for not doing his or her job properly? Are employees at 75 Calhoun appointed for life, no matter how poorly they do their jobs?

School board candidates should be asking these questions.