Principals bear weight of test score results

By Heather Vogell

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Lisa Smith won accolades from New York City's mayor as a teacher who could get results in that outsized, struggling system.

She headed south and a few years later, in 2004, began a plum job as the first principal of the new Deerwood Academy in Atlanta. The school would become "southwest Atlanta's Morningside and Sarah Smith," one mom predicted, making a flattering comparison to two of the state's top elementaries.

But in the spring of 2008, some of Deerwood's test scores took a downward turn and, by September, Smith confronted a rare blemish on her performance evaluation.

"Improvement is required," it warned in bold, informing her she would receive a "professional development plan" to remedy the slip in student performance.

Smith's fifth-graders did remarkably better on math retests that summer. But instead of helping her, phenomenal results propelled Deerwood along with three other schools into a cheating scandal that led to the likely invalidation of dozens of scores, the arrests of two DeKalb County school administrators and state investigations of others.

At the center of the controversy are principals like Smith, whose job includes making sure their schools follow state testing rules. She declined a request for an interview.

It's no secret that teachers face high expectations to improve scores. But personnel files obtained by the AJC for Smith and a Fulton principal also under scrutiny show the pressure doesn't dissipate between the classroom and front office; for school leaders, high personal stakes ride on test scores.

For many principals, the scores are perhaps the single biggest career-maker —- or breaker —- in the wake of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The law made standardized tests a key measure of schools' worth, thrusting annual results into the limelight for the public to dissect and discuss.

Soaring scores can put a principal on the superintendent's radar and offer a way up the administrative ladder, where salaries can rise well into six figures. Gains for at-risk kids are especially coveted by schools struggling to meet federal standards, or make "adequate yearly progress."

"All of a sudden it's a badge of honor if you can say to a prospective employer, or to your current employer, that you're one of those whose students have made AYP and it sort of seems to be against the odds," said Herb Garrett, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association.

Conversely, bad scores can mean unfavorable evaluations or reassignment, even costing principals their jobs. "There's never been a time when there was any more pressure on principals in this one area than now," said Max Skidmore, who teaches education administration at the University of Georgia.

The state's initial investigative report did not say who changed answers at the schools. But when scores increase so sharply, it's the principal's job to find out why, Skidmore said. That means looking at how gains can be replicated and, if they seem suspicious on closer examination, discussing that with other district officials, he said.

Principals are obligated to report any irregularities.

"The principal, ultimately, is the person responsible," Skidmore said.

The AJC reported in December that at a handful of schools, fifth-graders' scores soared improbably last year on summer-school retakes of the state's standardized math tests. Last month, state officials said an analysis of erasures found unusual patterns and numbers of changed answers. They called the evidence of cheating at four schools overwhelming.

Last week, Fulton officials said they asked the state agency that licenses educators to investigate Parklane Elementary's principal and assistant principal. In DeKalb, Atherton Elementary's principal and assistant principal face felony charges of falsifying a state document. The district refused to release their personnel files.

The Atlanta district is the only one that has said the state's evidence of tampering is insufficient —- a stance that drew sharp criticism from Gov. Sonny Perdue. Atlanta spokeswoman Su Yeager said the district is still investigating and expects to release a report on its probe this week.

The Atlanta district sets precise goals —- or "targets" —- for raising test scores at schools. Smith's 2008 job appraisal told her Deerwood hit only "23.53" percent of its targets. In 2006, it had met 73 percent of them. The lower percentage earned Smith a poor rating on her evaluation's student achievement section.

Staff at schools that meet Atlanta Public Schools targets don't just earn good marks on their reviews. They are also eligible for bonuses of up to $2,000 apiece. While three schools met all their targets last year and drew maximum bonuses, Deerwood earned none.

Smith, a graduate of New York colleges who also had worked as a foster care caseworker, sounded optimistic about Deerwood in a 2005 AJC article. Roughly 70 percent of the school's students live in households where income is low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches.

"I think that Deerwood Academy means so much more than just a new elementary school in southwest Atlanta," she said. "It brings hope and opportunity to families."

In a brief interview last fall, before the school became the focus of a state investigation, Smith said she hadn't noticed how steeply student passing rates had risen because of the retest.

"Ooh, that is significant," she said. "I didn't even realize that."

She said teachers worked nights and weekends with some children. Summer school class sizes shrank with help from Teach for America, which recruits nonteachers to serve in urban and rural schools.

So far, Smith appears to be on track to meet goals in last year's professional development plan, Yeager said. When employees fail to do so, the district provides extra support such as training and additional consultations with district staff, she said.

