School investigators have launched a probe into potential tampering at three schools over the fourth-grade state reading exams being taken this week, the Board of Education said yesterday.
At two of the schools, PS 234 in The Bronx and PS 4 in Washington Heights, exam books were missing from packages delivered by United Parcel Service.
And school officials at PS 161 in The Bronx goofed by giving students one part of the reading exam Monday – a day before all other students in the city took it.
“We notified both the state Education Department and [Special] School[s] Investigator Ed Stancik’s office. It all has to be investigated,” board spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said last night.
“We want to make sure these tests are not compromised,” she said.
Stancik, whose reports have charged some school officials with rampant cheating over the past two years, said he’s reviewing the three incidents.
In a prior investigation, Stancik found that a test proctor at PS 234 had allegedly corrected wrong answers on scrap paper before students filled out official forms during a third-grade test.
Feinberg said that at PS 234 yesterday, “boxes were found open and 25 test booklets were missing” for the essay portion of the exam.
She said it appeared an unspecified number of booklets were also missing from an opened box at PS 4 in Washington Heights.
At PS 161, school officials are concerned questions might have been leaked because the multiple-choice portion of the test was administered a day early.
The board’s Division of Accountability and Assessment will conduct an analysis to see if there are unusual fluctuations in scores that would indicate test cheating.