Two staff members put on leave, after test tampering at Seattle elementary school

SEATTLE -- The answers on students’ tests were altered, so the scores would come back higher. That’s what investigators with Seattle Public Schools say happened at Beacon Hill International School. Two staff members have now been put on leave.

“It’s pretty overwhelming,” says Lisa Sidelauskas, who has two children who attend Beacon Hill International School. “I haven't talked about this situation that much with our kids because they are younger. I know the parents who have older kids in the school were really upset about what happened.”

Investigators with Seattle Public Schools say they’ve found evidence that standardized tests taken by third, fourth and fifth graders last year were tampered with.

“We saw the unusual spike in scores in reading and in math,” says Kelly Aramaki, executive director of schools for Seattle’s southeast region.

The state has already invalidated those tests. But since tests are scheduled to begin again next week, the district is now placing two staff members on administrative leave. They say Principal Po Tang and Support Teacher Judy Eng, as well as former Vice Principal Michele Niscioka, were responsible for several breaches of testing protocol.

“They include improper storage of the test booklets and reading of completed booklets,” says Stacy Howard with Seattle Public Schools. “The district felt it was best to remove them from the school to remove any question of impropriety.”

The school district says they have not uncovered a motive for the tampering yet. But they admit higher test scores do play a role in bonuses.

“If their evaluation and survey data matches the higher scores, then the principal could get a bonus,” says Aramaki.

Tang has only been principal at Beacon Hill for two years, but parents say she was well liked.

“We just had a meeting with her a couple weeks ago about my kindergartner,” says Sidelauskas. “She was great, she gave us some great advice. I've always thought she was doing a good job.”

The school district says to increase test security, they will be providing all schools with locked storage units and requiring completed tests to be returned to the district sooner. More state testing will also be done on computers this year.