Summer retest scores also climbed implausibly at Parklane Elementary last year.

Unlike Deerwood, however, testing successes had brought Parklane, and Lee Adams, national recognition. He was assistant principal in 2001 when the nation's top school official visited during a tour promoting President George W. Bush's education agenda. Parklane had made sizable jumps in test scores, which were the lowest in the district.

In a January letter, Adams recalled the visit, saying "one of the most notable accomplishments of my administrative career was Parklane's recognition by President Bush for school improvement. Former Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, paid a personal visit to the school to recognize our accomplishments."

The following year, Adams rose to principal.

In May, Adams was named Georgia's "2009 National Distinguished Principal" by a national principal's association and the U.S. Department of Education. In a news release, the Fulton district praised him for improving student achievement and leading the school —- which also has a high percentage of poor students —- to meet federal standards five years in a row.

Earlier this year, Adams applied for a promotion. He sought to become an area superintendent, who oversees groups of schools within the district.

"When I became principal of Parklane, the school was the lowest performing school in Fulton County and one of the lowest performing in the state," he wrote in a letter to the district. "Under my leadership, the staff worked extensively with the curriculum department, community leaders, and parent groups to employ many processes to improve student achievement."

The area superintendent's job went instead to a central office administrator.

Last fall, after the AJC asked Adams about the statistically unlikely score gains at his school, Adams acknowledged some scores could look "a little bogus" if retest gains were isolated from overall student performance. But he said he believed his staff's intensive tutoring was responsible. Instruction was tailored to students' weaknesses, he said, and many kids had failed only by a few questions the first time.

Fulton spokeswoman Susan Hale said the district's investigation into test-tampering was inconclusive, but that, ultimately, Adams and assistant principal Vicki Bulluck were in charge of testing. "The buck stops with them," she said. Both were reassigned pending the Professional Standards Commission investigation.

Through her, Adams declined to comment.

Depending on what they find, standards board investigators could seek their commission's approval to expand the probe beyond Adams and Bulluck, if needed.

In contrast to Fulton and Atlanta, the DeKalb school district denied the AJC's request for the personnel files of former Atherton Principal James Berry and Assistant Principal Doretha Alexander, saying they are exempt under the state Open Records Act because they are part of an investigation. The newspaper plans to ask Georgia's Attorney General to take action on the denial.

State law is clear such files are open to public inspection, said Tom Clyde, an attorney for the AJC. "That does not change when a public employee is being investigated," he said. "That would defeat the purpose of the law, which is to let the public decide for itself if employees have been carrying out their responsibilities in a suitable way."

The standards commission is investigating both Berry, who resigned, and Alexander, who the district reassigned.

Reached last fall, Berry said he did not know of any problems with test security at his school. He said he made it clear to teachers that test scores were crucial, citing average class scores during meetings and asking teachers "What can you do different? What are you going to do different this year?"

Berry said then he "pulled out every stop known to man" to bring up achievement. He declined to comment last week.

At the fourth school where cheating is suspected, coastal Glynn County's Burrough's Molette Elementary, two teachers and a now-retired administrator are under review.

With NCLB, Congress seized on test scores as a way to hold schools accountable for improving students' performance. But debate ensued over what should signal progress. Some have argued that tracking each student's growth, for instance, would be more meaningful than juxtaposing student performance in each grade from year-to-year.

In any case, Garrett, of the superintendent's group, said the current testing goals are an inadequate measure of educators' performance. Year-to-year comparisons of grades don't take into account that each class has a unique mix of kids. He said it doesn't make sense to compare schools whose students aren't alike, either.

"We are judging schools and employees in those schools on a testing model that is just deeply flawed," he said.

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How we got the story

Most information in principals' personnel files, including evaluations, is public record under the Georgia Open Records Act. The law exempts from disclosure personal financial and health information, as well as principals' home addresses and telephone numbers.

The AJC requested the personnel files for all three metro area principals whose schools are under suspicion of cheating on retakes of the Criterion Referenced Competency Test last year.

The Fulton County and Atlanta districts provided the files. The DeKalb County system denied the request, saying the documents were exempt because they were part of an open investigation. The AJC disagrees and plans to ask Georgia's attorney general to take action on the denial.

The newspaper spoke with the three schools' principals before publishing a story in December about statistically improbable gains on the retests. Last week, all three declined to comment for this story.

Also inside

> Confidence in schools can be affected by test scores. B4