More allegations of widespread cheating during Michelle Rhee era in D. C.

Today's Washington Post includes an accusation of widespread cheating in the D. C. schools during the time that StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee, who is judging the way education is done in Missouri and the rest of the country, was the schools' chancellor:

After scores rose by more than 20 percentage points in 2007, former Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee allegedly challenged Ryan to match those gains in 2008. The reward was to be dinner for the staff at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.In 2008 scores jumped again, and the Noyes staff was treated to dinner, according to the court documents.In her complaint, Cothorne says shortly after she arrived at Noyes, an elementary level teacher pulled her aside and said: “You know, they cheat on their tests.”Cothorne identifies three staff members she saw in November 2010, sitting in a room with hundreds of test booklets and erasers following the administration of a midyear practice exam, according to the complaint.Cothorne also alleges that she reported what she saw to two central office administrators, who both asked to be kept abreast of the situation but never followed up with her.When Cothorne tightened security for the end-of-year standardized tests in 2011, students’ math and proficiency rates dropped more than 25 percentage points from the year before, she told “Frontline.”