Virginia finds problems with Norfolk school's testing

NORFOLK

A state investigation into irregularities on tests used to determine accreditation has found problems at Lafayette-Winona Middle School that ranged from students who weren't tested to assessments with identical answers, including misspellings.

School Board members plan to ask Superintendent Stephen C. Jones for more information about the problems, which were disclosed to the public Thursday in reports on PilotOnline.com. They also want public discussions about what happened and why, board Chairman Stephen W. Tonelson said.

Lafayette-Winona failed to test at least two dozen special education students who should have been assessed last spring, according to the Virginia Department of Education's investigation. The Virginian-Pilot obtained the department's findings through the Freedom of Information Act.

Investigators concluded that the school division violated five state and federal regulations, including special needs students' right to a free appropriate education.

Two teachers submitted identical work for multiple special education students in state assessment portfolios, and one teacher refused to assess eight special education students because of a disagreement over how the students' learning should be measured, according to the department's Oct. 14 report. Superintendent Jones said in an interview Tuesday that he accepted the state's findings. Personnel decisions were pending, he said.

"The individuals that were involved, all of their involvement is being reviewed as disciplinary issues," Jones said. "I'm not comfortable commenting on those until we've gotten all of the facts."

Tonelson said he wanted more answers.

"There are a couple of things that concern me," he said. "One is the fact that we have a few teachers in a school that feel, for whatever reason, that it's appropriate to cheat in order to make our students look good or our school system look good.

"I am concerned about the high-stakes testing that, in some ways, has become the only measure of student success."

Tonelson also said he wished the board had received the report earlier.

Although state investigators conducted their investigation in September and published their findings on Oct. 14, board members said they first officially heard of testing irregularities from school officials in a Nov. 9 e-mail. That e-mail from the school division informed them that The Pilot was looking into the situation but didn't provide details.

After requesting a copy of the report, Tonelson said, he received one on Dec. 3, and other board members received copies Tuesday at Tonelson's request.

The state is requiring the school division to create a plan to correct scoring errors, to allow students to take tests they were prevented from taking, and to set up a system of training and monitoring to prevent future problems. Administrators filed the required plan with the state on Dec. 4 after requesting an extension.

The investigators placed some blame on the school division's lack of an oversight system for tracking the testing of special education students. Jeff Phenicie, a state special education specialist who headed the investigation, said that could mean the same kinds of problems happened in other Norfolk schools.

At a Thursday news conference that Jones didn't attend, Chief Academic Officer Christine Harris said the division didn't plan to explore whether testing irregularities had extended further at Lafayette-Winona or at any other Norfolk school.

"Of course, we're concerned, but it's nearly impossible to go back through the many testing binders" and other assessments, Harris said. "We have testing chairs, we have department chairs and an outstanding administrative staff that make sure things like this don't happen. Unfortunately, this did happen at Lafayette. Again, the plan I think we've put into place will address any future concerns."

Tonelson said the board would ask for more.

"In order to show Norfolk that we are upset and concerned, that we deserve their trust, the board will ask that Dr. Jones sample tests from other schools to assure the citizens that this is not what we do in Norfolk public schools."

The inquiry was triggered by an e-mail and two phone conversations in June from a Lafayette-Winona teacher. The teacher's name was redacted from the documents that the state provided to The Pilot.

The teacher alleged that Principal Cassandra D. Goodwyn pressured teachers to increase the number of special education students participating in an alternative assessment called the Virginia Grade Level Alternative, because its use "is a strong guarantee of passing scores to avoid the consequences" of the school again failing to meet state benchmarks.

The teacher reported being given a negative evaluation as a result of "unwillingness to go along with the VGLA participation," according to notes from the conversation. Administrators said the teacher is no longer at the school but still works for the division.

Goodwyn denied the teacher's allegation in an interview Tuesday. Goodwyn said decisions about whether individual students should participate in the VGLA are made by separate committees of administrators, teachers and parents.

"I'm not a part of that," she said.

State investigators didn't publish a conclusion regarding the accusation.

Phenicie, the state investigator, said, "It's really hard to narrow down where the pressure is and if there was pressure" to use the assessment inappropriately. During the Lafayette-Winona investigation, "No one specifically came out and said here's an e-mail that said, 'Ignore criteria. Just put them in the program,' " he said.

The VGLA consists of a student's work samples, anecdotal records, interviews and other items compiled by school employees. Schoolwork that is copied from blackboards or other sources isn't supposed to be used.

Special needs students in grades three through eight may participate in the VGLA rather than tak e a Standards of Learning exam in certain instances, when their disability keeps them from demonstrating their level of achievement on the SOL test. Pass rates for Virginia special needs students who completed the VGLA assessment were 24 to 37 percentage points higher than for special needs students who took SOL exams, according to 2009 state statistics.

Statewide, participation in the VGLA has more than doubled in the past four years, and state officials are concerned that the assessment might be misused.

"It was never intended as an option just to inflate pass rates," said Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education.

About 14 percent of the state's special needs students eligible for the VGLA participated in it in the 2008-09 school year, compared to 5.6 percent of Norfolk's students with disabilities.

About 28 percent of 151 Lafayette special needs students participated in the VGLA in at least one subject last spring. Of 70 assessment portfolios, 83 percent received passing scores.

However, Lafayette-Winona failed to achieve required pass rates for the fourth consecutive year, and as a result, applied this fall for conditional state accreditation, which was granted.

Norfolk Chief Academic Officer Harris said the high VGLA participation might be because Lafayette has a disproportionately high number of special education students.

Generally, school divisions conduct their own investigations into allegations that someone has willfully violated testing procedures, said Pyle, the department spokesman. In the past four years, about 65 inquiries have been opened, he said. He didn't know all of the outcomes.

The state steps in when special education issues are involved or if an element of the case would make it difficult for the school division to conduct a fair and impartial look, Pyle said. Local school divisions are responsible for any personnel decisions resulting from investigations.

Investigators on the Lafayette-Winona case found:

• 24 special education students, who missed a total of 33 exams because the school said they were absent, weren't actually absent for all of the designated testing days, according to attendance records.
• Files for several students consisted of work with identical answers, down to punctuation and spelling errors.
• In some cases, educators improperly used previous failures on SOL tests as the main criteria for determining which special education students would participate in the VGLA assessment. Criteria for VGLA participation was applied inappropriately in some cases.
• Eight students weren't assessed at all in math because their teacher believed they had been inappropriately assigned to the VGLA assessment.
• Ten students who participated in the VGLA assessment in at least one subject were supposed to take the SOL test in other subjects. Two didn't because they were incorrectly declared exempt from testing. Eight didn't because they were marked absent, although records showed that they were present at least some of the days designated for testing.

Goodwyn said some students were absent on both testing days and makeup test days. This year, if students are present for one makeup day, they may be required to take all of the tests they missed on that one day, she said.

Administrators said identical work may have appeared in student binders because teachers plan together, may have taught similar lessons, and may have collected similar information. They didn't notice the identical work because they look at binders individually, Goodwyn said.

Joan Anderson, senior director of the division's special education services department, and other administrators listed planned corrective actions, some of which have already started.

A VGLA training for teachers that was previously voluntary is now mandatory, and educators are now required to review VGLA portfolios monthly, Anderson said.

About 18 VGLA portfolios from last spring are being reviewed and rescored. Students who were prevented from taking tests will be given remediation and allowed to retest.

Board members are likely to discuss the issue on Wednesday when they meet for a regularly scheduled session.

Amy Jeter, (757) 446-2730, amy.jeter@pilotonline.com