I'm trying to figure out exactly what happened here:
Iowa Science test results for a seventh grade class have been invalidated and a teacher has resigned after administrators discovered he quizzed students on materials found in the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. That's according to Tim Hoffman, Adel-DeSoto-Minburn's superintendent.Hoffman says teacher Gene Zwiefel, who had worked for the district for nearly two decades, resigned last month.
David Frisbie is director of the Iowa City-based Iowa Testing Programs Incorporated, which develops the tests. He said it's not the first time such a situation has happened. He said similar things have occurred at four other Iowa schools. He declined the name the schools.
It seems the teacher gained advance knowledge of the items and was able to coach students on them. If this problem is widespread, that suggests a real security lapse on the part of Iowa Testing Programs. On the other hand, perhaps for this exam, teachers are provided with test materials well ahead of time, and expected to refrain from using the materials in class. This suggests that ITP needs to revise its assumptions about how teachers are using this material.
Posted by kswygert at May 4, 2005 07:54 PM