Today CPS sent an email to school leaders about the Inspector General's findings regarding alleged testing irregularities. His findings are the latest example of his office's incompetence and willingness to shred the reputations of schools and school leaders based on evidence that is at best flimsy and at worst false.
The CPS Office of the Inspector General, under Nicholas Schuler, has a history of using substandard unethical investigative tactics to malign the names and careers of outstanding educators. For example, after a principal was removed in response to Schuler's findings in 2017, those findings were overruled by CPS's own Law Department because Schuler's report contained "serious errors, omissions, and exaggerated key factual conclusions." The department also stated that Schuler never interviewed school officials, passed judgment on several issues that he was unqualified to assess, and failed to consult experts who had such qualifications.
Since then, Schuler continued to make the same mistakes, issuing error-filled and exaggerated findings that have maligned outstanding educators and destroyed their careers, but the Law Department has remained silent on those. Schuler's latest act of incompetence is his so-called performance review of NWEA MAP Test administration in which he questions trends on test times and test pauses.
If Schuler has stopped for one moment to read the NWEA MAP Growth Test Administration and Policy Manual that CPS published on its internal website ("The Knowledge Center"), he would have known that
1) this is not a timed test
2) frequent breaks are allowable
3) testing over multiple days is allowable
4) directions on how to "pause" are actually in the manual
5) students with disabilities may require frequent pause and breaks, per their IEPS, which are protected by federal law
6) extended time is allowable and
7) time for movement and restroom breaks are recommended
The test would have to be paused for any and all of these recommended procedures. The manual even has a section that states that growth tests like NWEA will "auto-pause" at times to reengage students who appear to be guessing. No principal, who I've spoken to so far, was interviewed by the OIG when he conducted this review. In naming Schuler Inspector General, CPS put a badge on a reckless vigilante.
Given that Schuler was forced to resign because of accusations of sexist and racist comments, along with verbal abuse--which he euphemized as pressuring employees "excessively hard"--it is alarming that no one has asked, "What was he pressuring his employees to do?"
Violate investigative ethics?
Engage in investigatory harassment of principals?
Come to conclusions that are not supported by evidence?
Ignore material evidence in favor of hearsay to reach a predetermined conclusion?
Railroad principals and other staff as part of the CYA scapegoating politics the district is playing in response to their failure to protect students from sexual misconduct?
In the interest of every school leader who has been the victim of the Inspector General's incompetent and depthless investigatory tactics, CPAA is assessing the merits of an investigation of the Inspector General by the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, the Cook County State's Attorney, and the Illinois Department of Human Rights, or any combination of them.
Further, Mayor Lori Lightfoot should immediately release the report produced by the investigation into Schuler's conduct. It is time for CPS to stop treating the findings of this disgraced inspector general as if they have any merit at all and conduct a serious review of every finding his office has made against principals and their schools.
