Seals put on exams after cheating allegations
D.C. school officials are increasing security on standardized tests, following years of investigation into potential cheating.
Paper security seals will be attached to the test booklets, which students will have to break when they take the Comprehensive Assessment System exams next month.
“The test books passed out to students will have a security seal that can only be broken by the student,” Mayor Vincent Gray said Tuesday, adding that the seals will “strengthen the security of all tests.”
But the “wafer seals,” which are broken with a pencil and will cost a total $12,000, are not resealable, Office of the State Superintendent of Education officials said.
Some members of the D.C. school board questioned how the seals can combat issues that have plagued the Comprehensive Assessment System since its 2008 inception.
In both 2008 and 2009, District school officials learned of high levels of erasure marks in which the “bubble” was changed to the correct answer — high above the citywide average — at many schools. Rumors swirled that multiple-choice sheets were doctored after the fact.
Dorothy Douglas, the Ward 7 member of the D.C. school board, said she was “very concerned” when she learned from The Washington Examiner that the exams would not be resealed.
“What security does the test have, in putting that test back together? What purpose will it serve?” Douglas said. “You hope it will be secure, but what key do you have to lock it back so it’s not altered?”
In 2008, former Superintendent of Schools Deborah Gist asked D.C. Public Schools to investigate more than 20 public schools where reading and math scores had jumped significantly; an external probe by the test administrator found high levels of suspicious erasure patterns, the Washington Post reported at the time. Because CTB/McGraw-Hill declared the data “inconclusive,” then-Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee declined to examine the grades.
Two schools were cited for improper security during 2009 testing, including Burrville Elementary, where students’ multiple-choice sheets showed a suspicious pattern of erasures alongside tremendous annual performance jumps. Students were much more likely to erase an incorrect answer and then answer correctly than the national average, and at least one proctor admitted to cleaning up stray pencil marks on students’ answer sheets, the Washington Post reported. DCPS invalidated one classroom’s results, while a charter school was cleared of charges.
Analyses of 2010 testing have not been made public.
Mark Jones, the school board’s Ward 5 representative, said he was “very pleased” that OSSE was adding a seal in light of these controversies. “They need the additional security,” he said.
But Jones said he did not know the exams would not reseal, until told by The Examiner.
“That’s new to me,” Jones said. “I’m going to inquire into that.”
