A state investigation has concluded that staff engaged in "pervasive, systemic cheating" on MCAS tests at a Springfield charter school where scores skyrocketed last spring, the state's commissioner of elementary and secondary education said yesterday.
Commissioner Mitchell Chester said that he will ask his agency’s board today to revoke the charter for the Robert M. Hughes Academy and that teachers and administrators could lose their state professional licenses. He declined to specify the acts of cheating because of investigations continue, but said it was orchestrated by the principal and carried out by several staff members.
The state action was announced as charter schools are under intense scrutiny, with the Legislature engaged in a high-stakes debate over whether to double the number of charter school seats in many cities, including Springfield and Boston.
"It's very disturbing," Chester said yesterday. "In my own experience working in four different states, I have never encountered an incident of cheating that was as highly orchestrated as I’ve seen in this case."
Well, that's progress.
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