Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | P | Phi Delta Kappan

Un-principaled testing?

Article Excerpt
ON 11 September 2004, Elba Hildebrant, a principal intern at an elementary school in Montgomery County, Maryland, took the Praxis II School Leaders Licensure Assessment Test at nearby Rockville College. Produced by ETS, this test is one of Maryland's requirements for principal certification. Hildebrandt had paid the $465 registration fee and had received the registration bulletin, which warns the test-takers that ETS reserves the right to cancel the score and bar future testing if "misconduct" occurs. The bulletin defines misconduct as any directly observable violation of the testing rules, including "working on any test or test section, when not authorized to do so, or working after time has been called." The bulletin further advises that "if your scores are canceled, they will not be reported, and your fees will not be refunded."

Just before the test started, Hildebrant and the other test-takers signed, as instructed, this "certification statement": "I hereby agree to the conditions set forth in the Registration Bulletin and certify that I am the person whose name and address appear on this answer sheet."

Dana Baker was the associate supervisor for the administration of the test. Baker was a professor and chair of the Department of Counseling at Rockville College. She had administered standardized tests for various testing companies for 10 years, including approximately 10 to 15 tests for ETS during each of the past eight years. A room proctor assisted her in her duties, which included monitoring the testing room.

Upon completion of the testing, Baker filled out a "Supervisor's Irregularity Report" for ETS. The report stated that Hildebrant had engaged in the following "misconduct": 1) in the first testing session, "refused to stop writing when time was called. Warning given"; and 2) in the second testing session, "had to be instructed twice to stop work and close the test book. (She insisted on completing her thought.)" Baker submitted the report to the test site supervisor, who sent it with the test materials to ETS.

On September 30, ETS sent Hildebrant a letter notifying her of the report that she had continued to work on one section of the test...