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Friday, February 28, 1997

Education officials look into allegations

By PEGGY FIKAC Associated Press Writers

AUSTIN (AP) - Allegations of cheating on Texas' academic skills test are under investigation at two school districts, and 20 students' reading scores were invalidated at a third district because of a mix-up by teachers.

"Overall, we have very, very few problems, but every test administration there are accusations about some kind of testing irregularity," Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said Thursday.

The TEA will review school officials' probe of the allegations and determine whether further investigation is needed, she said. "We take test security very, very seriously."

Mrs. Ratcliffe noted, however, that few school districts typically are involved in complaints about the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, given to 1.8 million students annually.

This week, the TAAS was administered to students in grades four and eight and in high school. Students must pass the high school exit-level test to get a diploma. The TAAS also is used to gauge school district performance.

Cheating allegations have been reported to TEA concerning Silsbee Independent School District, 81 miles northeast of Houston, and Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, northeast of Fort Worth. The reading mix-up occurred at Mesquite ISD, near Dallas.

The alleged incident at Silsbee apparently is related to school districts being given flexibility by TEA concerning the days they administer the TAAS. That was done because of students' involvement in basketball play-offs and the Houston Livestock Show, events whose timing districts don't control.

Under the regular schedule, the writing portion of the TAAS was to be given Tuesday, the math portion Wednesday and the reading portion Thursday.

Under the flexible schedule, school districts had to keep the writing test on Tuesday but could give the others any time between Monday and Saturday.

Schools weren't allowed to change the time of the writing test because it contains only one question and there is no backup exit-level writing test if problems are discovered, Mrs. Ratcliffe said.

At Silsbee, it is alleged that students who took the exit-level math test Monday looked ahead in their test book to see the writing assignment, she said.

The word was then allegedly spread to at least one student in a neighboring school district, and ultimately reported to TEA, she said.

Silsbee school officials alerted by TEA investigated immediately and have already submitted a report to the agency, said Superintendent James Lang.

If cheating is found to have occurred, scores could be invalidated and students would have to take the test again. The exit-level test next will be administered in May.

"Certainly we're concerned about it," Lang said. "We're talking about all of our sophomores taking the writing portion of the test."

At Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, northeast of Fort Worth, four staff members were placed on administrative leave with pay after allegations that some learned of the specific writing assignment on the TAAS test administered at a middle school. One or more teachers then allegedly prepared their students for the assignment.

The school district is investigating, but students won't be affected because they were given an alternative test after the allegation was made, said district spokeswoman Louise Henry.

The third incident, at Mesquite ISD near Dallas, occurred when two teachers mistakenly passed out the reading section of the TAAS on the day students were supposed to be tested on writing.

The teachers gathered up the reading tests after realizing their mistake, school officials said, but reading scores for the 20 sophomores involved can't be counted. Those students will have to take the reading section of the test again, likely this summer.

"We've definitely been getting complaints from parents. They're upset their kids won't get their reading scores," Mrs. Ratcliffe said.

Mesquite ISD spokeswoman Jeanne Guerra said no disciplinary action is planned against the teachers because they simply made an honest mistake.

"I can assure you the teachers were devastated by it once they realized what they'd done," she said.Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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