Cheating in Birmingham - article #3 - quote from Fair Test

[Anne Nonniemouse <ShopMathEdu@AOL.COM>]

Dear Fair Test folks:

Here is today's story on cheating in Birmingham.  It's good to see Mony
Neill's comments.  Thanks!
=============================================

Are administrators cheating?
Critics place blame on high-stakes examinations
By CINDY FISHER
BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD
As long as there have been tests, students have found ways to conceal answers
on the bottoms of shoes or on the corners of desks to help pass them.
But the increased use of high-stakes tests to mark students' progress has
created a new batch of cheaters: school administrators.

Earlier this month, a Maryland principal was caught telling students to
rework their essays before he sent them in. In Texas recently, low-performing
students' identification badge numbers were changed so that the test scores
would not match, and in turn, not count. And numerous teachers have given
students extra time to complete the tests and even have erased answers and
inserted the correct ones themselves.

"There are a lot of nasty things happening because of testing," said Monty
Neill, executive director of FairTest, a national organization that is
against high-stakes tests.

Birmingham public school administrators might join the list of cheaters if
there is merit to recent accusations stating that some school officials
suspended low-performing students in the spring before the Stanford
Achievement Test was given in order to post higher scores and avoid state
takeover.

Some Birmingham teachers have said that administrators are not only
suspending low-performing students, but telling others to stay home during
the week the Stanford Achievement Test is given.

Birmingham school officials said Wednesday that the only complaint regarding
the suspension of students before the test was made at Woodlawn High School.
Mallory Coats, area director of high schools, said an investigation showed
that there was no evidence to support the claim.

But it's clear that administrators have cheated elsewhere in the United
States.

"It is so outrageous," said Walt Haney, senior research associate at Boston
College's Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Educational Policy.
"But I am not at all surprised. ... It is a direct outgrowth of the abuse of
test results."

Administrators in Alabama could be cheating because they are bending under
the pressure of performing well on the Stanford Achievement Test, Haney said.

Scores on the achievement test are used to hold schools and teachers
accountable, and if performance is low, it can be the sole measure that lands
a school under state control.

Having one test determine a school's future ranking is unfair and puts a
great deal of pressure on administrators, Haney said.

"This misuse (of the Stanford Achievement Test) is corrupting the testing
process," Haney said. "If 10 percent of the lowest scoring children are not
taking the test, then the average will go up 10 percent. ... That could
change the average dramatically."

Getting rid of weaker students, whether through suspension or telling
students to stay home, is one of the easiest cheating methods used by
administrators, Haney said.

Other popular cheating methods include placing low-performing students in
special education so that they are exempt from taking the test. And many
administrators are preventing students from reaching the grade in which the
test is given to stop low-scoring students from bringing scores down, Haney
said.

The state Education Department has investigated the allegations of cheating
at Birmingham schools, which were brought up Tuesday by city Board of
Education member Virginia Volker.

The state department has known about the claims since May and has made
several trips to investigate, said Joe Morton, deputy superintendent for the
state. State officials hope to finish the investigation by the end of the
summer, he said.

The Birmingham students were let go from school because they had extensive
absences and too few class credits and many were disruptive, Coats said.

"These students were cutting class and have been warned that they have to
attend a certain number of days," Coats said. "Some have missed 20 to 40
days."

Many of those suspended students are being put into a general equivalency
degree class because the system wanted to help them to finish high school,
Coats said.

Neill said he has heard of many school districts suspending students and
placing them in GED classes to avoid taking standardized tests, and that is
still cheating.

There are more stories of administrators cheating in the past 10 to 20 years
than ever before, Haney said.

The real problem in schools is not the cheating, Neill said. Teaching toward
the test and having teachers use sample multiple-choice questions in all
courses is unfairly inflating scores, he said.

Cheating will stop when tests no longer have high-stakes consequences
attached, Haney said.

Schools should be rated using more than one test and other factors, such as
students' grades, he said.

"That would give (administrators) less incentive to cheat," Haney said. "But
it will never eliminate cheating entirely."

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