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The Pleasanton Unified School District will not appeal the state’s decision to invalidate Pleasanton Middle School’s test scores, according to Myla Grasso. Coming to the decision earlier this week, officials said they would like to focus the time and resources on the students, not an appeals process.
In late August, as the 2006 STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) test results were to be revealed, the California Department of Education (CDE) said the middle school’s scores were to be invalidated after handwritten copies of a 2005 practice test were reportedly made by a teacher.
Grasso said the decision to not appeal the ruling is in part due to the CDE Web site showing a score for Pleasanton Middle, when it was previously said would be omitted.
“We determined that we need to be careful about how we allocate our time and resources,” she said. “And the state has given us a score anyway.”
The process was estimated to have taken several months of paperwork and additional investigations.
At the same time, Grasso said the district is not convinced that the state’s original claims are true.
Casey was not available to comment, but said in a previous interview that he believed the district’s investigations into the test copying proved that the PMS students didn’t have any advantage for the 2006 testing.
“The [CDE] couldn’t get over the fact that PMS’s scores were so high,” Casey said. “District staff believes that the scores at Pleasanton Middle reflect only the achievement of the students at the school.”
Additionally, Casey and Grasso, as well as other members of the community, wondered why the other middle schools weren’t also targeted for invalidation as teachers in each of the three middle schools were allegedly given copies of the practice test.
To view results and information from STAR testing, visit http://star.cde.ca.gov.
