Former Student Reveals He Was Paid To Alter State Tests
COLUMBUS – New allegations concerning the Dayton Horizon Science Academy in a report aired on WHIO-TV Friday night and in a Dayton Daily News story on Sunday. Both reports featured testimony of a graduate at Dayton Horizon Science Academy. Hakkimte Sun, a former student of Dayton Horizon Science Academy, told reporters he was paid by administrators to fill in answers on hundreds of State standardized tests.
Additionally, a parent of a Dayton Horizon Science Academy student said her daughter’s attendance records were altered. Two teachers told the Dayton Daily News they were instructed to mark Melissa Watkins’ daughter as “’present’ in attendance forms because they were sending a tutor” but “nobody showed up” as a tutor.
After the new revelations in the Concept Schools case, Auditor of State candidate and State Representative John Patrick Carney released the following statement:
“The revelations about charter schools in Ohio point to utter lack of oversight of charter schools. Worse, we’ve seen both the current State Auditor and the Ohio Department of Education actively try to ignore reported problems of widespread cheating and other misconduct for far too long. As State Auditor, I will make sure Ohioans know that their tax dollars are going to schools that effectively prepare children for the future, and my office will thoroughly hold these officials accountable.”
BACKGROUND
$476,862,520.35 has been transferred to failing charter schools across the state of Ohio.**
$83,471,754.27 has been transferred from “A” rated public schools to “F” rated charter schools in Ohio.**
$47.1 million in state funding will be given this year to Horizon schools across the state [Source: Dayton Daily News (7/27/2014), “Allegations mount at area charter”]
Dayton Horizon Science Academy graduate says he was paid to fill in standardized tests.Hakkimte Sun alleges a school administrator “instructed [him and a friend] to darken bubbles on the test sheets that had marks through them and, if they wanted, to fill in questions that weren’t answered.” [Source: Dayton Daily News (7/27/2014), “Allegations mount at area charter”]
Previous allegations from former Horizon teacher Matt Blair also point to standardized test alterations. “The week after testing, I went to school on a Saturday morning…I saw a dozen Turkish men sitting in a classroom with stacks of OATs on their desks. The current principal…said that the men were simply darkening in the answers for students who wrote too lightly.” [Source: The Ohio Education Association Blog (12/22/2013), “How charter schools betray their students and communities”]
** data compiled from ODE Performance Indicators from the 2012-2013 school year, designating a ‘grade’ based on the number of Performance Indicators met.