Reporters Dig for Truth on School Cheating

Evidence that some educators are cheating on standardized tests of student achievement is attracting more and more attention in the public arena. And that's because education reporters are doing their jobs.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution education reporter Heather Vogell first uncovered unscrupulous activity in 2008, and recently a state investigation yielded a scathing report that confirmed the paper's revelations.

A team of reporters at USA Today, including education reporter and EWA member Greg Toppo, conducted a months-long investigation and found patterns of suspicious activity, including in Washington, D.C. public schools.

And now the Philadelphia Public School Notebook has exposed suspicious erasures in 89 Pennsylvania schools and run a first-person confession of cheating by an anonymous teacher.

In his July 31 column in The New York Times, Michael Winerip featured the work of EWA Immediate Past President Dale Mezzacappa and her colleagues at the Notebook. He prominently noted that the impetus for the Notebook's coverage was a session on investigating suspicious test-score patterns at EWA's 2011 National Seminar in New Orleans.

Pointing to the column, EWA President Stephanie Banchero, national education writer for The Wall Street Journal, today highlighted the reporters' work on EWA's K-12 LISTSERV for education journalists. In many cases, she pointed out, government officials had noted highly improbable numbers of erasure marks on tests but did not follow up with further investigation.

"It wasn't until our intrepid ed reporters dug in and did the hard work that these issues came to light," she wrote. "So kudos to all three of them!"

EWA's website and its new online community, EdMedia Commons, feature resources on how to cover cheating. Those resources include Vogell's Power Point presentation from her April 8 presentation in New Orleans and a video discussion between John Fremer, president of Caveon Security Inc., and Greg Toppo, the lead USA Today reporter on the paper's high-profile project.

EWA has more planned on this topic in the coming days, so check back often. And let us know your thoughts on how we can keep supporting work that makes a difference.