Friday, May 1, 2015

Were suspicious test scores investigated in Oklahoma?

That's a question Arthur Kane explores over at Oklahoma Watchdog.

Kane's reporting grows out of the Atlanta cheating scandal, which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first broke in 2008. The newspaper subsequently found "suspicious test scores" nationwide—including in Oklahoma. In 2012 both U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and teacher union president Randi Weingarten said these suspicious scores were concerning. 

Janet Barresi, who was state superintendent in 2012, looked into the matter and consulted with school administrators. In addition, one would hope the local school districts themselves—especially those where the odds of the results occurring by chance were less than one in 1,000—would want to perform their own investigations so they could clear their names. 

In the end, the main thing for parents and taxpayers is to get some answers. Whether cheating is a huge problem or a mild problem or barely a problem at all, people need to know.

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