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OSSE Releases Results of 2013-2014 DC CAS Investigation

Thursday, September 17, 2015
Majority of violations considered minor errors

Contact: Jessie Harteis (202) 344-9805; [email protected]

The Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE) today released results of an independent investigation into testing integrity and security procedures related to the administration of the 2013-2014 District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS) with most findings deemed procedural or documentation errors.

A total 32,962 District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and public charter schools students at 195 schools took the DC CAS in spring 2014. This investigation does not cover spring 2015 administration of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), the District’s new English language arts and mathematics assessments.

Each year, OSSE conducts test integrity investigations following the administration of the statewide English language arts and mathematics assessments that are used for accountability purposes under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

OSSE’s review process for the administration of the 2013-2014 DC CAS identified 17 findings at 11 schools, or 0.5 percent of testing groups in the District. Of those, six were considered critical violations, three were considered moderate, and eight were considered minor. Additionally, investigations in nine other cases resulted in no findings.

Only one school had a critical violation at the schoolwide level. The scores for that school were invalidated, and the school worked with OSSE to ensure a strong test integrity process for 2014-2015. Other critical findings were limited to a single test administrator, or one or two classrooms.

“The data we receive from annual testing provides critical insights to student performance in schools across the District. As such, it is imperative that our testing protocols and procedures reflect the highest levels of security so that our data is accurate,” State Superintendent Hanseul Kang said. “OSSE worked diligently prior to the administration of the 2013-2014 DC CAS to ensure that District schools understood the testing protocols and procedures, as well as their roles and responsibilities in administering the tests. Through this process, we believe schools felt more comfortable in reporting potential testing violations immediately, thereby resulting in a smoother administration of the test and, ultimately, more accurate student performance data.”

The term “violation” in testing integrity context means actions that jeopardized the integrity of the test administration or results in some way, but does not necessarily mean wrongdoing.

For example, minor violations are generally procedural issues, such as a missing required form, or inconsistent procedures for signing out secure testing documents. Moderate violations include failure to attend test security training, improper return of secure test materials, and failure to have a test security file. Critical violations are those that impact test security or validity, and can range from providing an unauthorized accommodation to students to tampering with answer documents to leaving secure test materials unattended; these violations may occur in a single classroom or on a schoolwide level.

Schools that were identified as having findings had an opportunity to appeal the findings through OSSE and the Executive Office of the Mayor. This is the first year the Executive Office of the Mayor were involved in the appeal process.

Following the appeals, OSSE finalized results, shared its final report with LEAs, and conducted targeted on-site trainings for schools that required corrective action.
The DC CAS was replaced in the 2014-2015 school year by PARCC, a largely computer-based test aligned to the Common Core State Standards. It is important to note that this investigation had no bearing on the PARCC assessment administered in the spring of 2015. Investigations for the 2015 PARCC begin later this year.

For more information on schools that had findings, visit the OSSE website at http://osse.dc.gov/page/sy-2013-2014-dc-cas-test-integrity-results.