New KensingtonArnold acting superintendent

said the district has changed the way it administers the PSSA so that all students in a grade level take the test together in a large area such as a cafeteria or multipurpose room, and all teachers are present to administer and proctor the test. “That removes any suspicion of any individual being alone,” says Mr. Rocchi. test security requirements.

Mr. Tomalis said that early in his tenure in 2011 he quietly ordered a study of PSSA results.

After a Right to Know request from a Philadelphia publication, it was discovered there was a 2009 report listing 38 school districts and 10 charter schools that had suspicious results for various reasons.

The report, unknown to Mr. Tomalis, had fallen through the cracks when there was a change in administrations.

The report came in during the last week that Shula Nedley was director of the Bureau of Assessment and Accountability at the state Education Department.

“The report doesn’t say they cheated. The report says, ‘Here’re data anomalies.’ I handed it off to my replacement and said, ‘Here you go.’ ”

Ms. Nedley, who believes such studies help to protect the integrity of the test, said she had reinstituted forensic data studies of the tests but noted the department had previously done erasure analysis in the 1980s.

The 2009 report cautions against drawing conclusions based solely on the statistics which flagged schools and students with “highly improbable results,” saying they don’t provide “definitive evidence.”

It said, “These flagged or identified schools or students may have earned their scores unfairly. However, they also may have earned them fairly.”

After looking at 2010 and 2011 results as well as 2009 to find patterns, the department sent letters to certain school districts and charter schools asking them to explain their results. Some were able to do so.

Those cleared include Gateway, Ambridge Area, Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, Connellsville Area, Uniontown Area and Belle Vernon Area.