Components of a rigorous district-level investigation

Components of a Rigorous District-Level Investigation
A district's investigation of individual schools placed in minimal, moderate and/or severe concern categories in response to the Office of Student Achievement's findings of the 2012 CRCT and 2012 Spring EOCT comprehensive analysis must include the following components at a minimum.
I. Training a. Provide a description of test administration training and to whom it was provided at each flagged school. b. Identify, by flagged school, who handled the materials in any way but did not receive test administration training. Districts are expected to have written documentation that details who received training.
II. Access to Test Materials a. Determine and describe the manner in which test materials were distributed and collected at each flagged school, detailing a) any discrepancies between this process and the guidelines set forth by the GaDOE, and b) corrective action taken in response to such discrepancies. b. Determine and describe any irregularities found regarding the administration of the test at each flagged school, including for example, test materials retained beyond the allotted time according to the test manuals, etc., and corrective action taken in response to such irregularities. c. Determine which employees at each flagged school (including administrators, teachers, clerical staff, counselors, paraprofessionals or other employees) had access to secure test materials before and after testing during each day that test documents were kept in the school building. Describe corrective action taken in response to employees other than administrators handling secure test materials outside of actual test administration. Determine whether any employee altered student responses on test documents at each flagged school and describe how test tampering occurred and corrective action taken. d. Determine and describe the manner in which test documents were transported from each school in the moderate or severe concern categories to the central office after testing concluded and prepared for the State's testing vendor. Determine whether any employee altered student responses on test documents during this time and describe how test tampering occurred as well as corrective action taken.
III. Variance in Erasure Data a. Based on the investigation conducted by the LEA, describe what the district learned about the test environment at each flagged school that explains why its erasure data varies significantly from the rest of the State's testing population. b. Describe the changes the district will make in its testing procedure based on what was learned from the investigation.
Districts having fewer than five schools to investigate must submit a comprehensive narrative by school to OSA by April 19, 2013, and those having more than five schools must submit their report to OSA by May 3, 2013. OSA is happy to serve as a resource to districts in the course of their investigations.