PSSA cheating probe ongoing
Pittsburgh, Derry, Monessen among districts in question
As the state prepares to release the latest math and reading statewide test results, an investigation of cheating on previous tests continues in 10 school districts and charter schools across the state, including Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh Public Schools superintendent Linda Lane said that the state asked the district to look into 19 teachers whose students’ answer sheets had atypical erasure patterns.
She declined to name the teachers or the schools and said it is up to the state to clear anyone.
But from her review, she believes most of the situations were explainable and an “extremely small number” remains to be investigated.
An earlier state report named Pittsburgh Sterrett 6-8, but state officials said that was the result
of data entry errors, not cheating.
Nina Esposito-Visgitis, president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, said she hopes the number in question falls to zero.
“Our teachers are well-versed in testing procedures. They are monitored very closely,” she said.
State officials otherwise declined to comment on Pittsburgh.
The continuing investigation of 10 districts and charter schools involves 2009, 2010 and 2011 results in math and reading on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, which is given in grades 3-8 and 11.
The results help to determine whether a school or district makes adequate yearly progress, known as AYP, under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The state initially investigated 38 school districts and 10 charter schools, clearing some and finding cheating in some others, including some in Western Pennsylvania.
State Deputy Education Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq said, “Of the ones from 2009, 2010 and 2011 we are continuing to investigate, there has been some level of misconduct.
“What we are trying to determine is whether it is student misconduct or whether it has been adult intervention.”
Philadelphia has the largest number of schools still under investigation — 53.
Also still under investigation are four other school districts — Harrisburg in Dauphin County, Hazleton Area in Luzerne County, Reading in Berks County and Scranton in Lackawanna County — as well as three charter schools in Philadelphia and one in Delaware County.
“Who really gets hurt by this? The kids really get hurt by this,” state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis said, noting students and parents don’t get a true picture of achievement and needs.
To stem future cheating, the state recommended — and in some cases mandated — stricter test security protocols for the 2012 PSSA, which Mr. Tomalis considers the first accurate administration of the test.
He said the 2012 PSSA results — expected to be released later this month — will show some small decrease overall in statewide performance because of the security measures and will show decreases of 15 to 25 points over the previous years in some grade levels or schools.
Pittsburgh’s preliminary results show student performance dropped for the first time in five years, but district officials gave a variety of reasons, ranging from test security procedures that made students uncomfortable to budget reductions.
Mr. Tomalis said the cheating cases are “minimal relative to the number of public schools; however it’s having an impact on the scores of individual schools.”