Sumner Schools Appear in Test Scores 'Cheating' Report; District Confident in Record

A recent investigation by the Atlanta Journal Constitution called Cheating Our Children identified Sumner as one of four districts in the nation where test scores have improved so much over the last few years that it's suspicious.

The data doesn't prove that cheating exists, but it identifies cheating patterns exemplified in Atlanta.

Superintendent Craig Spencer defended Sumner in a statement to the Tacoma News Tribune:

"We stand by our testing security and the systems we have in place to ensure student assessment data is both protected and secure," Spencer said. "The gains that we are seeing are a being made classroom by classroom, where high performing teachers deliver quality instruction."

The AJC investigation started last year after Atlanta investigators found high levels of cheating on standardized tests in about half of the city's elementary and middle schools. The reporters and data specialists expanded their research scope to test scores nationwide, from school years 2008-2011.

They obtained scores from every state and separated the scores into "classes" made up of all students in a given grade at their school.

Using a mathematical equation to weigh student test scores with a prediction of where they should be, investigators were able to determine what each class average test score should have been, yearly.

If the actual scores were far from the prediction, the classes were flagged. If a district had about 5 percent of classes flagged, that was considered normal. Any higher and the odds were 1 in 1,000 and "by chance alone," according to the report.

AJC research shows that Sumner had 9 percent of classes flagged in 2008, 6.8 percent in 2009, 15.9 percent in 2010 and 13.6 percent in 2011.

The study is not without its critics. Many argue that the data doesn't take into account when students move schools in the district or transfer out.