Orange Grove: What Freedom Can Do

One of the most racially diverse schools in the Charleston County School System can brag about an achievement gap between black and white students of only 2.4 percent in English and 1.2 percent in Math, as compared to the district-wide averages of 20.1 percent and 26.5 percent, respectively. Close to being statistically insignificant. And the CCSD Board of Trustees voted unanimously to renew the charter for Orange Grove Elementary. Could it have done as well if the school had not been a charter? Not likely! Kudos to Principal Larry DiCenzo and his staff. He pointed to instituting a phonics-based reading program that isn't on the state's approved list and the charter's freedom to purchase and use it. Double kudos.

Some 'Splaining to Do in CCSD

An idol with feet of clay? According to the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins,

"The phrase comes from the Old Testament (Dan.2:31-32). . . .Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed of a giant idol with golden head, silver arms and chest, brass thighs and body, and iron legs. Only the feet of this image, compounded of iron and potter's clay, weren't made wholly of metal. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the clay feet of the figure made it vulnerable, that it prophesied the breaking apart of his empire. . . . the phrase 'feet of clay' in the story . . . was used centuries ago to describe an unexpected flaw or vulnerable point in the character of a hero or any admired person."

So it applies to MiShawna Moore, the highly-touted former principal of CCSD's Sanders-Clyde Elementary. [See School Under Scrutiny in Wednesday's P & C.] Her success in raising test scores over the last five years has pushed CCSD into asking for a SLED investigation.

How, you ask? While CCSD's taxpayers were under the illusion that everything was kosher at S-C, CCSD received information at the end of the last school year from a whistle-blower, principal of a charter school, no less, that a fiddle lurked in the background.

"DiCenzo [of Orange Grove Charter] reported his concerns to the district after an article in May in The Post and Courier that highlighted Moore's work to improve Fraser and Sanders-Clyde. He didn't understand how such large gains could happen so quickly, he said.

"Washing clothes for a family is not going to improve test scores," he said."

But 2007 wasn't the first alert that all was not as it seemed at Sanders-Clyde. Unfortunately, our SC Department of Education watchdogs were too dazzled by Moore's 2005 results to do more than a pro forma investigation even after erasures rang alarm bells: "The state monitor stayed for one day during testing [in 2006] and concluded there was no cause for alarm," according to Superintendent McGinley, who then went right ahead and appointed Moore to be head of a second elementary school.

Such trust encouraged ever higher results from S-C for 2006, to the point that even Janet Rose noticed, although she did tell a big, old fiberoo to the P & C last May when queried about CCSD's extraordinary precautions. According to the article,

"This year [2007 results], the school's PACT results fell sharply in every subject and at every grade level.

"This was the first time that the school district monitored the school's testing. District officials took tests away from the school each night and put monitors in classrooms daily. Janet Rose, the district's executive director of assessment and accountability, told The Post and Courier in May that the extra scrutiny would validate the school's scores " [but didn't say why they needed validating!]

So, even as the P &C wrote its puff-piece on Moore this summer, Sanders-Clyde's principal was fully under suspicion. Rose's caution allowed Moore to make her getaway to find another job, a promotion at that:

"A few weeks after the tests this spring, in a move that surprised parents and officials, Moore announced that she was leaving Charleston County. Moore refused to do any media interviews at that time, and she now works as an assistant superintendent in Halifax County, N.C., schools."

Maybe it didn't surprise ALL CCSD "officials." I'll bet it didn't surprise Larry DiCenzo.

Halifax County must be delighted to get such a paragon to improve its school system! Why, as assistant superintendent, Moore can have access to the testing of more than one school and improve it. Let's face it--it's not the first time that a school district has given a good recommendation in order to get rid of a bad apple.

What should happen to MiShawna Moore? Is $1000 and/or 90 days in jail enough punishment for making a travesty of testing procedures? NO. Losing teaching or administrative credentials isn't enough either. The rewards for cheating (and not getting caught) are too high and tempting.

How about $100,000 and/or five years in jail? Maybe some administrators lacking in morality will pause at that.

Meanwhile, should CCSD's assistant superintendents and superintendent be held responsible for fraud on their watch? McGinley wanted full responsibility for appointing principals. Now she's got it. What about penalties for her failure?

Do You Believe in Coincidences? Dicenzo's Demise

As I pointed out in December in CCSD's Musical Chairs with Principals,

maybe it's just a coincidence that the first head to roll in McGinley's plan to shuffle principals once more belongs to the wife of a principal of a charter school.

Anne DiCenzo [fired principal of Mitchell Elementary]'s letter in her own defense that appears in Tuesday's P & C reveals why people simply do not trust what CCSD officials say. The abrupt removal of a principal just before the Christmas holidays suggests that somehow DiCenzo was ineffective. Well, as the letter states, if she was, her evaluations didn't reflect it.

In her own words,

Principal responds

For the past seven and a half years I have been the instructional leader (principal) at Mitchell Elementary School. I have been removed from Mitchell because I was an ineffective instructional leader. As the leader of the school, I am evaluated yearly. All of my ratings have been high.

In the 2006-2007 school year, all below average and unsatisfactory schools had to complete a plan for school growth for the six core strategies of the Plan for Excellence. The ratings are zero to five, with five being the highest. I scored between 4.83 and 5 in all strategies.

I also instituted new programs this year to help students and staff increase achievement. I hired two teacher interventionists to help with small-group instruction at the upper-grade levels. I hired two reading recovery/interventionist teachers for the lower-grade levels, and I hired a prevention specialist to minimize disruptions in the classroom.

Our PACT scores should increase this year, according to our winter MAP scores, which are the district's benchmark test. The MAP scores showed a vast improvement and indicated that the new programs were successful.

PACT scores reflect only a few days out of the school year and are only a snapshot of a part of the school. I am proud to say the teachers and staff at Mitchell are there for the students and go above and beyond every day. We do things for students that are not measured on a test. Mitchell is a family community. I will miss my family very much.

Anne DiCenzo

In other words, what more could she have done? What warnings did she have to improve?

It's politics, folks, CYA that uses principals as pawns. Superintendent McGinley has to look like she's creating progress, so musical principals is the current answer.

We can expect more of the same.