In recent news, we learned of allegations that seven Arizona schools cheated on AIMS tests in past years by erasing wrong answers and replacing them with correct answers. Oops, make that eight as of a week ago.
Now we have what looks like the first report of a school cheating on the new AzMERIT test which replaced AIMS.
Allegations of cheating on standardized tests have prompted an investigation at a Phoenix elementary school.
ABC15 Investigators have learned charges there was cheating on the AzMERIT statewide achievement test at a local elementary school have prompted a formal outside investigation.
The Isaac School District #5 confirms they’re looking into allegations that answers were altered at the J.B. Sutton Elementary School in Phoenix.
The school is part of the Isaac Elementary School District #5 .
It should come as no surprise that 94 percent of the school’s students are on free or reduced lunch. Cheating by an adult on high stakes tests is a high risk endeavor, and the stakes are rarely high enough to warrant the risk at schools with kids from affluent families. Those students are likely to do well on the tests no matter what, and the schools are likely to get A and B state grades, so why take the chance of getting caught to gain a few points? J.B. Sutton, on the other hand, has a D rating, and its math and writing scores went down in 2014. You can bet the pressure was on at the school, big time.
Here’s something interesting. It’s not the AZ Department of Education that’s initiating the investigation this time, according to ABC15 Investigators. It’s the school district.
So we have nine schools where there’s a strong possibility that adults altered tests to increase student scores. Does that indicate an increase in dishonesty by teachers and administrators? I don’t think so. It’s more likely an increase in honesty at the state level. Education Superintendent Diane Douglas isn’t a big fan of high stakes tests, unlike previous superintendent John Huppenthal, so she’s very likely decided to be more aggressive about the cheating that’s always been there but Huppenthal decided to hush up (See Carpe Diem charter school). Posssibly—I’m just guessing here—the changed atmosphere at the Ed. Dept. led the Isaac Elementary School District to be proactive and pursue the possible cheating problem itself before it became an issue at the state level.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2015.
It is unfortunate that you declared that “seven Arizona schools cheated on AIMS tests.” The SCHOOLS did not do the cheating. SOMEONE did the cheating. SOMEONE who, for whatever reason, thought this might be a good idea, to help or hurt the school. A teacher, an administrator, a student, a parent, a cleaning person, someone in the Department of Education?
Schools are spending thousands of dollars to investigate. I doubt any one of these schools sanctioned cheating in any way.
Vicki, you’re right that people cheated, not schools. But I don’t think it’s right to talk about individuals as if the problem is a few bad apples without talking about the pressure created by the high stakes testing. We don’t know details here in Arizona, but in some cases, it was a group of individuals who did the cheating together, and in some instances administrators were most likely involved.
Remember the story of Henry II being furious at Thomas Becket, who went from drinking buddy to Archbishop of Canterbury and challenged Henry’s authority? Henry was reputed to have said, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” after which four knights did the deed and killed Becket. Henry didn’t exactly ask the knights to kill the archbishop, but . . .
Principals and superintendents often say, directly or indirectly, issued as a simple question or a veiled threat, “Can no one raise these troublingly low scores?” That creates the atmosphere where this kind of thing occurs.
The first cause is the high stakes accompanying the standardized tests. Remove those and you get rid of the pressures and temptations that lead to these unfortunate, but absolutely predictable, instances of cheating.
The “pressure created by high stakes testing” is no different than posted speed limits. There are people that choose to break the rules.
If the school closes or loses funding for under performance, TUSD would transfer and promote that teacher into an admin job. We have all watched that happen.
Sounds like this school had the same demographics as in Georgia. Definitely a pattern.
To make matters worse, for those who were able to read the test because it was permitted with the students they tested, it is a horrible, horrible test because of the directions and the way it was written. So now we not only are judging people or schools on standardized tests, it is on a deplorably bad standardized test.
I know some who reported this to the Dept. of Ed. and it may be why they did not investigate. I think this is a big problem because not only was there cheating but it was a test(possibly/probably) that would be difficult to pass for many. They (the people I talked to) were told by the Dept. of Ed. they were going to throw out some questions. Sounded to me like they needed to throw out the whole test. I can’t say that for sure but it doesn’t sound like a bad idea.
I find it interesting that cheating is only now coming to the surface. When I worked for TUSD everybody knew the administrator was adjusting answers on the aims test, one teacher spoke up and that teacher just disappeared . Everyone that questioned this , has been removed , and no longer works for TUSD. This has been going on for a long time , and still is, so if staff tries to report it , they will lose their jobs. TUSD knows how to dance around the law, so this will continue.
Brian I find that interesting. Never heard of it in TUSD before… ever. I never heard of one person being fired for anything like that. Whenever I hear of anonymous statements like you just made, I tell people to ignore. It is easy to make things up. I am not saying cheating has never happened but I don’t know about it or anyone trying to report it and they ‘disappear’. TUSD is not that big nor is Tucson. Interesting how broad, vague statements occur about TUSD that are anonymous and no evidence. Kind of like when Dr. Sanchez was accused many times of abusing funds and when confronted, didn’t happen. No evidence or proof….
I’m going to take an alternative view; this school and others might be conducting reviews of previous testing to actually see if there is a problem. I’m not denying a problem, simply offering credit to schools now seeing this behavior is wrong while putting teachers & administrators on notice that ANY problems will be rectified. Conversely, if these ARE audits/reviews I hope the schools will announce the results…..good or bad.
Some might consider “teaching to the test” cheating. That’s where you focus on giving students the answers, without any knowledge. Kind of like our current President.
In the end we all suffer.