The New York Times is reporting:
[NYSED] officials revealed this week that the State Education Department had quietly been conducting erasure analysis on some high school Regents exams for more than three years, a process that red-flagged 64 incidents of possible problems, including one that led to the ouster of an assistant principal in the Bronx.
And after an audit by the state comptroller raised concerns about cheating in 2010, the State Board of Regents voted, to little notice, to expand such analysis to six additional tests last school year, and to all Regents exams in 2011-12, though the necessary funds were never authorized.
In response to the New York Times article, NYSED Commissioner John B. King, Jr. sent a letter to school Superintendents throughout New York State. Talk of the Sound has obtained a copy:
September 25, 2011
Dear Superintendents,
As many of you are aware, the Board of Regents is currently discussing the possible implementation of various measures to better ensure the integrity of our state assessment system. Needless to say, the Regents and the Department are keenly aware of the need to be sensitive to the cost implications of potential new test integrity measures.
You may have seen recent media coverage of accusations of test improprieties uncovered through erasure analysis conducted by the New York State Education Department. This was not a comprehensive erasure analysis performed to uncover test integrity violations. In fact, the erasure analyses conducted for 8 out of 229 Regents exams since 2008 were part of a test validation contract for reviewing the scoring of newly designed Regents exams during their initial administrations.
Obviously, this was not an in-depth, large scale pilot of erasure analysis, nor did it rise to the level of a major finding or report.The very limited erasure analyses identified 64 cases of possible test irregularities, only 7 of which rose to a level that warranted further investigation. But even this small body of evidence reinforces the larger message of the Department’s comprehensive test integrity review launched in August 2011 shortly after I became Commissioner: we need to take strong steps to ensure the integrity of New York state tests.
The Board of Regents took one of those strong steps earlier this month by approving several actions to improve test security, including the appointment of an independent investigator to review policies and procedures surrounding the investigation of suspected test integrity violations. The investigator will have full access to the erasure analysis performed on the 8 exams as well the entire record of all potential test integrity violations. The Board’s recent action builds on a series of steps designed to improve test security taken since the November 2009 Comptroller’s audit of Regents exam scoring, including approval of expanded erasure analysis in May 2010 (funding for which, unfortunately, did not become available).
In sum, we cannot allow the integrity of our exams to be compromised.
Sincerely,
John B. King, Jr. Commissioner
As long-time readers know, the animating event that led to the creation of Talk of the Sound was cheating by local school officials on my son’s State Regents Exam — but cheating to LOWER his score not increase it. I filed a formal complaint with Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak in May 2008 asserting that New Rochelle High School Chemistry teacher Marissa Raniolo sought to fail my son in her class in retribution for his parents filing for an Impartial Hearing. The district failed to follow state test handling requirements, failed to correct his transcript once the improper test scores were reported to the detract, failed to offer a hearing to resolve the disputed transcript, lied for 16 months about the existence of a response from the state regarding the test — violating various state and federal laws along the way. It is the primary reason that I often say the New Rochelle school district is a criminal enterprise with an educational mission.
A sham investigation by former NYSED Assistant Commissioner David Abrams ignore clear evidence that New Rochelle High School Science Department Chairperson Joyce Kent lied to state investigators.
All these years later, I have continued to press the issue with NYSED as the lies and cover up has continued. I had a meeting set up, months in advance, in Albany on October 3rd (last week) with State Rep. Amy Paulin and another NYSED official but that was cancelled just days away from the meeting date. I was told that Abrams left and was replaced with the guy I was supposed to meet but that now maybe I can meet the guy in his new position.
What I really want to do is meet with this Independent Investigator; I have made that request.
Not surprisingly, when The New York Times got on the story, SED officials lied about the erasure analysis.
State officials also indicated in interviews with The New York Times last month that they relied on whistle-blower complaints, not systemwide checks like erasure analysis, to guide investigations of cheating.
Only after The Times obtained documentation of two of the cheating investigations that had used the analysis did state officials acknowledge its existence and discuss its results.