Shreveport Principal Investigated for Alleged Standardized Test Violations

The Shreveport (LA) Times ^ | 04-16-03 | Brumble, Melody

[Theodore R.]

Caddo probes alleged testing violations

Melody Brumble / The Times Posted on April 16, 2003

Walnut Hill Elementary/Middle School Principal Albert Hardison is on leave while Caddo school officials investigate alleged standardized test security violations.

Officials learned of the possible problem March 9, the Sunday before testing, and sent monitors to ensure nothing inappropriate occurred to void student scores, said Marlene Ritter, Caddo schools general education director. Now officials are looking into what led to the allegations.

"We are not now considering voiding the tests of a single (Walnut Hill) student. If we void tests, it will be for the purposes of accountability, the school performance score."

Those students would not be affected by a voided score. The scores would be discounted at the school level, not at the student level.

Ritter said the Walnut Hill situation may involve school personnel, but she declined to provide details, citing confidentiality rules. Ritter expects the investigation to wrap up by the end of the week, with the findings going to interim schools Superintendent Ron Festavan.

Hardison has been on paid leave since Friday.

"Anytime somebody makes an allegation, they have to look into it," he said. "That's part of the policy. I think it's going to be fine. We haven't done anything wrong."

Officials also are investigating alleged test security violations or cheating at Green Oaks High that led to the voiding of four students' standardized test scores. At this point, that situation doesn't involve school personnel, Ritter said.

Individual violations involving voided student scores crop up throughout the state each spring as fourth- and eighth-graders take the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program 21 test and high school students tackle the GEE, said Scott Norton, testing director for the state Education Department. "It may be 10 to 20 incidents across the state a year."

[Theodore R.]

When a school's ranking depends on standardized test results, sometimes there are reports of administrators cheating -- changing individual test scores to bring up a school's average. It would seem that if there is a pattern of erasures on the exam answer sheets that such would led credence to violations. Perhaps this principal has done nothing and will be soon cleared.