In cheating, principals cited intense pressure to raise scores
By Kevin McCorry for NewsWorks on Sep 26, 2014 04:05 PM
Early in the morning, before anyone else arrived, former Communications Technical High School principal Barbara McCreery would sit in her office and redo some of her students' standardize test booklets – 15 at a time, she admits, with an answer key in hand.
McCreery details this in a grand jury report released this week by Pennslyvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, as she and former Bok Technical High School principal Arthur "Larry" Melton were arrested on charges of forgery and tampering with public records.
Bok and Comm Tech are among the 11 tier one schools under state investigation. A 2011 state forensic analysis found evidence that an improbably high number of wrong-to-right erasures on tests at 89 schools statewide.
In separate reports, both principals said schools were under intense pressure to raise scores following federal, state and District edicts that ramped up accountability measures. McCreery called the expectations "unrealistic."
Schools that didn't meet testing goals, would be in danger of closure.
"I can say that there was extraordinary pressure during that period of time for students to make extraordinary gains," said Robert McGrogan, leader of the Philadelphia chapter of the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators (CASA).
McGrogan says those pressures have tamped down over the years, but points out that during the budget crisis, principals now face a new set of impossible strictures.
