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Sunday, February 12, 2012

District says it will investigate Cayuga allegations

The Philadelphia School District has said that it will investigate the cheating allegations reported to The Inquirer by Cayuga Elementary School staffers and parents.

The state Department of Education and Inspector General's Office are also investigating, but district officials said that in light of the new allegations, they would launch their own investigation.

Penny Nixon, the district's chief academic officer, stressed that the district takes the allegations "very, very seriously."

Complaints of alleged cheating at Cayuga have been made in the past and were the subject of district investigations, but could not be corroborated, officials said.

Cayuga is one of 13 Philadelphia district schools flagged for suspicious results in its 2009 state exams.  The district has said it will wait for the state to complete their investigation before it looks into the matter further or takes action; the Cayuga investigation will be launched separately because of the teachers' allegations made in The Inquirer, officials said.
Posted by Kristen Graham @ 11:04 AM  Permalink | 6 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:50 PM, 02/12/2012
    Who's going o pay for the investigation? Why does there need to be 2 investigations?
    — rs1982
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:32 PM, 02/12/2012
    And WHO'S going to investigate? There isn't anybody left. Pathetic.
    — enabler1
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:27 PM, 02/12/2012
    They are going to do everything humanly possible to investigate who talked to the press and make sure those teachers are punished. That is what they really mean.
    — poogie
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:27 PM, 02/12/2012
    As long as school funding and teachers' metrics rely on testing, there will be cheating. As long as we insist that children prove their worth based on scores, there will be cheating. When will we ever learn?
    — Kate_the_Teacher
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:30 PM, 02/12/2012
    Poogie, you're probably quite right, sadly, but truly!
    — Kate_the_Teacher


6 comments
About Kristen Graham
Kristen Graham has covered the Philadelphia School District since May 2008. A native Philadelphian – and a graduate of the district and Temple University – she has written about everything from crime and county government to education since joining the Inquirer in 2000. Kristen, who also spent time as an online producer at Philly.com, has won multiple journalism prizes and if asked politely will sing as much of “Hail Northeast,” her high school’s alma mater, as she remembers. She comes from a family of teachers and believes there is no more difficult or important job than that of an educator.

During the school year, you’ll find Kristen chatting live on Philly.com most Mondays at noon or 4 p.m. Please do pass along the scoop about what’s going on at your Philadelphia public school; Kristen welcomes tips, story ideas and witty banter at kgraham@phillynews.com or 215-854-5146.

You can also follow Kristen on Twitter here.

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