Tagged: East St. Louis School District

The school superintendent in East St. Louis says some teachers used "inappropriate strategies and techniques" to inflate students scores on standardized achievement tests.

District 189 Superintendent Arthur Culver told the Belleville News-Democrat's editorial board on Wednesday that elementary test scores will likely drop this year. Culver didn't call the teachers' actions cheating and he didn't cite any schools by name. He also didn't describe or give examples of the questionable methods the teachers allegedly used.

The school year is over in East St. Louis, and the next one will mean only half of the school district's ten elementary schools will be left.

St. Louis' KMOV-TV reports the school system decided months ago that it planned to close five of its ten elementary schools as a result of declining enrollment. The district also cited the need to stabilize attendance and staffing.

Beginning Tuesday, schools superintendent Arthur Culver and other administrators will meet with affected parents to discuss the downsizing.

A former top federal prosecutor has completed his state-launched probe of the cash-strapped East St. Louis public school system and has turned over his findings to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

A. Courtney Cox had served as U.S. attorney for southern Illinois before being chosen last summer to review the 7,500-student district's spending, contracts and employee qualifications.

The school system has been beset by questions about millions of dollars in spending on consultants and conventions.