Two Teachers Give Students Sneak Peek at Test

WESTMINSTER, Md. - Two fourth-grade teachers have been removed from their classrooms after Carroll County school officials found that the pair had given copies of questions from a state achievement test to other teachers and pupils before the exam.

A teacher at Linton Springs Elementary School in Sykesville acknowledged that she had taken notes from the fourth-grade Maryland State Assessment reading exam last year while working at another school, Carroll schools Superintendent Charles Ecker said Monday.

The teacher used the notes to create worksheets for her pupils for this year's tests, Ecker said. The tests were administered from March 13-22.

The Linton Springs teacher also shared the worksheet with a teacher at Mount Airy Elementary, who passed it along to other fourth-grade Mount Airy teachers who did not know the questions had been copied from the MSA test, Ecker said. After they noticed similarities between the worksheets and this year's test, the Mount Airy teachers alerted the principal.

The results of the tests are used to determine whether schools have made adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Schools face sanctions if they repeatedly fail to progress.

Ecker did not identify the two teachers and wouldn't say how long they would be out of the classroom because the disciplinary action taken against them is a personnel matter.

"I am disappointed and saddened that these two teachers violated the trust and confidence of their fellow teachers, their students, the parents, and the general community," Ecker said.

Experts said the incident is a sign of the growing pressure on teachers and schools to do well on the assessments. Some worry that education is being compromised as a result of that pressure.

"This is not new and it's not unique to Maryland. It's tragic," said Francis Fennell, an education professor at McDaniel College in Westminster and president-elect of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. "We're a culture that places a high priority on this kind of testing. It places a priority on the test scores of 9-year-olds that is way out of sync with the total picture of what a fourth-grader ought to be learning."

Monty Neill, executive director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, told The (Baltimore) Sun some teachers "will, by hook or crook, do whatever it takes" to help boost their students' test scores.

Ecker said the teachers should not have felt any extra pressure because the county does not reward or penalize teachers, financially or otherwise, based on how well their students perform on standardized tests. He noted that Mount Airy and Linton Springs have enjoyed high test scores in recent years.

Local school officials declined to specify which rules the two teachers had violated, but Maryland State Department of Education rules prohibit giving test takers access to test items or materials before testing. Teachers also are prohibited from copying, reproducing, using or otherwise disclosing any portion of secure test materials.

Ecker said teachers are allowed to provide review materials, but those materials cannot be identical to the exam, parts of which do not change from year to year.

Carroll could face sanctions that include invalidating students' scores, requiring students to retake the exam or censuring the schools or the school system. Offending teachers can be suspended or fired and have their teaching certificates revoked.

"We have to wait for everything to come back from the school system, which does its own investigation. Any reprimand would depend on the situation," said Bill Reinhard, a spokesman for the State Department of Education.

Carroll school officials expect that at the least, the scores of 170 pupils - 23 at Linton Springs and 147 at Mount Airy - could be invalidated.

"We think the state will give the students their scores, but when it comes to determining (adequate yearly progress) their scores will show up as zeroes," Ecker said. "That could mean Mount Airy, in particular, may not make AYP."

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)