Saturday, October 9, 2010

ACT scores cancelled at Perry County Central High School amidst concerns of possible test compromise

There are multiple news reports here and here that the ACT, Incorporated is investigating “potentially compromised test scores” at the Perry County Central High School.

Tests involved include the PLAN tests for 2009 and the ACT given in 2009 and 2010. PLAN is given to all 10th grade students in Kentucky, and all 11th graders take the actual ACT college entrance test.

The sketchy reports say student cheating is not suspected. The issue apparently surrounds testing administration procedures. Some of the suspected issues may involve administration of tests with special accommodations to students with learning disabilities. However, it is reported that all the 2009 test scores have been cancelled, and students will be offered a chance to retest.

The ACT indicates there is no specific time frame for concluding such investigations.

I did a quick check of the changes in ACT Composite Scores for 11th grade testing in all Kentucky high schools between 2008 and 2009. Perry County Central High School had the sixth largest increase in the state, although a few other schools had even larger increases.

However, large score changes are not unusual in small high schools, and all the schools that exceeded Perry County Central High School’s change between 2008 and 2009 are small. None tested more than 75 students in the 2009 eleventh grade ACT administration.

In contrast, Perry County Central High School tested 231 students that year, making a large score change much more unlikely.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The board of education in Perry County voted to keep the superintendent after charges of child pornography on his laptop computer were made, and cited by the attorney general's office.
A former board member, Chester Jones, is in prison for vote fraud after buying votes with Democratic Party checks in his last bid to stay on the board.
The board chairman and the superintendent control the Democratic party in Perry County.
The question one must ask is "What would you expect from such a high caliber bunch?"
When a student transfers from Perry County Central with an ACT score of 30 plus, and the student can't read, does that sound like a sign of cheating? How about when two students transfer to different schools with vitrually the same scenario?
Numerous letters to the local newspaper in Hazard have given explicit details about the corruption in the board and the system, but all to no avail.
Perhaps now that statewide attention has once again been brought to these scoundrels something will finally be done.

Richard Innes said...

RE: Anonymous October 9, 2010 10:40 PM

Thank you for the update.

I have heard similar elsewhere, provided to me face to face,but also under condition of anonymity.

If some brave souls from Perry County will come forward on the record, we'll be happy to cover these issues in greater detail.

Eternal Pessimist said...

This is just terrible.