Diane Douglas asks AG to review test irregularities

Arizona state Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas has asked the Arizona Attorney General's Office to investigate AIMS test irregularities at a small Maricopa charter school that saw a dramatic improvement in scores in 2014.

The state Education Department has now forwarded results for eight schools to the Attorney General for possible investigation. Attorney General spokeswoman Kristen Keogh said her office could not comment on whether any of the schools will be investigated.

The latest school, Holsteiner Agricultural School in Maricopa, had some students' responses on 2014 AIMS tests changed to correct answers at a higher-than-normal rate, according to state education officials.

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"(S)tudents in the fourth grade corrected their responses to the right answer 83 percent of the time in reading and 85 percent of the time in mathematics," a letter from the Education Department states.

Education officials also said Holsteiner's state school letter grade rose from a "D" to an "A" from 2013 to 2014.

Teachers at the school told department investigators that there had been no teaching or curriculum changes at Holsteiner, officials said.

Holsteiner Superintendent Tanya Graysmark, however, told The Arizona Republic in an e-mail Friday that her school has done nothing wrong.

"We worked with our students all year on best test practices (to go back and check their answers and make any necessary changes to their test — to do the best they can) prior to turning it in," she said. "This may have caused a lot of erasure marks," she wrote.

She also said her staff stepped up monitoring of students during this year's AzMERIT test. The school enrolls 48 students.

Earlier this month, the Education Department asked the AG to investigate AIMS test irregularities at seven other Arizona schools, saying some students' answers on 2014 tests were changed to correct answers at a higher-than-normal rate.

The schools are: Children's Success Academy in Tucson; Edge High in Tucson; Integrity Education Centre in Tempe; James Sandoval/Crown Point High School in Phoenix; Metcalf Elementary School in Morenci; Red Rock Elementary School in Red Rock; and Wade Carpenter Middle School in Nogales. Representatives from the schools said earlier this month that the problems are being corrected.

Education officials say that some students' responses on 2014 AIMS tests were changed to correct answers at a higher-than-normal rate at Holsteiner Agricultural School in Maricopa.