Report on Chatham, Effingham and Bryan Public Schools Test Results Released
By Lou Phelps
CF Staff Report
With all the standardized testing that students go through, parents may not be aware that another type of “testing” has just been completed, a study of how many answer sheets are submitted where someone has erased a wrong answer and changed the answer to the correct response.
With the pressure on teachers, building principals and public school administrators to constantly show improving results, Federal and State governments have just completed a study to track abnormally changes coming from students in any particular classroom in the U.S. It’s the first time just a study has been done.
The analysis was conducted by classroom, and focused on total "erasures" per classroom and on "wrong to right" answer changes. The number of changes were compared to statistical norms that have been developed – taking into account that all students make changes on testing answer sheets.
The CRCT is a standardized assessment given to students in grades 1-8 in Georgia, designed to measure how well students at each grade level have learned the state’s curriculum. Most importantly, CRCT results are used to determine whether schools have made adequate yearly progress (AYP) as required by No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
The Savannah-Chatham Public Schools, as well as Effingham and Bryan Counties, received their results on Feb. 10 for what was termed the “2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT). Each classroom received one of four designations: clear, minimal concern, moderate concern or severe concern, based on the number of classrooms that had higher than normal erasure changes to a correct answer. The designations are based on the percent of classrooms above the norm:
• Clear- 0%-5% of Classrooms Flagged
• Minimal Concern- 6%-10% of Classrooms Flagged
• Moderate Concern- 11%-24% of Classrooms Flagged
• Severe Concern- 25% or more of Classrooms Flagged
The Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) then grouped all classrooms by school and classified each school based on the percentage of classrooms flagged using the following descriptors. In Chatham County, the results showed:
• 33 schools were “cleared”
• 7 schools were of “minimal concern,” including Bartow, Butler, Gadsden, Garrison, Gould, Pulaski, and Thunderbolt
• 1 school was of “moderate concern,” Hodge
• None of Chatham County schools received a label of “severe concern.”
According to Sharon Sand, Senior Director of SCCPS’s Accountability, Asssessment and Reporting Dept., “Most of the erasures, including at Hodge, were at the 1 and 2 grade level. Those folks like to erase, and they want it to be perfect.”
And Sand said that she has already learned that, “some teachers have used a strategy telling students that and if they’re not sure (when taking a test) to go ahead and mark both of them, and then go back and erase the wrong answer. That being the case, you can see how ‘wrong to rights’ would come. So, those are things we’re going to have to correct.”
“We’re going to have to have teachers instruct students to mark things in the testing book that they want to look at again. Overall, we have good security, but we’re going to have to be sure,” she added.
“When you look across the state, we did well,” she added. “The state said to us, ‘Chatham County did really well,’”
“We’ve already talked to all of the principals concerned, and we’re going to be going over all the data with them. We just want our people to be cognizant of what we’re doing,” Sand explained.
“I don’t suspect anything, don’t suspect that cheating is going on. The bottomline is that our principals work really hard, and they’re all putting the best interests of the child at heart,” but she acknowledged that there is pressure on teachers and building principals to show annual improvement.
The answer sheets for the Reading, English/Language Arts and Mathematics tests for all grade levels (1-8) were reviewed using statistical analysis tools, and classrooms were "flagged" that had erasures that were beyond 3 standard deviations above the state average.
“The analysis looked on average at 125,000 test takers in every subject and grade level at which the CRCT was administered, and provided a clear picture of typical student test behavior against which all schools could be compared,” said GOSA Executive Director, Kathleen Mathers. “Our recommendations are intended to eliminate future problems and help students who have been adversely affected by test tampering.”
In the analysis, CTB psychometricians scanned answer documents to identify total erasures per classroom, flagging those classrooms in which the number of wrong-to-right changes proved to be three standard deviations (SDs) or more above the state average. Less than 0.15% of test takers would be expected to fall in that range naturally, according to Mathers.
Statewide, 80% of Georgia’s elementary and middle schools fell into the “Clear of Concern” category, meaning less than 6% of the classes within a given school were flagged; 10% fell into the “Minimal Concern” category with 6%-10% of classes flagged; 6% were determined to be in the “Moderate Concern” category with 11%-24% of classes flagged; and only 4% were termed “Severe Concern” as defined by a school having 25% or more of its classes flagged for wrong-to-right changes. Most of the “Severe Concern” results occurred in the Atlanta metro area.
State Board of Education Actions Ahead
The State Board of Education will be considering various options, such as requiring local Superintendents to conduct internal investigations to determine the causes of testing irregularities; or possibly rotating teachers during the 2010 CRCT test administration so that they administer the test to students they have not taught, at a particular school.
In addition, state monitors will be placed in all schools in the severe concern category during this spring’s test, according to GOSA.
“Important decisions will be made from this data that are critical to the future of Georgia’s children,” said GOSA Deputy Director, Dr. Eric Wearne. “Overall, Georgia’s schools are performing well and continue to excel in student achievement.”
GOSA plans future analyses of standardized test scores, possibly including End of Course Tests (EOCT) and Georgia High School Graduation Tests (GHSGT) and will also examine graduation and dropout rates and other factors that determine student achievement.
The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement serves as the reporting and accountability agency for education in Georgia. As such, GOSA is charged by law with inspecting academic records of schools to ensure that education institutions are faithful to performance accountability requirements. Through an academic audit, GOSA reviews student assessment data and other school records reported to the State to confirm accuracy and explore the effectiveness of local school initiatives in improving achievement.
Effingham and Bryan County Results
At Bryan County’s six elementary schools, four schools had no classrooms that came above the national norm. At Richmond Elementary, there was a .8% level, and at Richmond Primary, there was a 3.2% level above the norm, ranking both buildings as “clear.”
At Effingham County’s 11 elementary schools, eight buildings had no classrooms above the norm. At Springfield Elementary, there was a .9% level; at Guyton Elementary, there was a 1.1% level; and at South Effingham Elementary, there was a 2.5% level, ranking all three schools as “clear,” as well.
Lou Phelps is publisher of Coastal Family Magazine
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