A CT school district reported ‘irregularities’ with student testing to state. What does that mean?

A Connecticut elementary school principal is on administrative leave after public school officials announced that the district was “made aware of alleged state testing irregularities.”

Very little information has been released about the circumstances that led to the temporary removal of Principal Emily Gomes from Ivy Drive School in Bristol and many questions remain. An interim principal was named on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Education said the department was still “in the preliminary stages of reviewing information pertinent to this alleged testing irregularity, and should that review so warrant, the CSDE will conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation.”

The agency has otherwise declined to comment, including on what steps are taken when a report of alleged irregularities is received. Sources have told the Courant that the agency could review video footage from the school, search computers and speak to witnesses, among other actions.

But what are potential testing irregularities when it comes to Connecticut schools?

Officials have not named what allegedly occurred in Bristol, and the investigation is ongoing. However, according to the Connecticut State Department of Education’s 2023-2024 SBAC Test Administration Manual, an irregularity could be “a test security incident that impacts an individual or group of students who are testing and may potentially affect student performance on the test, test security, or test validity.”

Such incidents are considered more serious than an “impropriety” but less severe than a “breach,” which poses a high “threat to the validity of the test,” according to CSDE.

Examples of test irregularities could include students cheating and accessing the internet or unauthorized devices, according to the manual. It also could include administrators or test coordinators who fail to remove instructional materials from the walls of testing rooms, do not adequately supervise, provide incorrect instructions, share usernames or passwords, coach students during testing, or provide access to another student’s test responses or worksheets.

CSDE said districts or schools can correct the circumstances of an irregularity, however, CSDE said it “must be reported to the District Administrator immediately” and entered into the SBAC Test Information Distribution Engine as an appeal if an appeal is required.

Very regimented system

Kate Dias, the president of the Connecticut Education Association, said she found it “strange” that a principal would be placed on leave, “because that isn’t typically a person who carries proctoring responsibility.”

That could mean there is a suspicion of “something more systemic…,” Dias said. “If it was classroom-based, there would have to be an educator involved.”

Dias said standardized tests are designed to provide a consistent experience for all students, no matter their district or classroom. When something deviates from the pattern, that can raise questions, Dias said.

“It’s a highly structured practice and set of protocols, and so if you miss a step or you miss cue on the distribution or if something is taken more casually than it should be, all of that can trigger an investigation,” Dias said.

Multiple other sources also told the Courant how carefully tests are handled and administered.

Dias said that the alleged irregularities “may not have any impact whatsoever on the performance of the students or the outcome of the test,” however she said that ultimately, we will not know what happened until there is an investigation.

Dias also stressed that test irregularities do not automatically translate to foul play.

“There’s a whole lot that can go wrong that never ever actually produces a higher test score,” Dias said.

Dias said most of the time irregularities do not impact performance or test outcomes in any way, however, she said it is important that schools report them as they occur.

“I was doing an SAT test and we had a student who left the classroom and didn’t return, which is considered a testing irregularity,” Dias said. “We have to actually put in writing that this occurred, this is what happened — all of those kinds of things. If there’s a testing irregularity and it doesn’t get reported properly, that could trigger a question.”

Dias said that the situation in Bristol could fall into this category.

Dias said guessing what occurred would be “conjecture.”

“And so that’s where the question lies,” she said.

How secure is the test?

Standardized testing in Connecticut follows strict requirements and protocols to ensure security.

When students sit down to take the SBAC, each student receives unique login credentials and teachers are barred from viewing the materials.

The online tests are not timed. Furthermore, much of the test is computer-adaptive, meaning that the tests generate new questions based on a student’s previous answers. This makes it difficult for students to swap answers and for teachers to offer help or guide a class of students through the test.

Unlike the days of paper booklets and bubble sheets, when students move onto new sections, they, and their teachers, are now physically locked out from reviewing or revising previous answers later on.

“Once the tests are taken, it’s the security of the results that’s really important,” Cindy Gallatin, the chief strategy officer for the University of New Haven, said.

Gallatin explained that generally, once students complete an online test, the results automatically enter a secure data bank.

This added level of security makes it extremely difficult for teachers, administrators or anyone to attempt to enter the system and modify test results.

“Every time somebody enters the database, in many cases it’s trackable as to who logged into it,” Gallatin said. “(So) why would you risk your career, your personal reputation, knowing that there’s a breadcrumb trail to the results of the test?”

Even with technology, it is not always possible to determine details of test tampering.

For example, a probe for the state by the Hartford law firm of Siegel, O’Connor, O’Donnell & Beck confirmed in 2013 that a Hartford school test had been tampered with but turned up no suspects after hundreds of answers on the Connecticut Mastery Test were altered the previous spring. The investigation focused on reading tests taken in March by third graders at a pre-kindergarten-to-Grade 3 school.

The same law firm was hired by the state in 2011 to investigate irregularities at Waterbury’s Hopeville Elementary School.

Score pressure?

When it comes to modifying student scores, Gallatin said the practice is “not only highly irregular” but something that would “destroy someone’s career.”

“The ethical standards of teaching would never permit any kind of modification of student grading,” Gallatin said. “It would be shocking to learn that anybody modified something in order to improve the results of their particular school or district.”

In terms of testing irregularities, Dias described the report of allegations in Bristol as an anomaly. Dias said she could not recall any investigations into irregularity or cheating allegations in recent memory in the state.

While the online format of standardized testing has made cheating extremely difficult, Dias explained there is also not much incentive for educators to break with deeply-held ethics and influence student scores.

“I don’t know that there’s a huge incentive to cheat, to be perfectly blunt, outside of the status equated with higher test scores,” Dias said.

“For better or worse,” Dias said, many people associate higher test scores with higher achieving schools. While high scores may “elevate” perceptions of a district, Dias said the distinction will not bring a school much more than status — in no way will it lead to more state funding or personal financial gain for administrators.

Dias emphasized that standardized test scores are most valuable to educators when they are accurate.

“The importance of doing it right matters a lot to educators,” Dias said. “It matters to make sure that each individual student has the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.”

She said that educators take their expectations and limitations very seriously, especially when it comes to standardized testing.

“We have strong limits about what we can say to the student,” Dias said. “Sometimes we are able to provide clarification of direction, but we certainly can’t provide any guidance. And that can be difficult for us as teachers, but we also understand that’s the deal, that’s the role we play.”

In the wake of putting on Gomes leave, acting Superintendent of Schools Iris White appointed an interim principal of Ivy Drive School.

The move was made days after the district notified parents it had been made aware of alleged state testing “irregularities” and reported it to the state Department of Education.

While the investigation is ongoing, the principal at Ivy Drive School was placed on administrative leave, according to the email sent to parents on the ParentSquare tool.

White said in a ParentSquare email to parents and the district that Kulig has been a kindergarten to fifth-grade math coach since 2019 and supported three schools in the district, including Ivy Drive, for three school years, according to White.