By VICTOR
GRETO
Staff
reporter
04/21/2004
It started when Seaford
High School principal Michael Smith pulled from a file cabinet a packet of
samples provided by state education officials so that teachers could show their
students the types of questions on Delaware's high-stakes standardized tests.
At least, Smith said, he thought the materials were samples. Now he's not so
sure, and may never know.
What Smith does know is that he gave the papers to three 10th-grade English
teachers, one of whom used it extensively in her classes.
He has since learned that the packet's reading comprehension examples may
have contained questions that actually appeared on the Delaware Student Testing
Program exam given in March.
A few days after the official reading test was given, the teacher who taught
the examples "reported that she noticed some similarities" between the examples
Smith had given her and the test itself. "She was not specific," Smith said.
Because of the teacher's report, ambiguous as it was, Smith said he
immediately notified Steve Garner, the Seaford district's test coordinator.
"I have been struggling with this," Smith said. "You always think worst-case
scenario, and it's part of my responsibility to report things like that."
And Education Department test regulations say that "school test coordinators
shall report any questionable situations to the district test coordinators
immediately."
Garner said he conducted his own investigation within five days of the
report.
He interviewed the three teachers and the principal. No students were
involved in the investigation.
But a twist in the story may forever shroud the truth: Sometime during the
week of March 22, the week after the tests were administered, Smith placed the
samples with other papers in a box on the floor of his office. A custodian threw
them away by mistake, Smith said.
Garner would not say what his report, finished just before spring break,
said. Because the packet was thrown away, Garner said, he never saw the papers.
Russell Knorr, superintendent of the Seaford School District, said, "the bad
part [of the investigation] is that we cannot verify what the principal shared."
The teacher's name has been withheld by Seaford school district officials.
Now, the state will conduct its own investigation. According to Education
Department regulations, in less than three weeks the state will issue an
official report about the incident.
Knorr said he thinks it's much ado about nothing. "Test security is so
extreme in our school district and other school districts that I would find it
difficult to know that a principal would have a file of actual DSTP items," he
said.
The yearly tests in reading, writing and math are a key measure of the
academic performance of Delaware's public school students. In the third, fifth
and eighth grades, test scores can determine whether pupils are promoted.
Tenth-grade test scores can determine what type of diploma high school graduates
receive - basic, standard or distinguished.
"Teachers are under pressure to do well," Knorr said. "Principals across the
state are under pressure to increase scores, so our principals are having their
teachers work with their students on what they'll be tested on - which is only
natural."
Reach Victor Greto at 324-2832 or vgreto@delawareonline.com.