Most+schools+flagged+for+possible+cheating+likely+to+be+cleared

=By Jodi Weigand= =//Published by the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW//= =//8/16/11//= = = = = = = = = =Most of the 90 Pennsylvania schools whose results raised red flags for possible cheating on the 2009 state assessment test probably did nothing wrong, and the Department of Education likely will clear them, a department spokesman said.= =But there's value in a $183,000 state-commissioned analysis that noted improbable results and erasure marks on some Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests in 35 districts and 10 charter schools, spokesman Tim Eller said.= ="The whole point of the report is to look at areas where significant aberrations appeared and look into those further, because of the importance of the integrity of the PSSA," Eller said. "It's not saying something was done inappropriately but to check to make sure this is correct."= =Education Secretary Ron Tomalis ordered a similar examination of 2010 test results and commissioned an analysis for the 2011 test. The state uses the PSSA to determine whether schools and districts meet standards under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.= =Many of the 11 Western Pennsylvania schools' internal investigations turned up innocuous reasons, such as data coding errors and enrollment changes, that their scores raised suspicions.= =The Education Department asked districts to investigate irregularities when state officials became aware of the analysis, which the previous administration requested from the company that creates the PSSA. Districts' reports were due to the department yesterday.= =The state had received about 83 percent of them by Monday evening, Eller said.= =The Department of Education will conduct its own investigation into schools' test results, using the schools' reports as part of the inquiry.= =The analysis flagged schools in Ambridge, Big Beaver Falls, Connellsville, Gateway, Monessen, New Kensington-Arnold, Pittsburgh and Uniontown, along with Midland-based PA Cyber.= =The annual PSSA measures math and reading skills of students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11. The penalties for educators found cheating on the test range from meting out disciplinary action to invalidating test scores.= =In New Kensington-Arnold, nine students moved out of the district and didn't take the test, causing Fort Crawford Elementary's results to be flagged, said Superintendent George Batterson.= =Secondly, he said, "We had a low economic subgroup with 45 students registered ... and 39 students took the test. That was the same explanation -- those six students left."= =Tammy Stern, interim superintendent of Connellsville School District, where results in three schools were flagged across multiple grades, said coding errors in the state's data management system resulted in errors in the students' demographic information.= =Subgroup performance is a key factor in determining whether schools make annual progress goals.= ="The most likely cause for these errors was due to our district's change in the district's computerized student management systems during the 2008-2009 school year," which didn't align with the state's coding system, Stern said in an e-mailed statement.= =Several school administrators said one problem with the suspected cheating report was that it compared the same grade level from year to year. That's not comparing progress by the same group of students, which could explain higher scores year over year, they said.= =That was the case in Monessen, where elementary school results were flagged because scores increased by more than 10 percent, said Superintendent Cynthia Chelen.= =An increase in the number of fourth-graders who took the test from 2008 to 2009 and a drop in the number of special-education students taking the test resulted in higher scores, she said. In 2008, 55 fourth-graders took the test, 10 of them special-ed students. In 2009, 67 fourth-graders took the test and six were special-education students, she said.= ="If they would have looked at their full report, they would have realized that's what it was," Chelen said.= =PA Cyber, the state's largest cyber school, confirmed its suspicion that the school's rapid growth caused statistical anomalies. A higher-than-expected number of students in certain subgroups took the PSSA, and a small number of individual students performed better than predicted, said spokesman Fred Miller.= =Pittsburgh Public Schools stands by its initial findings, said spokeswoman Ebony Pugh. She said the district provided evidence, such as a feeder pattern change, explaining why Sterrett Classical Academy in Point Breeze showed a 27 percent jump in participation by economically disadvantaged students.= = Read more: [|Most schools flagged for possible cheating likely to be cleared - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review] [] =

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