HAZLETON - Officials of the Hazleton Area School District will ramp up security in classrooms when students take state assessment tests this month.
As a result of an ongoing investigation by the state Department of Education into statistically atypical test results on the 2008-09 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test in Hazleton Area and about 50 other districts statewide, the department is strongly recommending increased security measures in classrooms across the state when the annual testing begins March 12.
The PSSA tests in math and reading will be administered in classrooms statewide through March 23 in grades 3, 4, 8 and 11.
District Superintendent Francis X. Antonelli said Thursday he received a memorandum from the state Department of Education "strongly recommending" three measures to improve security in the classroom when the tests are administered and increase the integrity of test results. The measures include:
- Moving teachers to different classrooms so no teacher is administering the test to his or her own students.
- Having an official from outside the district sit in the classroom with the teachers while the test is being administered.
- Having one school official from each building and one district-wide official undergo training in test administration and security to oversee the testing process.
Antonelli said the district is prepared to implement all three recommendations when the students are tested later this month. Teachers will be shuffled to administer tests to classes they do not teach, Luzerne County Intermediate Unit 18 will provide proctors to monitor the test-taking process, and several district officials have been trained in test-taking security as recommended by the department, Antonelli said.
"It's something, quite frankly, we want to do," Antonelli said.
"We were contemplating doing this last year," said Antonelli, who served as deputy superintendent under Samuel Marolo when the PSSA tests were administered last year. He has since been named acting superintendent and will assume the post of superintendent in August.
"Now that I am in a position to make that decision, this is something we would want to do because I believe it is a sound practice for this test," Antonelli said.
Department of Education Press Secretary Timothy Eller said Thursday in an email that teachers are prohibited from administering the PSSA exam to their own students.
"A teacher can proctor a PSSA exam as long as it's not a class of his/her students. The department is requiring this in order to ensure the security of the exams, as well as for protection of the teacher," Eller said.
Antonelli said he believed the memorandum from the Department of Education applied to all schools in the state - not just Hazleton Area or a select few districts.
"It is my understanding that the department is strongly recommending that schools, not just the Hazleton Area School District but schools across the commonwealth, not have teachers administer the tests to their own students. It is my clear understanding that this is not specific to Hazleton," Antonelli said.
About two weeks ago, Antonelli said, two investigative officers and an attorney representing the Department of Education completed interviews with teachers at the Heights-Terrace, West Hazleton and Hazleton elementary/middle schools and the high school as part of the investigation into statistically atypical scores on the 2008-09 PSSA tests. Antonelli said the investigators were expected to complete a report on their findings in about a week and forward the results to officials of the department. He said the district is awaiting the department's final word on the investigation.
"We want to move forward," he said.