Posted on: Friday, April 15, 2005

Wai'anae students must retake tests, DOE says

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer

After nearly a week of intense scrutiny, a Department of Education investigation has determined that some students at Wai'anae Intermediate School were improperly coached immediately before taking portions of the Hawai'i State Assessment.

The investigation turned up two sets of review sheets prepared by someone who had taken an advance look at the test booklets, a clear violation of security under DOE rules, according to Robert McClelland, director of the DOE's planning and evaluation office.

While the review sheets did not contain items taken word-for-word from the test, "the preparation review sheets helped students to answer the questions," McClelland said. "They identified vocabulary or topics that would be covered by items on the test."

Seventh- and eighth-graders at Wai'anae Intermediate will now have to retake parts of the test.

The DOE did not identify who created the review sheets or what the consequences would be, saying that personnel matters are confidential.

This is the first time any impropriety regarding the Hawai'i State Assessment has been discovered. It appears to be an isolated incident, since no other schools have reported possible breaches, McClelland said.

Wai'anae Intermediate Principal John Vannatta apologized to the community and his students for the security violation. "It's important that the scores our students receive on the Hawai'i State Assessment reflect what they know and what they have learned," he said yesterday.

"Wai'anae has made great strides in implementing a standards-based curriculum to help our students achieve at higher levels. This incident in no way reflects on our students, who are honest and above board while preparing for and taking the Hawai'i State Assessment."

The high-stakes assessment is used to determine how well schools are getting students to grade level in reading and math. Schools must make "adequate yearly progress" in each subject area or face sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Wai'anae Intermediate was notified last month that it will come under the strictest penalty under the law with the next school year — takeover by the state.

The DOE learned of the review sheets last Friday after an anonymous school employee mailed copies of them to The Advertiser and other news organizations.

McClelland has said that the 12 questions on the review sheet sent to The Advertiser would have been enough to increase student test scores "fairly significantly" on that section of the test.

The employee said homeroom teachers were asked to go over the sheets with students right before administering the tests.

Upon learning there might be a problem, the DOE put the school's 10-day testing period on hold pending an investigation. On Monday, McClelland went to the school to begin questioning teachers, administrators, counselors and anyone else who might have been involved. He wrapped up the investigation yesterday.

After four days of interviewing "almost everybody at the school who could have been affected in any way," McClelland determined that one section of the seventh-grade test and two sections of the eighth-grade test were compromised. The DOE has said there were 10 sections in the eighth-grade test.

Although the students had taken other parts of the test, as well, "those other sections were not compromised," McClelland said.

The school has now resumed testing.

McClelland said the DOE is working with test creator Harcourt Testing Inc., in Texas, to get new test booklets for the compromised sections of the test — which will be different from the test that the Wai'anae students have taken.

DOE state officials will monitor the administering of the substitute test, which should take no more than two days.

Also, the DOE will monitor the school's test scores when they are returned in August, looking for unusual performance gains.

Though the DOE did not say who was determined to be at fault, Hawai'i State Teachers Association spokeswoman Danielle Lum said the union has not been informed about the investigation. Under collective bargaining agreements, that would be required if the person who created the review sheets was a teacher or if any disciplinary action had been taken against a teacher, she said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.