Teacher reproved for breaking test rules

The special ed instructor was punished for reading questions aloud in a classroom with regular fifth-graders.

By STEPHEN HEGARTY

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 9, 2000

A Hillsborough County special education teacher faces a reprimand and a two-day suspension without pay for violating test security rules when her students took the FCAT in February.

The teacher, Michelle Welch of Trapnell Elementary School in Plant City, was sent the letter of reprimand from the county on Thursday and was notified that she would have to undergo additional training in ethics and test administration.

The case will be forwarded to the state's education department, which has the authority to revoke or suspend Welch's teaching certificate.

Welch, 34, said Thursday she decided not to contest the reprimand to spare her students the trauma of having to testify or being subjected to interviews in an extended investigation. But she insisted she did nothing to give students an unfair advantage on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

"I'm going to accept full responsibility because I should have read the entire (testing regulations) manual," Welch said. "But absolutely not -- there was no intention of giving students an advantage on the test."

David Binnie, assistant superintendent for human resources, agreed.

"Our view is that there was not any intent to artificially inflate students' scores," Binnie said. "But what she did, ultimately, was a violation of testing procedures, which is a serious matter."

Welch was accused of reading test questions aloud in her class and allowing some students to read questions aloud to one another. Either act would be a violation of testing procedures. But the case was more complicated because Welch's class includes both regular education and special education students. The rules allow certain "modifications" for special education students, and sometimes that includes allowing the teacher to read aloud portions of the test.

Ten students' tests were invalidated.

Scores for three regular education fifth-grade students were invalidated after investigators found that Welch read aloud portions of the test to special education students in the same classroom as the regular education students.

Investigator John Hilderbrand, director of assessment, wrote in his report that Welch could have read to individual students as needed. But she violated the rules by reading to an entire class that included regular education children.

Welch said she should have known and followed the rules for special education students. She explained that her administration put the regular education fifth-graders in her class even though it was clear she would read portions aloud to her special education students. She said investigators told her she should have refused to allow the regular education students in her classroom.

Welch has received good evaluations since she started as a special education teacher in Hillsborough County in 1991.

She said she plans to continue teaching, though she has requested a transfer.

Two Pinellas County teachers faced termination over violations of test security rules. One resigned after she was accused of pointing out incorrect answers so her students could change answers. The other, accused of cheating on the practice test, is fighting to keep her job.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.