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DONG-PHUONG NGUYENThey apparently urged third-graders taking a reading test at a Tampa school to change answers. They draw brief suspensions and reprimands.
TAMPA - Two Gorrie Elementary School teachers who apparently urged students to change answers on FCAT reading tests were suspended for two days without pay and must get additional training in ethics and test administration, according to Hillsborough County school officials.
Third-grade teacher Jacqueline Cross and physical education teacher Heidi Sweet were reprimanded because of the incident, which occurred in March at the South Tampa school.
Cross was the teacher of the 15 third-graders taking the test that day. Sweet served as a proctor.
Few details about what happened that day were available Monday, and neither Cross nor Sweet could be reached for comment. According to schools spokesman Mark Hart, the full report of their actions will be released today or Wednesday once private information is taken out.
School officials were particularly concerned about the incident because the students needed to score at grade level to be promoted to fourth grade.
However, all the students passed a subsequent test given to them a week later, so it was not an issue.
In May, both teachers were sent certified letters from Linda Kipley, general manager of professional standards for the school district, informing them of the district's findings.
"Although you had the appropriate training to facilitate the test, the manner in which certain dimensions of the test were handled is unacceptable," Kipley wrote to Cross.
Even though Sweet was serving as a proctor, she was "still held to the same standards" as Cross, Hart said.
"Although you stated that you were just following the lead of the teacher administering the test, the manner in which certain dimensions of the test were handled is unacceptable," Kipley wrote. "Irrespective of your stated intent, the testing violations ... should not have occurred."
Sweet has requested a transfer from the school but has not yet moved, Hart said.
The letters of reprimand will remain in the teachers' files. They have already served their suspensions and could face scrutiny from the state Department of Education's Bureau of Professional Practices. The Department of Education had not received the district's report as of Monday afternoon, the office said.
In a related development, the Department of Education wants to investigate more than 150 schools statewide that may have transferred troubled students to other schools earlier this year - in other words, cheated - to bolster the schools' overall FCAT scores.
It's unclear which schools have been flagged. Department officials said Monday they could not provide a list because they were busy preparing for Gov. Jeb Bush's announcement of FCAT grades in Tallahassee today, and because they wanted the state Board of Education, which meets in Miami today, to discuss the list first.
Jim Warford, the state's kindergarten-to-12th-grade chancellor, told the Orlando Sentinel Friday the department identified 159 schools with a suspicious number of student transfers within three weeks of the FCAT in February and March.
When students move from one school to another just before taking the FCAT, their scores do not count toward either school's grades.
Warford said he wants the board to give him authority to investigate.
More than 60 of the schools were in Polk County, but the rest were scattered across 29 of the state's 67 districts, Warford said.
Officials in all five Tampa Bay-area districts said the department has not contacted them about any FCAT-related transfer issues.
- Dong-Phuong Nguyen can be reached at 813 226-3403 or nguyen@sptimes.com Times staff writer Ron Matus contributed to this report.