Teacher Removed from Ocean Charter School in Mar Vista Over 'Testing Irregularity'

A fourth-grade teacher at Ocean Charter School in Mar Vista was removed from the classroom last week after the California Department of Education notified the school of a potential "testing irregularity" during standardized testing that was quickly verified, school administrators said.

In an email sent Thursday to parents, executive director Stephanie Edwards and north campus director Kristy Mack-Fett said they were notified by the state's education department of a potential testing irregularity in the fourth-grade classroom "proctored by Ms. Ashley on the first day of STAR testing." STAR is the state's Standardized Testing and Reporting program used to measure student achievement for state and federal accountability reports. The school's Web site lists Ashley Gossett as a fourth-grade teacher.

The school was notified on the second day of testing and the email said the "situation was immediately contained as an alternate proctor was placed in the room for the remainder of the testing period" and another test training was conducted for all teachers on testing protocols.

The irregularity was reported to the California Department of Education Testing Office, the Los Angeles Unified School District's Charter Division and the Ocean Charter School board of directors.

The email from the Ocean Charter School administrators said that "appropriate disciplinary steps were taken," but also said that any personnel action legally had to remain confidential.

An email signed by "Ms. Ashley" was sent to parents of students in her fourth-grade classroom Wednesday and it said that a letter would be sent by the school's administration annoucing her resignation after five years at the school. The email said she was leaving because her husband had been offered "a truly incredible job opportunity in New York City." Her husband recently learned that his start date had been pushed up to less than two weeks, hence the immediate resignation, the email said.

In a separate email composed for the students, Gossett, 30, wrote that she felt lucky to be their teacher and encouraged them to have patience with their new teacher who "may do things a little, or a lot, differently."

The investigation was launched after a parent with a student in Gossett's class was told by the pupil that Gossett lightly circled wrong answers and allowed the student to do them over. The parent reported it to a STAR testing office in Sacramento.

Ocean Charter School board minutes showed that Gossett was elected as the faculty representative to the board in November 2010 and resigned from the post in January 2011.

School administrators said the teacher cheating involved only some of the students in the class and the scores of the involved students would not be affected. It is not yet known if the incident would impact the school's score on the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and Academic Performance Index (API).

Ocean Charter School does not condone or tolerate any STAR testing irregularities and administrators were confident that the appropriate steps had been taken to prevent a repeat in the future, the email to parents said.

The school serves students from Venice, Mar Vista, Del Rey and nearby communities and has an enrollment of 448 K-8 students with fourth- to eighth-grade at its north campus in Mar Vista and kindergarten to third grade at its south campus in Del Rey.

The California Department of Education last year tossed out the test scores of Short Avenue  Elementary in Del Rey after three teachers were accused of changing answers, coaching students on test questions or both.

The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District in March voted 4-3 against a proposal to allow Ocean Charter School to build and operate a facility on the Walgrove Elementary School campus. The school district in January announced that its staff had chosen Ocean Charter School over a competing bid by Green Dot School's Animo Venice Middle School.

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