Best Practice in Test Security

The ugly side of accountability

The higher the stakes the higher the chances for corruption!

Hypothetical Discussion 1

You are the District Test Coordinator. A middle school parent calls you and reports that her child says the tests from the 7th grade state assessment were the same problems they practiced in class the week before.Before you can fully investigate, you receive a call from the state department that one of your board members has turned the school in for cheating.What do you do?

Las Vegas

• Cheating Teachers Caused School’s Scores to Skyrocket

• Changed student answer sheets

Atlanta

• 35 indicted• 12 administrators, educators on trial• Alleged to have cheated, lied and stole as a

cleverly disguised conspiracy to inflate state test scores

• High pressure culture

Columbus

• State investigation of district reveals “top-down culture of data manipulation and employee intimidation”

• Changed test scores and grades

El Paso

• Superintendent pleads guilty to inflating district test scores by holding back low performing students and forcing others to drop out

Philadelphia

• Three principals fired for test cheating• Wrong to right erasures on tests reveal

patterns

L.A. County

• 5 school districts stripped of scores on state test

• Claims of cheating, misconduct or mistakes in handling standardized tests

Peoria

• Staff members at charter school admitted to directing special education students to erase answers on state standardized tests

• Staff admits to erasing some answers themselves

New Orleans

• 33 schools flagged for possible cheating• Plagiarism, improper test proctoring, excessive

changed answers

Best Practice 1

• Define cheating and irregularities– Erase or changing an answer– Filling in blank answers– Providing correct answers– Excluding students with poor performance on test

days– Cueing students on incorrect answers– Talking students through definitions and processes– Giving extra time for students who don’t have

accommodations in the IEP

Best Practice 2

• Provide professional development on test administration

• Have teachers sign an attendance sheet • Attach the agenda for the testing workshop to

the attendance form and file it away – it may protect you later

Best Practice 3

• Assign a test coordinator at each school who…– Develops policies and procedures– Schedules a limited time for testing– Administers tests in “controlled and secure”

settings

Best Practice 4

• Develop Chain of Custody– Limit access to tests– Inventory and/or audit test booklets– Keep record of who, when and where materials

were accessed from a secure location– Remove test materials immediately and score off-

site– Securely lock materials after each test day is

completed

Best Practice 5

• Monitor test administration– Train proctors– Have at least two adults trained to proctor in each

testing room– Monitor the tests during the scheduled times

Best Practice 6

• Conduct comprehensive integrity analysis– Ratio Analysis/Erasure analysis• Look for unusually high numbers of answers changed

from wrong to right

– Item-Response Pattern Analysis• Look for unusually common response patterns from

students in the same class

– Test Score Analysis• Look for exceptionally large increases from previous

years or large declines in next year’s test

Best Practice 7

• Have procedures for investigating allegations of cheating or misconduct– Emphasize prevention and protection of

employees from false allegations– Provide a process for reporting, to whom, and

when– Develop a policy that protects “whistleblowers”– Follow up with all schools using the Wrong/Right

answer analysis for their school

Best Practice 8

• Investigating– Investigate immediately– Ensure that all witnesses are interviewed– Coordinate with proper authorities• Chain of command BUT know what to do if superiors

are involved – who do you report to then?

– The level of reporting to authorities may depend on the type of test and the state of your employment

Best Practice 9

• Identify district ethics statements or other documents that address testing

• Make sure faculty and test proctors are aware of those documents

• Wyoming has a Professional Conduct Guide that addresses standardized testing

Best Practice 10

• If all your best efforts fail• Investigate, document, then discipline or

prosecute those who are guilty

Hypothetical Discussion 2

A teacher stops by your office (you are the principal) and says, “Something odd happened today. I asked a new student who was transferred to my class this semester from Mr. Jones’s class how he did on the final assessment. He says the class never took it. But when I looked on the computer, it shows scores for all the students. I asked the other 4 students from his class and they all said the same thing.”

What should you do? Take 10 minutes to discuss