The testing irregularities reported within the last week in two northeast Kansas school districts may be a warning to school officials who are tempted to cut corners to meet the pressures of the federal No Child Left Behind mandates.

State officials have invalidated all of last year’s math and reading assessment scores for the Glenwood Ridge Elementary School in the Basehor-Linwood school district. The school’s principal has resigned after it was revealed that proper testing procedures weren’t followed.

In the Jefferson County North district, the fifth-grade reading test scores submitted for a Nortonville school also have been thrown out, and materials from another test administered in the district have disappeared. Although district officials wouldn’t connect the test irregularities to subsequent personnel changes, the school board has bought out the contract of the Jefferson County North Elementary/Middle School principal and reassigned two fifth-grade teachers to different grade levels.

The Jefferson North superintendent’s attention was drawn to the results of the state reading test after being told by a staff member this summer that teachers were asking students to review specific answers on the reading test after they had completed it. Materials from another test, which compares students’ scores with those of other students across the country, simply are missing. The principal was responsible for submitting the results of the tests, but neither the principal nor the testing company can produce the test materials on which those results were based.

It’s interesting that the Nortonville school’s high test scores were being used to promote a consulting company being developed by the principal and several teachers. The company supplies research about reading and instruction along with curriculum ideas for a fee. It would be important to their marketing effort to have successful reading programs in their own school.

Although most teachers and school administrators probably don’t have their own consulting companies, they are under increasing pressure to produce test scores that document student improvement. Districts that can’t show that improvement will be subject to sanctions from the No Child Left Behind program. No teacher intends to leave any child “behind,” but the requirement to show improvement among 100 percent of the students in a district seems unreasonable to some.

Because of the financial pressures attached to meeting the federal mandate, it would be tempting to alter or misrepresent the test scores that are used as proof of student improvement. Tempting, but not acceptable. Even if the No Child Left Behind standards are proved to be folly, that conclusion should be based on accurate test data.

It is to the credit of Nortonville and Basehor-Linwood officials that they reported the irregularities and took the appropriate action to remedy the situation. Hopefully, every school district in the state would do the same. State officials should make it clear they won’t tolerate anything less than well administered and truthfully reported results on standardized state tests.