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Pa. Boy Orders State Tests To 'Play School'

Lots of kids like to play
school, but what does it say about the school
that a child would feel that taking state tests
is part of "playing school"?

Data Recognition Corporation is looking for
test Reader/Scorers
[pdf file]. The position pays $11 an hour and
they offer complimentary beverages (including
coffee, tea, and hot chocolate).

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH -- The Pennsylvania Education
Department plans to tighten security after a
fifth-grader who wanted to "play school"
ordered a batch of secret state school
assessment tests from his western Pennsylvania
home.

The shrink-wrapped tests were delivered to the
Hempfield Area School District's warehouse, not
to the 10-year-old boy's home, which department
spokeswoman Leah Harris said shows the existing
security system works.

The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment
tests, which are administered annually to
youngsters in fourth, eighth and 11th grades,
are automatically shipped to districts or
individuals schools and "can't be shipped
anywhere else," Harris said.

The boy, whom officials did not identify,
wasn't trying to cheat, said the district's
director of pupil services, Rebecca Costello.
"He wants to be a teacher. He wanted to play
school," she said.

The boy even requested that the exams be
delivered on the last day of testing so that he
wouldn't see it before he took it in March, she
said.

The incident was the first of its kind. Because
of it, the department plans to require people
ordering tests, which measure student
achievement and how well schools are educating
students, to enter a personal identification
code, Harris said.

"We take security breaches very seriously,"
Harris said.

The boy completed an order form on the
Education Department Web site, where he found
two codes needed to complete the transaction --
one identifying the school district, the other
identifying Bovard Elementary School, where he
is in the fifth grade. He listed his home
address and the names of his school and
teacher, officials said.

He faxed the form to Data Recognition Corp., of
Maple Grove, Minn., the company that produces
the exams for Pennsylvania several other
states, Costello said.

District officials traced the order to the boy
when they discovered they received more tests
than they had ordered, said Barbara Marin,
assistant superintendent for elementary
education.

Officials declined to say if the boy faced
discipline as a result.

"The child was upset. He meant no harm. The
parents were upset with the child," Costello
said.











— Associated Press
WTOV, Channel 9
2008-04-20
http://www.wtov9.com/nationalnews/19228988/detail.html

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