9486 in the collection
Teacher: Penalty was excessive
Ohanian Comment: The state permanently revoked a teacher's license when she helped students taking the FCAT. She says the punishment doesn't fit the crime.
Of course the punishment doesn't fit the crime. They're hanging her out on public exhibition to show all the other teachers what happens when you don't march in lockstep.
Sweet and her lawyer are right that she's been sacrificed on the altar of high-stakes testing.
Go to the url below and you can comment on line at the newspaper site.
BY Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE --
Teacher Heidi Sweet says she put pencil marks next to questions some fifth-graders had skipped or gotten wrong while taking Florida's high-stakes standardized test to encourage them to try again. It was a career-ending mistake.
A state panel permanently revoked her teaching certificate -- what she calls "a death sentence" -- two years ago. Then a physical education teacher at Gorrie Elementary School in Tampa, Sweet admits she erred but said she was following another teacher's lead in giving the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
She is one of 50 Florida teachers, counselors and administrators the state has disciplined in the past 10 years for cheating or making errors in giving the FCAT, used to grade public schools and students, as well as other exams, according to files obtained from the state Education Department through a public records request.
Sweet was the last of just 10 teachers whose certificates were permanently revoked in that time. The other 40 received lesser penalties including suspensions, probation and letters of reprimand.
Besides those cases, the Education Practices Commission, composed of 17 teachers, administrators and lay citizens appointed by the department, cleared seven teachers during the 10-year span. It currently has 22 cases awaiting a decision.
The numbers of what is officially called "academic fraud" are tiny when compared to about 15,000 investigations the state has conducted since 1997 for all types of teacher misconduct, including drug, alcohol, sexual and physical abuse.
Pam Stewart, the department's deputy chancellor for educator quality, said it shows teachers are honest and "want the FCAT test to measure what their students truly do know."
Sweet and her lawyers, though, believe she's been sacrificed on the altar of high-stakes testing to deter violations by making an example of her. One state panel member said she wanted the harsh penalty to "send a message."
"This is like a warning to all you teachers out there -- don't mess with that FCAT," said Sweet, who taught for 25 years. "I don't feel that what I did warrants them taking my whole life away."
Most cases from 1998 through 2007 resulted from FCAT cheating or mistakes. The test has been at the center of political debate for nearly a decade because of how it's used.
Republican former Gov. Jeb Bush made it the centerpiece of his school accountability program that's still in place. FCAT scores determine performance grades that can result in sanctions or financial rewards for schools and decide if third-graders are promoted and high school students graduate. In some cases teachers can get bonuses if their students do well.
The results also determine whether a school meets progress requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The former governor's brother, President Bush, has made it one of his signature domestic policies.
Critics, including many Democratic politicians, say "FCAT frenzy" has resulted in teaching children to pass the test instead of real learning. Advocates say it has forced schools to improve.
AVOIDING POLITICS
Commission Chairman Dennis Griffin, a retired Pinellas County school administrator, said each case is resolved on its own merits and commissioners are aware how important it is to stay clear of politics.
He also disputed that Sweet is being made an example of, but he acknowledged the commission's teacher members are "very strict" about cheating.
Sweet, 52, is married and the mother of two school-age children. She has bachelor's and master's degrees but now works as an office temp.
The Hillsborough County School District suspended her and fifth-grade teacher Jacqueline Cross for two days without pay for their March 2004 FCAT transgressions. Sweet also was transferred to another school, where she worked as a media specialist until last November after a court rejected her appeal.
Administrative Law Judge Daniel Manry recommended a reprimand, the mildest penalty possible. He cited Sweet's prior record as an effective teacher and wrote that she used the pencil marks only after watching Cross point to incorrect answers and tell students to reread certain passages.
The state reached a tentative settlement with Cross in 2005, but the commission has yet to act on her case. The Education Department has not responded to a March 18 public records request for documents in the case.
Manry concluded Sweet was guilty of coaching, but the state did not prove she had "actual knowledge" she violated the state's test security law. It includes a maximum criminal penalty of a year in jail and $1,000 fine.
State records show only two teachers whose certificates were sanctioned in the past 10 years have faced criminal prosecution. They are among teachers whose certificates have been permanently revoked.
One received the maximum fine and 90 days house arrest in 2001 for copying a test. The other pleaded no contest the next year to having copies made and was fined $103.
The commission also has permanently revoked certificates for helping students answer questions, encouraging them to help each other, copying and distributing prior year tests to other teachers and failing to properly secure test materials.
In other cases the penalties usually are a combination of suspensions and/or probation, requirements to take ethics or testing classes, fines and letters of reprimand for violations that include using actual test materials to prepare students, providing answers or clues and pointing out incorrect answers.
AN INCONSISTENCY
Sweet, though, is the only teacher who has drawn the maximum penalty after a judge recommended a lesser one. The commission panel, instead, accepted different facts proposed by Department of Education lawyer Ron Weaver.
Manry wrote he was unable to determine if erasures and some changed answers were in response to Sweet's pencil marks, but the panel agreed with Weaver that they were. Weaver, according to a meeting transcript, also told the panel Sweet admitted giving answers and hints. Sweet denies that, saying she put the marks next to only questions, not answers.
The panel also accepted the state's argument that Sweet failed to turn herself in after finding out the pencil marks were improper, attended faculty meetings where test procedures were discussed and had proctored the FCAT before. It concluded a teacher with her experience should have known better even without training.
"As horrible as this is, this is a penalty that I think we need to send a very clear message this cannot be tolerated," said Commissioner Deborah Shepard, the transcript shows.
— Bill Kaczor, Associated Press
Miami Herald
2008-04-07
http://www.miamiherald.com/295/story/485706.html
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