The Trenton Times published the following article on April 4, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
Trenton school official caught up in Philadelphia cheating scandal
By Erin Duffy/The Times of Trenton
on April 04, 2013 at 7:52 PMTRENTON — The employment of the city school district’s new language arts supervisor is under review after she allegedly admitted to altering test scores as a principal in Philadelphia and voluntarily surrendered her Pennsylvania administrative credentials last month.
Trenton Superintendent Francisco Duran and school board President Toby Sanders confirmed that the district is investigating language arts supervisor Lolamarie O’Rourke’s role in a Philadelphia school cheating scandal after the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that O’Rourke and Barbara McCreery, another Philadelphia principal, admitted to changing students’ answers on standardized tests in order to bolster state test scores for their schools. O’Rourke also gave students answers to test questions, according to one source. Both forfeited their administrative certificates on March 7 in lieu of facing disciplinary charges.
O’Rourke could not be reached for comment tonight.
At the time of the alleged cheating, O’Rourke, 41, was the principal at Locke Elementary School in Philadelphia. She abruptly left the district and was hired as the literacy supervisor in Trenton’s office of Curriculum, Instruction, & Assessment in September at a salary of $121,970.
Duran, a former assistant superintendent in the Philadelphia School District who became Trenton’s superintendent in July, said he knew nothing about O’Rourke’s involvement in any test tampering until he read the Inquirer story today.
“We will look into the matter when we return from spring break,” he said. “We would like to get more information on it since all of the information we have is in the paper.”
Duran denied knowing O’Rourke before she began working in Trenton and said he did not recruit her to work in Trenton. He was the regional assistant superintendent in Philadelphia’s north-central region and she worked as a principal in the west district, he said.
“She was not one of my principals,” he said.
The school district did investigate O’Rourke last year after an anonymous letter circulated around the district claiming O’Rourke didn’t have a teaching license in Philadelphia. Duran said the letter appeared to be from Philadelphia School District Chief Academic Officer Penny Nixon, but said Nixon’s first name was spelled wrong and the Philadelphia school letterhead appearing on the letter was also incorrect.
“Having worked in Philadelphia, I know the letterhead, and the letterhead was made up,” he said.
Trenton school officials checked out the rumor and determined it was false and that O’Rourke did have all her credentials, Duran said.
“We responded to that letter in a very thoughtful and legal kind of way and ever since that letter we have sort of monitored the situation,” Sanders said.
New Jersey State Department of Education (DOE) spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said she could not comment on whether the DOE would open an inquiry into O’Rourke or try to revoke her New Jersey licenses. O’Rourke still retains her Pennsylvania teaching certificate.
Morgan said O’Rourke’s surrender of her Pennsylvania supervisor certificate would have no effect on her New Jersey license, since only the state Board of Examiners can revoke or suspend teaching licenses.
Sanders said the board took seriously any allegations involving cheating, especially in light of the unfolding scandal in Philadelphia and Atlanta, where 35 educators, including the city’s former superintendent, have been indicted on charges of falsifying and changing test scores, sometimes in order to pocket bonuses.
“This requires due process, but I can tell you we’re not going to respond to a sort of feeding frenzy for teachers’ scalp, we are going to respond in a way that follows due process,” he said. “But we are going to respond definitively.”
The Inquirer reported that test scores at O’Rourke’s Philadelphia school — and in schools under investigation for cheating — tumbled last year after new security measures were enacted. The percentage of Locke students passing in reading subsequently dropped 42 points in math and 32 points in reading.
One staffer who worked with O’Rourke at Locke never witnessed cheating, but said “there were rumors about it before it ever became public. Allegedly, she had asked people to do some things to alter the test.”
Sanders said the scandal, while terrible for educators and students, reflected a harsh truth about the pressures schools and teachers face to improve standardized test scores and meet state and federal benchmarks.
“This is a very sad circumstance for children in Philadelphia, in Atlanta, anywhere,” he said. “It’s a very sad circumstance for teachers and principals and people feeling under pressure to produce results using any kind of dubious strategy. It’s a very sad thing and it’s a commentary on the disproportionate weight that we give these tests.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer contributed to this report.
Contact Erin Duffy at (609) 989-5723 or eduffy@njtimes.com