Posted on 04/16/2005 7:16:59 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CHESTER, Pa. (AP) - A veteran principal and school administrator has been suspended while officials investigate allegations that she helped students cheat on tests.
Jayne Gibbs was placed on a paid leave Thursday after eighth graders at Edward E. Parry Edison Junior Academy said she had given them answers to questions on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test, said Wayne Emsley, Chester Upland School District assessment director.
Gibbs is an administrator with the for-profit education company Edison Schools, which has run most of Chester Upland's schools for the last several years but recently announced it was severing its relationship with the district.
She was previously principal at another middle school in the district where students' scores on standardized tests improved dramatically during her tenure. Between 2002 and 2003, the percentage of students testing proficient in math on the PSSA exam jumped from 11 percent to 71 percent.
Calls to numbers listed under Gibbs' name were not immediately returned Saturday.
Chester Upland was taken over by the state 11 years ago, but a series of reform efforts in the suburban Philadelphia district have failed. In recent months, its finances have nearly collapsed, requiring a $4 million state bailout and prompting an investigation into possible fraud.
Earlier this month, an acting principal at the district's high school was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old female student in the school auditorium.
hhmmmm.. ?
Female teachers having sex with boy students?
Principals giving away test answers?
Things sure have changed since MY school days.
Chester Pennsylvania school system is a basket case. The
district is a crime ridden, drug infested and out of control cesspool. There are more than a few parents that allow their kids to quit school rather than be beaten up or killed. One happy note for the district. Ed Rendell and the legislature picked Chester to be home to a slot parlor. That will be a real plus for the criminals because the gamblers coming off I 95 will be easy pickings. Edison was hired because the locals are too stinking lazy to solve the problems.
Legalized slots right off the Interstate...
Improved school funding because students now know the quiz questions and answers...
Sounds like sound fiscal planning to me.
Great headline, though. Usually the news is that the principal (and the teachers) don't know the answers.
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