Audit: TCAP tests not altered in Williamson
Williamson County and Franklin Special School District officials say there is no reason to believe teachers or administrators corrected the answers of last year’s state exams.
Concerns over corrected test answers arose after a news channel based in Johnson City, Tenn., released an investigation Monday that claimed the state’s Department of Education flagged dozens of school districts — including WCS and FSSD — for excessive erasure of answers in last year’s Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program.
A group of tests in Williamson County, one of three in the state, rose to the level of a state audit.
FSSD and WCS received the state’s erasure analysis notice April 24. Per state request, the school districts submitted their testing security policies to the state and initiated internal investigations.
The school districts found no wrongdoing of any employees in the administration of state tests. In both cases, the higher-than-expected percentage of erasures was found in a small group of special education students.
Additionally, the state Department of Education found no evidence of a security breach in Williamson County’s 2013-14 TCAP results, said Ashley Ball, the Department of Education spokeswoman.
The Department of Education began analyzing the percentage of students who change their answers from wrong to right on state exams after the 2011-12 school year. But this year the state shared 2013-14 TCAP erasure analysis results with districts to provide them feedback on their testing and security protocols, Ball said.
Franklin Special School District
Of the 9,499 TCAP exams administered in 2013-14 to FSSD students in grades 3-8 in reading, math, science and social studies, only one math test has a higher percentage of erasures than expected, said Kay Boan, FSSD supervisor of student performance.
FSSD found the sixth-grade math test was taken by a student with special needs at Freedom Intermediate School. The school district did not find any teacher or administrator at fault.
“This was an anomaly. There was no breach in security,” Boan said.
“All of our faculty and staff are trained, follow the state guidelines and follow our policies. We’ll continue to follow our same procedures and make sure everyone is trained in test security,” Boan said.
Williamson County Schools
The state Education Department flagged 2013-14 social studies TCAP results for six eighth-grade special education students in one testing group in one of the district’s 41 schools. WCS found no wrongdoing in the administration of these tests.
“There is no evidence to substantiate any claim that any WCS teacher acted inappropriately while administering the 2014 social studies TCAP to six special education students. The Tennessee Department of Education found no wrongdoing, but we do appreciate the State’s vigilance on this matter,” WCS Superintendent Mike Looney said in a statement.
Reach Melanie Balakit at 615-926-1638 and on Twitter @MelanieBalakit.
About erasure analysis
• Erasure analysis is the examination of the percentage of students who change their answers from wrong to right.
• The analysis establishes the state mean for the percentage of wrong to right answers; it also identifies any outliers.
• Erasure analysis looks at individual groups of students who tested together.
• The state did not flag districts because districts had a high percent of wrong to right answers; instead, it was because a group of students, in some cases very small groups, tested together, met the criteria for further review based on the erasure analysis results.
Source: Tennessee Department of Education Spokesperson Ashley Ball