Former Temple president will help Philly schools deal with exam cheating

With one in five city schools now under investigation for possible cheating on state achievement tests, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission on Tuesday announced the appointment of a "testing integrity adviser" to help address past allegations and guide future exam procedures.

David Adamany, a former president of Temple University, will serve in the unpaid post starting immediately. The next round of the achievement tests, known as PSSAs, begins Monday.

Adamany, who said he had been "personally very distressed to see the condition of the Philadelphia public schools over the years," said the district must restore credibility concerning the exams. Tests from 2009, 2010, and 2011 are under scrutiny.

"I think the School Reform Commission is correct to work on integrity in its testing procedures, because that's very much related to whether the public will have confidence in the school system," said Adamany, Temple's president from 2000 to 2006 and now a law and political science professor.

He stressed that he had "no authority to tell anybody in the School District what to do," but officials said they planned to act on his recommendations.

The announcement of Adamany's new position came two days after The Inquirer reported additional cheating allegations at Cayuga Elementary in Hunting Park. Teachers said that the school's principal directed cheating as far back as 2007-08. The principal denies the allegations.

Teachers from Roosevelt Middle School in East Germantown also have told The Inquirer about cheating at their school.

A three-tiered investigation of possible cheating at 53 district schools is already under way as part of a statewide investigation, officials said.

Eleven district schools considered the most serious cases are under investigation by the state Department of Education and Inspector General's Office. Cayuga and Roosevelt are part of that group.

An additional 20 schools will be investigated by the district, under the state's direction. Outside, pro bono lawyers and trained investigators are being sought to help examine these schools.

The scores at a separate group of 22 district schools are being investigated by the state. These schools are still on a watch list but are considered a lower priority and may still be cleared.

The state also will examine a group of charter schools, including Imhotep and Philadelphia Electrical and Technical, officials said.

SRC Chairman Pedro Ramos called the investigations "a significant effort that's going to be going on for some time."

Ramos said he called on Adamany, who also ran the Detroit public schools for a year, to be an "outside watchdog with experience, intellect, and time to be our eyes and ears on this issue."

"Given our concern about the number of schools in which adults seem to have potentially engaged in testing improprieties," Ramos said, "we want to be sure that the response and the new safeguards reflect the highest standards of integrity across the district."

Adamany - who has already begun meeting with district officials - will review and monitor current and proposed procedures for PSSA administration, and assist in the supervision of investigations. He will report at least monthly to the SRC, and submit a final written report in a year.

The appointment is part of a broader SRC strategy to tap into volunteer experts to "expand the capacity of the SRC - to do more and do it better," Ramos said.

One of the officials with whom Adamany will work is Penny Nixon, the district's chief academic officer.

She was formerly principal of Wagner Middle School in West Oak Lane, where a high number of erasures on tests were noted in 2009. The chances of those erasures happening naturally were astronomical, the report said - nearly one in 10 quadrillion, according to an analysis for the state by a consultant.

Nixon, promoted by the SRC to the top academic job in January, said Tuesday night that she knew of no improprieties at the school. But "if we uncover improprieties, the district will take immediate action. It doesn't matter which school or which person is involved," Nixon said.

Ramos said he would not discuss ongoing individual investigations.

"We have been in communication with the Department of Education concerning the investigations," he said, and "based on the information available to me, I'm comfortable with our decision" to promote Nixon.

But Ramos reiterated that until investigations are complete, no conclusions should be drawn.

The district has also put in place a three-tiered system of new testing protocols for the exams that begin next week, Ramos said.

Schools under the most scrutiny will undergo "unprecedented" security controls, officials said. Individualized testing plans designed to combat abuses reported at each school will be deployed.

The new controls include "quarantined" materials given out just before the exam begins and collected immediately afterward. In other cases, student groups will be broken up for test administration.

Every district school - even if not under investigation - is now prohibited from allowing teachers to administer their own students' exams. That is a major change in policy and stirred worry from teachers who fear their students will perform worse without staffers familiar to them in the classroom.

Adamany called the move, which was mandated by the state, "a good first step."

He said he understood it meant a logistical challenge for many schools, but said it was a necessary measure. In some cases - for some special-education students, for instance - teachers will be allowed to remain in the room but with another proctor present, he said.

He said it was important to move as quickly as possible on the investigations. "We want to be sure not to impugn the integrity of teachers or school administrators until the evidence is good," he said.

He and Ramos stressed that while dozens of schools are being investigated, hundreds are not.

"We owe it to the professionals, our students, and all of our schools to make sure that integrity is upheld and that their reputations are not marred by one, or a small number, at a school that forget that cheaters never win," Ramos said.

The Philadelphia School District has established a "test integrity tipline," 215-400-PSSA (7772).

The district is also looking for lawyers to help conduct test investigations on a pro bono basis. Those who are interested may call 215-400-5648.

Teachers and administrators with questions about PSSA administration procedures may call the Office of Accountability at 215-400-4250.

The state Inspector General's Office has set up its own "integrity hotline" for teachers with information about cheating at their school. It is 855-448-2435.EndText