Sciocchetti to help investigate test fraud
Eighth-grade students prepare to take a Regents exam. (June 18, 2010) Credit: Newsday/Karen Wiles Stabile
The state has tapped a federal prosecutor to investigate and help prevent testing fraud and other "moral conduct" concerns among teachers and administrators.
Tina Sciocchetti, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, will serve as executive director of test security and educator integrity, state education officials announced Tuesday.
The new post grew in part out of a growing backlog of cheating cases and an investigator's recommendation for decisive action to address the problem.
Sciocchetti will oversee teacher and administrator discipline and enforcement of "moral character regulatory provisions," officials said, including misconduct ranging from test-integrity violations to inappropriate relationships with students.
"We're developing the investigative and deterrence capacity to protect our teachers, administrators and, most importantly, our students," said state education commissioner John B. King Jr.
The state Education Department has collected 108 cases of testing irregularities in the 2010-11 school year but has resolved only 36 of them.
A state testing fraud investigator, Henry M. Greenberg, found that administrators rarely revoke certifications of offending teachers and administrators. Of 278 testing violations verified statewide between 2006 and 2011, agency officials decertified school staffers in four cases.
Responding to the report, the Board of Regents on Monday approved steps to bolster test security, including the creation of a seven-member unit of investigators and lawyers focused on major test-tampering cases.
