Dive Summary:
- According to state documents, the New Jersey Department of Education is investigating alleged testing security breaches in 27 school districts, ranging from teachers coaching students on how to write essays to wrongful handouts of calculators and dictionaries.
- The cases stem from this spring's testing of grades 3 to 12, and New Jersey Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf said last week that 15 schools will also be investigated for incidents of "erasure analysis" on 2011 tests as a result of higher-than-normal answer changes from wrong to right.
- Experts say that concern over possible cheating and security has increased as emphasis increases on using standardized testing to identify troubled schools and, potentially, as a teacher evaluation tool.
From the article:
In Wanaque, an eighth-grade teacher gave her students scratch paper during standardized testing this spring, then later learned the pages had old algebra problems and equations printed on the back.
In Millstone Township, a veteran teacher was accused by students of trying to point them to correct answers on the NJ ASK exam.
And in Waterford Township, Camden County, a sixth-grade teacher said she suffered such "curiosity and anxiety" about upcoming tests that she peeked into the sealed test booklet — rolling it like a telescope to look inside — and told colleagues what she saw. Her fellow teachers turned her in.
