Administrators at area schools deny cheating despite above average number of erasures

Jersey Journal ^ | July 23, 2011

[SMGFan]

Three Hudson County schools one each in Bayonne, Union City and Jersey City have been flagged for having a high number of erasures on the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge standardized tests, the state Department of Education announced.

[SMGFan]

I am wondering how many answers were left empty by students if they did not know the answer or ran out of time. The tests need to be sealed in the class with tamper evident tape. I think I remember in the 1970's California achievement Test ( Cat) in Jersey City. I think test were sealed in an envelope and immediately mailed. I could be mistaken.

[Momto2]

I believe this Georgia scandal is going to lead to other states looking into testing irregularities. It is sad but I believe they will find this is an epidemic. I hope I’m wrong, but have heard more and more disturbing examples.

[blueunicorn6]

I’m waiting for those doctors who make it through school by cheating.
“Scalpel.....some other sharp thingy.....Whoa! What the heck is this?.....ummmm....can somebody else finish this?”

[MikeNJ]

Further information from the article:

“A statewide test score analysis revealed 120 schools with a high wrong-to-right erasure rate where incorrect answers were swapped for correct ones when compared to the state average of 2.43 erasures per student, said DOE officials.

District officials in Bayonne and Union City were adamant that they followed normal procedures and no cheating occurred...

The DOE’s Office of Fiscal Accountability and Compliance will look into Jersey City Community Charter School’s 5.59 wrong-to-right erasure rate per student in Grade 3, since it doesn’t lie within the jurisdiction of a school district.

Bayonne’s Board of Education will inspect Midtown Community School 8’s 9.48 erasure rate in Grade 8, and Union City will prepare a report about Washington Elementary’s 5.80 erasure rate in Grade 3.”

[Alberta's Child]

Anybody could have seen this coming from a mile away. In some respects, it's hard to blame the teachers in these cases. My rationale is as follows:

"If you put stupid @ssholes with no interest in school and minimal parental involvement in my classroom, force me to deal with them, and then tell me that my job and/or salary depends on their school performance, you can be damn sure they'll get an A+ grade on every test they take."

[bgill]

It was either in 7th or 8th grade on day two of the California Achievement Test, the teacher placed one on each student’s desk. Several of us got someone else’s but the teacher wouldn’t let us switch. So much for the scores that year.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

If the “true” rate of erasures is 2.43 per student, the likelihood that any school district would differ by more than a trivial amount simply by the operation of chance is essentially zero. Some other mechanism is in play. The obvious and most likely is cheating.

For example, it the actual rate of erasures was 2.43 per student, and a school district had 100 students, the likelihood that the number of erasures would exceed 321 (3.21 per student) simply by chance, is less than one in a million. As the populations get bigger and the discrepancy become larger (like 5.59 or 9.80 erasures per student), the likelihood of this being a mere “fluke” essentially vanishes.

[Liz]

Crooked educators cooking test scores were/are also extorting gargantuan salaries, benefits and pensions, annuities, six-figure bonuses, free cars/fillups/maintenance. And that includes all that they can steal.

Atlanta's Dr Beverly Hall is now under scrutiny for rampant, systematic cheating on test scores involved 44 Atlanta schools and 178 teachers and principals. Hall absconded to Atlanta after the Newark, NJ school district she headed had a $73 million shortage.

Here’s Dr Beverly Hall showing off her medal----named 2009 Superintendent of the Year award by the American Association of School Administrators for "increasing Atlanta district's test scores and graduation rates." Beverly Hall is a bigtime calculated liar and con artist......a walking crime wave. One observer claimed that, for public consumption, Hall puts on a sweet, sap-happy "Grandma’s Baking Sugar Cookies" act..............but behind the scenes she’s a ruthless, savage hag, dropping victims left and right like an armed fascist dictator.

Her activities in the state of NJ (before she absconded to GA) need to be exposed.....and prosecuted when warranted.....including the $73 million budget shortfall under her watch.

You have to wonder how Hall ever got educator credentials. Is her doctorate legit? All of her CV should be rigorously scrutinized...together with all official documents under signature (falsifying govt documents is a felony).

[Zman516]

You have to wonder how Hall ever got educator credentials. Is her doctorate legit?

No big mystery....Affirmative Action.

[Liz]

Jersey City schools have been flagged for having a high number of erasures on standardized tests…

REFERENCE Circa 2007 Jersey City School Superintendent Charles Epps announced he will not be seeking re-election as an Assemblyman this Fall. Epps will be forgoing the $49,000 plus royal perks as an Assemblyman but dollars to donuts he will still get several pensions, annuities and lump sum payouts, and other govt checks too numerous to mention.

NEW OT SHOCKER; 2-year bill: $480G to 10 school painters
January 23, 2007 / EARL MORGAN w/ Jarrett Renshaw, STAFF WRITERS

Custodians aren't the only ones cleaning up in the Jersey City School District. Ten painters working for the state-run school district's maintenance department were paid nearly a half-million dollars in overtime over the past two years.

During that same time period, more than $12.6 million in overtime was paid out to district maintenance employees. The distribution of the overtime also varies widely: Three of the district's 13 union painters didn't receive any overtime in 2005 or 2006; one received $10,776.64 in overtime in 2005, but none last year.

Another painter made just $5,418.09 in overtime over the two years. The bulk of the overtime paid out went to just two of the 13 painters - John Raido and Michael Toussas. Together, they took home $181,866.45 over the two years, or more than one-third of the total amount of overtime paid out.

The list also includes Richard Zadroga - the son of state-appointed district Superintendent Charles T. Epps Jr.'s former special assistant. He received $37,657.01 in overtime in 2005 and another $14,420.14 last year. The former school bus driver makes a base salary of $48,684 a year as a painter. His mother, Ellen Zadroga, recently retired from her school job, but remains on Epps' payroll as a $12,000-a-year legislative aide.

According to campaign finance records, she also contributed $500 to Epps' Assembly campaign. "Richard took overtime that was offered," Ellen Zadroga said. "Other painters turned it down And there were others that got more than he did in overtime."

A total of $162,427.35 was paid out to painters in overtime in 2006, while $317,806.59 was paid out in 2005. Total cost to the taxpayers: $480,233.94.

While he would not characterize the overtime as excessive, Epps said a "corrective action plan" has already been implemented by the business office, and that accounts for the nearly 50 percent drop in overtime between 2005 and 2006. That "corrective action plan," is dated Dec. 21, 2005, according to board records.

The plan faulted the district for failing to "distribute overtime in accordance with the negotiated contract with Local 2262" - the painters' union - and mandated a more fair distribution of overtime.

Last month, The Jersey Journal reported that a state audit found district maintenance workers were cleaning up in overtime payments, including one employee who got more than $163,000 in overtime during the past two years.

The review was conducted after a state audit team noticed a dramatic spike of more than $2.1 million, or 43 percent, in overtime pay in the district's maintenance department between the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years.

Overall, overtime pay went from $5.2 million two years ago to $7.4 million last year, according to the audit. Over the last 10 years, maintenance overtime pay increased by an astonishing 426 percent, the report states.

SOURCE http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-3/116953592915780.xml&coll=3

[Liz]

I think it’s worse than that (if possible)———she probably faked her resume to cash in.

[Atlantan]

Info about Hall when she was Superintendent of Newark, NJ school system.

http://www.11alive.com/news/article/197037/40/New-Jersey-educator-says-Hall-was-ruthless

[MikeNJ]

Thanks, Lonesome, for confiming my intuitive suspicions.

This is Hudson County, New Jersey. For cheating not to occur here would be anomalous.

[Liz]

Thanks——this ruthless harridan must be outed.