Number One in Maricopa County and Arizona for Suspicious School Test Scores

We hear the oft repeated claim from the governing board and administration about Cave Creek Unified being rated by the state the number one public school district (unified) in Maricopa County for 2011 (as if being ranked the best in one of the worst states in the US for education is an accomplishment).

Well another study by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has ranked Cave Creek Unified the top (unified) district in the state (tied with Kingman Unified) for suspicious school test scores in 2011.

AJC performed a statistical analysis of state test scores for 69,000 schools across the US and found that 10% of the classes in Cave Creek Unified had “improbable clusters of unusual score changes” for 2011.  Not only was this rate the highest in the state, AJC found that it was the highest in the past 4 years for CCUSD.

In light of the cheating scandals involving Atlanta Public Schools and schools in DC, this is fascinating.

You may recall that USA Today\Arizona Republic performed a similar study last year.  It studied AIMS scores from 2005 to 2009 and found that “the average score in at least one grade in each of the 93 schools took a one-year jump that testing experts say is statistically improbable.” The Arizona Republic only named a sample of 13 schools from that study.

According to the AJC…

In any year, a typical (non-cheating) district might expect to have about 5% of its classes flagged for unusually high or low performance relative to their performances in the previous year. Districts which consistently have 10% or more of their classes flagged or which have an extremely high flag rate in a particular year certainly deserve further examination.

View the methodology here.