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Leaders challenge report on cheating SFlb
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Lazzeri
By Denise Dick
BOARDMAN
Boardman schools Superintendent Frank Lazzeri became irritated when he read an Atlanta Journal Constitution investigation that listed his school district among those suspected of cheating on standardized tests.
“I thought it had to be a mistake,” he said.
No one from the newspaper contacted anyone in the district administration, he said.
The investigation last month flagged Boardman, Youngstown and Warren schools for possible cheating.
The analysis reviewed math and reading scores for 69,000 public schools across the country. Though the review doesn’t prove cheating, it found scores resembling those in Atlanta, which suffered a cheating scandal last year.
In Boardman, the newspaper’s analysis found 15 percent of classes were flagged in 2008, 10 percent in 2009, 10 percent in 2010 and 5 percent in 2011.
“Class” means a group of students in the same school from one year to the next. Those classes “flagged” had a test-score shift outside the norm. Smaller districts with fewer than 20 classes are not included, according to the newspaper.
Lazzeri said the report doesn’t consider what other factors could be at work to lead to changes in test results.
In the last five years since Linda Ross, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, was hired, the district has implemented many programs aimed at improving student achievement. There have been other changes, too, such as moving some middle-school students from one school building to the next that could affect test scores, the superintendent said.
The changes could initially bring a dip in scores that rebound in later years.
In Youngstown schools, 17.65 percent of classes were flagged in 2008, 21.28 percent in 2009, 21.05 percent in 2010 and 8.82 percent in 2011.
Superintendent Connie Hathorn, who started with the district in late 2010, said many programs have been instituted in the district.
“Just because scores went up doesn’t mean that you’re cheating,” he said.
Teachers, principals and central office staff are using data more and gearing instruction accordingly, he said. The district has been working on professional development as well.
There are also safeguards in place to prevent cheating, Hathorn said.
Tests are delivered by one truck to the central office and then to the school buildings. Principals count the test books upon receipt and before returning them to central office.
“Proctors have strict instructions about what they can and what they cannot do,” Hathorn said. “A teacher or administrator could lose their license for that.”
In Warren schools, the newspaper’s analysis found 5 percent of classes flagged in 2009, 10.53 percent in 2010 and 18.42 percent in 2010. Nothing is listed for 2008.
Aaron Schwab, Warren city schools spokesman, said it seems strange that Youngstown and Warren, both in academic watch as of the most recent state report cards, were flagged for cheating in the review.
If the district were suspected of cheating, the Ohio Department of Education would be the first to know and would be “breathing down our necks,” he said. He said the district’s superintendent and the director of teaching and learning both question how the newspaper reached the conclusion.
Ross from Boardman said the district’s test administrators and coordinators sign agreements at the beginning of the school year, saying they understand the state’s ethical use of tests and security guidelines.
Tests are kept in a locked room with restricted access. Similar to Youngstown, principals count the number of test booklets per box when they arrive and again before they’re shipped to central office to ensure the numbers match.
Some of the programs implemented in Boardman in the last few years that may account for changes in test scores include short-cycle assessments, when teachers measure students’ understanding of concepts after they’re taught rather than waiting until a test is administered.
A new math curriculum also was implemented for kindergarten through eighth grade.
Lazzeri pointed to other Ohio districts flagged in the newspaper’s investigation including Massillon Jackson in Stark County and Dublin City near Columbus.
“They’re other districts that are doing innovative things” that could cause test scores to change, he said.