A state review of standardized test score data has found that 20 percent of Georgia elementary and middle schools had possible cheating on the exams last year.
In the Gainesville system, two schools raised suspicion from the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. No Hall County schools were ranked as severe concerns.
About 25 percent of Gainesville Exploration Academy classrooms were flagged for having an unusually high number of erasures on last spring’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. This places the school in the "severe concern" category, which includes those with 25 percent or more classrooms flagged.
About 1,800 schools were included in the report, of which 370 showed higher occurrences of wrong-to-right erasures on tests, meaning incorrect answers were erased and changed to correct answers.
Fair Street International Baccalaureate World School was flagged as a "moderate concern" with 13.9 percent of its classrooms found to have an usual number of erasures.
Kathleen Mathers, Office of Student Achievement director, said they recommend these schools put state school system monitors in place during testing or rotate teacher monitors.
"We are very much turning this back over to the local superintendents, and we are not saying in any way that we think teachers in those buildings changed student answers," Mathers said during a state board of education meeting earlier today. "What we are staying are these schools look unusual compared to other schools across the state."
Gainesville schools Superintendent Merrianne Dyer said she is not concerned by the report’s findings.
After speaking with Gainesville and Fair Street elementary schools’ principals, Dyer said they plan to follow the recommendations from the Office of Student Achievement.
"To be honest, I would say that this is the first time they’ve done an erasure analysis," she said. "Who knows if this is how many times people have been erasing forever. It’s like a baseline, really."
Most of the flagged classrooms were from the first- and second-grade levels and they will do more to prepare students at these grade levels for the tests, she added.
"We will remain committed to preparing and implementing test preparation and state approved administration procedures for our students and teachers."
Of Hall County’s 29 schools included in the report, three were considered minimal causes for concern, including Chestnut Mountain Elementary, with 6.1 percent of classrooms flagged; Lyman Hall Elementary with 6.3 percent of classrooms flagged; and White Sulphur Elementary with 6.9 percent of classrooms flagged.
For these schools, the Office of Student Achievement recommended leaving it up to the local school boards to ensure the testing environments line up with state guidelines.
Hall County schools Superintendent Will Schofield said Wednesday he feels positive about the results.
"It just goes back to the fact that I think we have great people in our school system," he said. "One of the greatest expectations we have is to help young people develop character. Adults in the building need to model that, and I think our people do that in a wonderful way."