Virginia has suspended funding to Alexandria City Public Schools’ adult education program as the state investigates potential cheating by school officials on exams meant to prepare students for the GED test.
While Alexandria already spent its $22,222 allocation for adult education from the state, Virginia is closing the purse strings on the $96,537.51 Alexandria still has from grants, state education spokesman Charles Pyle told The Washington Examiner.
Kent Dickey, Virginia’s deputy superintendent for finance and operations, said the Alexandria school system had acknowledged several violations of its assessment policies — including policies that simply specify which tests to use — in a letter to Alexandria Superintendent Morton Sherman.
Alexandria schools spokeswoman Kelly Alexander said the adult education program will continue as planned for the rest of the year, and that the school system believes Virginia will reimburse Alexandria when it cleans itself up, as Dickey’s letter explains.
“We anticipate that will be in the very near future,” Alexander said in an email.
The Washington Examiner first reported on April 2 that the Virginia Department of Education was investigating the local school system for strange anomalies on adult education exams.
In some of Alexandria’s adult education classes, every student received the same score on the Tests of Adult Basic or Secondary Education. In another class geared toward English-language learners, students received only the specific cutoff scores for each performance bracket: On a range of zero to 541, only four different scores were awarded to the 74 students.
Alexandria also reported that 95 students took an oral exam on July 5, even though giving each test takes 20 to 30 minutes and only one Alexandria teacher was certified to proctor the test. Two other testing days — Dec. 16, 2011, and Jan. 4, 2012 — were also flagged for a suspect number of reported test takers.
State officials told The Washington Examiner they were trying to figure out whether the tests were ever taken. If they were, the state is exploring the possibility that Alexandria schools officials gave the wrong test and tried to cover it up with fake scores.
Alexandria receives about $172,000 for its adult education program from the federal government, which requires the school system to test students using McGraw-Hill’s exams.
One employee has been placed on administrative leave as the investigation continues, Sherman said earlier this month.
“The initial state report regarding adult education alleges that the issue with assessments and reporting in that department may go back six years, and that the state is just now discovering that the reports were incorrect,” he said.
