Prompted by a few highly publicized instances of widespread cheating on standardized tests in other parts of the country, the state Department of Education on Aug. 18 voluntarily offered up its own testing policies via a press release that outlines the state’s safeguards against cheating on standardized tests.
But ironically, the same day the DOE communication department stepped up its PR efforts, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education took a vote that could set a vain precedent for districts trying to circumvent the state’s tough sanctions for cheating on standardized tests.
The Aug. 18 BESE meeting agenda reveals that “testing irregularities” occurred at three high schools in Calcasieu Parish during the spring 2011 Graduation Exit Exam, one of three annual tests the state labels a “high-stakes” test. The exit exam, as well as the fourth and eighth grade LEAP tests, are considered high-stakes because students must pass them to advance a grade level or graduate from high school. The state’s iLeap tests administered to third, fifth, sixth and seventh graders statewide measure student progress but do not determine whether a student can move on to the next grade level.
If any scores are obtained by cheating, which DOE defines as either administrative error, erasure analysis or plagiarism, the test scores are automatically voided and the scores are replaced by zeroes. Students are allowed to retest for high-stakes exams, but the state still places zeroes in the students’ test scores when evaluating school performance every year.
BESE, on Aug. 18, was tasked with deciding whether to grant Calcasieu Parish a waiver on the voided scores and allow the school district to use the retest scores instead. Despite a recommendation from DOE to deny the waiver request, BESE voted to grant the waiver, says District 7 BESE member Dale Bayard, who represents Calcasieu and most of Southwest Louisiana, Lafayette included.
“This is by far the largest [cheating] issue we’ve ever dealt with,” Bayard says.
The cheating in Calcasieu Parish was so widespread, Bayard says, that 600 students’ test scores were voided, thus having a detrimental impact on overall performance scores in the district.
Bayard declined to give specifics on the cheating that occurred but says bad decisions by a handful of school administrators were to blame. The cheating was discovered thanks to one student who reported the irregularities to the district, resulting in retesting for the hundreds of students that cost Calcasieu Parish an additional $91,000. The school employees responsible for the testing irregularities have since been terminated, Bayard says.
“The crux of the consideration began because it affected 600 children, and it was due to a couple of culprits,” Bayard explains. “The department admitted we needed to revisit the policy. To me it was a severe penalty for just a small number of people. I didn’t expect it to pass; we had never done it before because waiver issues usually involve four or five children. Every district has to have the opportunity to be treated fairly when something like this happens.”
Out of the tough vote BESE cast will eventually come a new policy to deal with the unprecedented number of students affected in Calcasieu Parish, Bayard says. But rumor has it that DOE was correct in its prediction that other school districts would request similar waivers for cheaters. DOE spokeswoman Rene Greer did not respond to questions about other waiver reqeuests by press time Tuesday morning, but sources close to BESE say calls have already started coming in regarding cheating waivers from other school districts, particularly from the DOE’s Recovery School District, which oversees academically failed schools across the state.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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