Allegations of test tampering
mar school's shining image
June 6, 1996
Web posted at: 1 a.m. EDTFrom Correspondent Christine Negroni
FAIRFIELD, Connecticut (CNN) -- The Stratfield Elementary School here has been rated one of the nation's best and high scores on state, and national exams seemed to confirm its reputation.
But those scores now threaten to overshadow the school's other accomplishments, because the city board of education claims that test answer sheets were altered after they left students' hands.
It's a charge that leaves teachers and parents at the school baffled; they say no one knows who might have changed the answer sheets or why.
So highly regarded was the school that educators from around the state came here to learn Stratfield's teaching methods. And it was while the city board of education was trying to figure out how to apply Stratfield's scoring success district-wide that it discovered suspicious answer sheets.
It shocked the entire town when the city school superintendent Carol Harrington announced that Stratfield's answer sheets on a placement exam called the Iowa test had four times the number of erasures than other schools, and that 89 percent of the answers were changed from wrong to right.
The publishers of the Iowa test investigated and found tampering.
But what parents of students at the school found even more distressing was the board's acceptance of these charges without further investigation. The board has since called in experts, including the state's famed forensic scientist Henry Lee. But many parents remain unconvinced there is anything to investigate.
Stratfield's success has been an issue before. Parents from other schools have questioned the board about the apparent disparity within the district.
But Stratfield's parents say it's the principal, Roger Previs, who makes the difference.
And they join Previs' attorney, Howard Klebanoff, in suggesting that his success may be part of the problem now.
"I do think that there were people in town who felt some jealousy and resentment of Stratfield's success," Klebanoff said .
In addition to the Iowa test, state exams are also being scrutinized after questionable erasures were found by a different educational publishing company.
Many parents are now pinning their hopes on Lee, but he is non-committal about what his investigation will find. "Forensic scientists sometimes have an answer, sometimes we cannot," he said.
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