D.C. Success Must Go Beyond Test Scores, Study Says

The District of Columbia school system’s rising test scores won’t be enough to confirm the effectiveness of the nationally watched education overhaul guided by former Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, according to the district’s evaluator, and so far the District does not collect the comprehensive data needed to say whether the often-controversial policy changes should be permanent.

The National Research Council of the National Academies released the first of a series of contracted evaluations of the District’s Public Education Reform Amendment Act last week, just as Ms. Rhee’s successor, Kaya Henderson, officially took the reins of the 73,000-student-school system.

The 2007 reform measure transferred control of the city’s schools from an elected board to then-Mayor Adrien M. Fenty, created a state education agency and chancellor of schools, and instituted several organizational changes in the district, such as the creation of an ombudsman to which community...