The Texas Education Agency is investigating allegations that staff at a Houston ISD elementary school had access to a secure TAKS test and perhaps shared an essay topic with students before the writing exam, which is scheduled for today.
The investigation centers on Jefferson Elementary, but in case the test question got shared with other HISD campuses, the TEA has issued a new secret essay topic for all elementary schools in the district, said agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe.
“The safest thing seems to be to provide a new writing prompt,” Ratcliffe said.
Agency officials do not suspect the test information was shared with other school districts, so the test change only involved the Houston Independent School District.
To see the writing question before test day, someone presumably would have to break the seal on a test booklet — which would constitute a major security breach. The exams generally arrive on campuses a few days in advance, Ratcliffe said, and are only supposed to be opened when the test begins.
The affected exam is the fourth-grade writing section of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Scores on the high-stakes exams factor into a school's state accountability rating — low marks can lead to public embarrassment and sanctions. HISD also awards performance bonuses — often worth thousands of dollars — to employees based on the scores, though the writing exam plays only a small part in the calculation.
Last school year, only 65 percent of fourth-graders at Jefferson Elementary School passed the writing TAKS. That was short of the minimum 70 percent passing standard, but the north Houston campus was able to avoid an “unacceptable” rating thanks to the state's new, more flexible accountability system. Schools got credit for students who failed the TAKS if they were projected to pass in coming years.
The state releases old TAKS exams every three years and sample questions so teachers can use them as practice with students. A fourth-grade writing prompt from 2008 was, “Write a composition about a day that you will always remember.”
If teachers or administrators had access to a topic for an upcoming test, they presumably could share it with students and help them outline a response.