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Investigation: Seattle special education teacher 'changed a student's answer' on standardized test

SEATTLE — An elementary-level special education teacher for Seattle Public Schools improperly helped students get higher scores on a statewide test, a district investigation found.

The results of the district investigation revealed the teacher “changed a student’s answer” during the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment (“SBAC”) test, and engaged in other wrongdoing that “violated testing protocols by helping students and providing advantage to some students over others,” according to documents obtained by KIRO 7.

KIRO 7 is not revealing the teacher’s name or school because he hasn’t been charged with a crime, but both are identified in documents shared with Kevin Amos, who filed a public disclosure request after he heard rumblings about the allegations last spring.

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“Once the investigation ended, I never heard anything else about it,” Amos told KIRO 7.

When he received the results of the public disclosure request last week, Amos said, he “was just floored.”

Amos shared the results of that request with KIRO 7.

The documents reveal the special education teacher "changed a student's answer" on the test.

He also was found to have "directed" instructional assistants to "grammar check" and "spell check"  -- which is not allowed.

"Further evidence" revealed that because of the teacher's help, some of his students' scores "improved from a level 1 to a level 3, which is very unlikely."

Seattle Public Schools declined KIRO 7's multiple requests for an on-camera interview regarding the findings of the investigation, which, according to district documents, was completed on Aug. 14.

Instead, spokesperson Kim Schmanke released the following statement.

"This is an open personnel matter and as such we are declining to comment. The district takes allegations of testing irregularity very seriously and reported potential violations to the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction as soon as we became aware."