26-School D.C. Cheating Probe 'Inconclusive'
By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 4, 2009
District officials revealed Thursday that they commissioned an investigation last summer into possible cheating at 26 public and public charter schools where reading and math proficiency on 2008 standardized tests increased markedly.
The probe, an analysis of incorrect student answers that were erased and changed to correct answers, found "anomalies" at some of the schools that administered the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System (DC-CAS) test. But officials called the investigation, conducted by the test's publisher, CTB McGraw-Hill, "ultimately inconclusive."
District officials did not name the schools that were investigated, and they did not release a copy of the CTB McGraw-Hill report, which was requested by The Washington Post on May 29 under the Freedom of Information Act. Officials also offered no explanation for the interval between the conclusion of the investigation in March and their decision to disclose it at a news conference called by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) on Thursday.
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles said the full report would be released Friday.
One document from the probe was disclosed Thursday: a March 2009 memo from CTB McGraw-Hill research scientist Steve Ferrara. According to the memo, the "erasure analysis" was requested in August 2008 by then-D.C. State Superintendent of Education Deborah A. Gist.
Accompanying Gist's request was a list of 26 schools with proficiency gains of 20 percent or more on the 2008 test. It is not known whether Gist, who resigned in April to become state education commissioner in Rhode Island, was acting on specific information about possible cheating when she requested the analysis. She declined to comment Thursday.
According to 2008 District test results, the list Gist submitted included Aiton, Hearst, Raymond, Thomas, Hendley, Garrison, Maury, Reed, Draper, Powell, Bowen, Young and Cleveland public elementary schools, along with Winston Education Center, Sharpe Health School and Mamie D. Lee School, which are also public schools. The public charter schools included Community Academy, SAIL, St. Coletta, Tri-Community and Kipp DC Will Academy.
Fenty and D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee hailed the 2007-08 academic year gains as evidence of genuine progress in a public school system regarded as one of the nation's lowest-performing. The proficiency level for public elementary students rose an average of 11 percentage points in math and eight points in reading; the level for secondary students increased by nine percentage points in reading and math.
Teachers and administrators at public schools with gains of 20 percent or more in both reading and math received cash awards. Public school scores rose again this year but by a smaller amount.
Erasure analyses have been used by other school districts to monitor the integrity of high-stakes standardized tests, which are used by the federal government to determine whether schools have made adequate academic progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law. It is not known whether this is the first time the District has studied erasures.
Student answer sheets are electronically scanned to detect erasures and then examined for suspicious patterns in classrooms and across entire schools. The objective is to determine whether the average number of wrong-to-right answer changes is inordinately higher than the average number of changes established for each classroom, each school and each school district.
Ferrara's memo does not elaborate on the findings, but it recommends that Gist "not draw conclusions about cheating behavior on the basis of these analyses." A follow-up study, conducted by another firm, led to "divergent data," according to a statement by Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso.
"The number of classrooms and the number of schools identified as having potential concerns varied significantly," he said. Officials did not identify the second firm.
Reinoso said that Gist's successor, Kerri L. Briggs, and other D.C. school officials concluded that the studies "created a confusing picture."
Reinoso said that no one was fired or disciplined as a result of the investigation. But he said "lessons learned" from the 2008 testing cycle provided the basis for a revamped set of security guidelines adopted for this year's testing in April. These include additional testing monitors, daily security checklists completed by school staff members and security agreements signed by school employees.
"What we learned [in 2008] was that we didn't have a comprehensive system in place," Reinoso said. "There were pieces, but they were disjointed and incomplete."
Rhee said Thursday that she had no concerns about the integrity of the 2008 tests, especially since CTB McGraw-Hill called the results inconclusive. But she said she endorsed the decision to put "really strong protocols in place."
Audrey Williams, spokeswoman for the D.C. Public Charter School Board, said the board was not aware of the investigation. But she added, "The board works closely with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to ensure that the charter schools follow all the protocols and train monitors to implement them."
Officials said the tightened security this year led to the discovery of cheating at Howard Road Academy, a public charter school in Southeast Washington. Two teachers were fired and 27 fourth- and sixth-graders had their 2009 test results invalidated because copies of the test were distributed before testing day.
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