Investigation: Did school leaders erase students' wrong answers, fill in correct ones?

SEATTLE -- Officials at Seattle Public Schools are investigating test scores at Beacon Hill International Elementary after a huge spike in the number of students passing the state assessments this year compared with last year.

At issue is why so many wrong answers to multiple choice questions were erased and the right answers filled in.  This dramatically improved results and led to 100% of the student meeting standards, better than most schools throughout Washington.

The State Superintendent’s Office finds the results “suspicious” and argues that good teaching doesn’t cut it as an explanation.

“This was across the board,” said Nathan Olson of OSPI.  “The entire 5th-grade class, the entire 3rd-grade class, the entire 4th-grade class. It couldn’t have been just one rock star teacher.”

The state has invalidated all Beacon Hill test scores.

The School District is conducting an internal investigation to determine who is behind all this, and whether anyone will be punished.