Jennifer Smith Richards has the story for the Columbus Dispatch.
School districts will have to pick up some of the tab if their employees cheat or flub giving state standardized tests.
The Ohio Department of Education announced this week that it would start collecting $25 per student, per test subject, next spring for every time districts report a breach of testing rules.
A paper-thin budget has forced the change, said department spokesman Scott Blake said.
The state has long had the option of charging a fee. It will use the option now to help cover the cost of re-testing students and re-scoring their tests, he said.
For some districts, a widespread testing problem now could cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Schools are on an honor system when it comes to mistakes or outright cheating on the state standardized tests, which are used to judge how well students are being taught. Schools are supposed to report themselves and assign a zero score to the affected tests.
"It's not designed to be punitive," Blake said. "We're putting this out there for districts and making them aware that if they are responsible for a breach, there's a cost associated with it. Twenty-five dollars isn't an inordinate amount of money."
The state won't say how many test-security breaches are reported each year, citing a confidentiality law.
"I don't know how many breaches occurred last year, but in high schools the sizes of the high schools we have around Franklin County they do occur," said Bart Anderson, superintendent of the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio, which provides buying power and support services to local districts.
Security breaches often happen for silly reasons, Anderson said. A teacher who steps into the hall to tend to a child who is crying or throwing up is in violation for leaving the test-taking class unattended, he said.
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