Charter schools under review for testing irregularities in Cuyahoga County had a larger share of their student exams flagged by the state than Cleveland public schools did, a Signal Cleveland analysis of the spring testing data found.
The detailed testing data shared by the state shows why exams were flagged, including lots of wrong to right answer changes and when a student took unusually long to complete the test. Those patterns are also broken down by subject, grade and person who supervised the test.
Ohio education officials are reviewing testing data from 52 schools statewide, including 15 in Cuyahoga County.
Test score data from the 15 Cleveland-area schools analyzed by Signal Cleveland showed that seven area charters had more than half of all the tests taken by students flagged.
Inconsistencies with test data can include things like exams that were completed very quickly or had a lot of wrong answers switched to correct ones at the last minute. Tests were only flagged if they were far outside of normal results based on all tests taken across the state.
The education department gave districts and schools until Sept. 18 to respond with further information about the issues. Based on those responses, state officials will decide whether to further investigate schools. The department’s review of testing issues is ongoing, a spokesperson told Signal Cleveland.
The integrity of test scores matters because they can give families and the public a gut check that students are learning, said Aaron Churchill, the Ohio research director at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which studies education policy.
“A lot of parents are seeing all ‘As’ and ‘Bs’ on their [child’s] report card, but we know that a lot of students are not at grade level,” he told Signal Cleveland.
“Having that external check on how a student is doing — against state standards — can really help a parent understand how their student is doing.”
Since he joined the institute in 2012, Churchill hasn’t seen a review like this one. He cautioned drawing conclusions based on data alone but said it’s important the state investigate the testing issues.
CMSD schools had lower share of their exams flagged
Alongside the dozen charters, three Cleveland Metropolitan School District schools were flagged in the state’s initial review.
The three schools — Paul Dunbar, Clark and Robinson G. Jones — are among the highest-rated K-8 schools in the district, scoring 4 stars or above on this year’s state report card.
Fewer than a third of the tests taken by students at each school were flagged. Half of the flagged exams at Dunbar and Clark were for incorrect to correct answer switches in the last 15 minutes of the test.
CMSD submitted the required information to the state officials by the Sept. 18 deadline, but it has not yet received a response, according to Darrielle Snipes, a spokesperson for the district.
High-performing charter schools had lots of wrong answers switched
Charter schools receive taxpayer money but are operated independently of the traditional public school district. State data showed they were also more likely to have their exams flagged for wrong-to-right answer switches in the last 15 minutes of the test.
In Ohio, charters can receive extra public funding if they serve a high proportion of “economically disadvantaged students” and hit certain metrics like good test scores.
Seven out of the dozen charter schools under review had over 50% of their exams flagged, and a couple had over 80% of the tests students took flagged. Six of the seven schools are managed by ACCEL, a for-profit company that operates charter schools throughout Ohio.
Recent state report cards show the seven schools are all high performing, scoring 4 stars or higher. For example, Ohio College Preparatory School, which had 94% of its tests flagged, and scored 5 stars on the recent report card. Its exam results also show students in a number of grade levels scoring 100% proficient on their tests.
Signal Cleveland reached out to Ohio College Preparatory School and ACCEL for comment and did not receive a response.
The schools were also more likely to have their exams flagged for a high number of students switching their answers from wrong to right in the last 15 minutes of the exam.
Harvard Avenue Performance Academy, which scored 5 stars on the report card, had 54% of its exams flagged in total. And 86% of 337 exams were flagged for switching answers at any time during the last 15 minutes of the testing period.
In an email to Signal Cleveland, a spokesperson for the school wrote that Harvard Academy “has no evidence that improper testing practices occurred and remains fully confident that the Spring assessment scores accurately reflect its students’ achievement levels.”
Some schools had exams flagged for multiple reasons. For example, at Ohio College Preparatory, nearly 90% of flagged tests were marked for having an abnormally long or short testing time and 41% of flagged tests were marked for answer switches in the last 15 minutes.
The school testing data includes the names of employees who gave the exams and how many tests in their section were flagged.
At schools with the most issues, a few test administrators, called proctors, had every test they oversaw flagged, according to the data. For example, Broadway Academy had four test administrators where every single exam in their section was flagged, and Ohio College Prep had five.
What else can tests be flagged for?
In the letter state officials sent to schools and districts they included the full list of issues a test could be flagged beyond just abnormally short or long testing times or wrong-to-right answer switches.
The other flags included “person-fit” which is when a student’s answers don’t line up with their ability and “between-year score change” which is when a student’s scores are much higher than the previous year.
