Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board v. Gambrel

104 S.W.3d 767, 2002 Ky. App. LEXIS 1158, 2002 WL 1232937
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJune 7, 2002
DocketNos. 2000-CA-002912-MR, 2000-CA-002925-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 104 S.W.3d 767 (Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board v. Gambrel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board v. Gambrel, 104 S.W.3d 767, 2002 Ky. App. LEXIS 1158, 2002 WL 1232937 (Ky. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

SCHRODER, Judge.

This is an appeal and cross-appeal from a judgment of the Franklin Circuit Court affirming in part and reversing in part a decision of the Education Professional Standards Board (“EPSB”) which found [769]*769that a secondary supervisor and high school principal had violated KRS 161.120 and other regulations when they failed to follow KIRIS appropriate assessment practices in administering the school’s 1996 KIRIS test. Upon review of the arguments on appeal and cross-appeal, we affirm those portions of the judgment which upheld the EPSB’s decision and reverse those portions which overturned that decision, effectively reinstating the EPSB’s order in full.

This case arises out of the March, 1996 Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS) testing at Bell County High School. At that time, appellee, Sue Gambrel, was Bell County Schools’ secondary supervisor, with an office at Bell County High School (BCHS), and appel-lee/cross-appellant, George Thompson, was principal of BCHS. The KIRIS test was used to assess the progress of learning in each public school in Kentucky. Schools that did poorly on the test could be sanctioned, while employees of schools that did well were eligible for cash awards.

On March 12, 1996, the Assistant Superintendent of the Bell County Schools received two phone calls from Bell County School employees alleging that individuals were cheating in the course of administering the KIRIS test. The Assistant Superintendent immediately reported the allegations to Pearl Ray Le-fevers, Superintendent of Bell County Schools, who began an investigation of the matter. The results of that investigation were forwarded to the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), Office of Curriculum Assessment and Accountability. Thereafter, KDE’s Division of Management Assistance followed up with its own investigation which revealed that violations of appropriate testing practices did occur during the March, 1996 testing at BCHS.1 As a result of the violations, the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) charged Gam-brel and Thompson with eight separate counts of misconduct in office, willful neglect of duty and incompetency pursuant to KRS 161.120(l)(a), and violations of 704 KAR 20:680, which contains the Professional Code of Ethics for Kentucky School Certified Personnel. Specifically, the EPSB alleged:

a. Ms. Gambrel was the building coordinator for the KIRIS assessment that took place in March 1996 at Bell County High School, and in that role she failed to effectively carry out her responsibilities, as outlined in the KIRIS Instruction Manual for Assessment Coordinators.
b. Ms. Gambrel and Mr. Thompson knew of or were responsible for inappropriate assessment practices for the KIR-IS assessment that took place in March 1996 at Bell County High School in the following areas:
* encouraging teachers to assist students in understanding the KIRIS test questions in violation of KIRIS Appropriate Assessment Practices published by the Kentucky Department of Education [limited to Mr. Thompson];
* knowing of the use of a student accountability scale created to encourage student performance, which was an inappropriate assessment practice;
* permitting and authorizing the administration of the KIRIS tests to two Bell County High School students in locations other than the high school;
* scheduling extended-time testing in an inappropriate manner;
[770]*770* knowing that social studies teachers reviewed the KIRIS social studies test prior to testing and formulated a “bullet sheet” of critical content about the test; and
* knowing of the use of materials during the testing that were not allowed to be used pursuant to the KIRIS test instructions [limited to Ms. Gambrel], c. Mr. Thompson failed to exercise the appropriate leadership in preparing his staff at Bell County High School to follow appropriate assessment practices. Specifically, Mr. Thompson is charged with delegating the responsibility for coordinating the KIRIS assessment at Bell County High School and then faking to effectively monitor and supervise that delegation of responsibility, the result being that the Bell County High School staff was not properly trained and provided guidance for test administration.

The EPSB also filed charges against eighteen (18) other BCHS teachers and Pat Bingham, the District Assessment Coordinator for the Bell County Schools. However, these charges were all settled. Gambrel and Thompson refused to settle and demanded a hearing on the charges.

The hearing on the charges against Gambrel and Thompson was held on October 5-8, 1998. On March 10, 1999, the hearing officer for the EPSB issued her findings of fact, conclusions of law, and recommended order. She found that Gambrel and Thompson were not guilty of the following three charges: knowing about a social studies “bullet sheet”; knowing of the use of prohibited materials during the testing; and permitting the administration of tests in unauthorized locations. She found that Gambrel and Thompson did violate appropriate testing practices by encouraging teachers to clarify test questions, allowing the use of the student accountability scale, and inappropriately scheduling extended testing time. However, she specifically found that neither Gambrel nor Thompson intentionally, knowingly or purposely violated the KIR-IS appropriate assessment practices because, at the time, they were not aware that their acts violated KIRIS appropriate assessment practices. Hence, she found, as a matter of law, that their actions did not constitute a violation of 704 KAR 20:680, Section l(3)(c)l. (maintaining the dignity and integrity of the profession) or KRS 161.120(l)(a) (misconduct, willful neglect of duty, incompetency, and violation of state school laws.) She further found that Gambrel was not the building coordinator for the KIRIS assessment in March, 1996. As to the charges against Thompson alone, the hearing officer found that he was guilty of failing to exercise appropriate leadership in delegating responsibility for the 1996 KIRIS tests, but such failure in leadership did not constitute incompetency. Also, she found that Thompson’s failure of leadership was not the cause of the BCHS staff not being properly trained or provided guidance for test administration.

On June 8, 1999, the EPSB issued its findings of fact, conclusions of law, and final order. In it, the EPSB agreed with the hearing officer that Gambrel and Thompson were not guilty of knowing about a social studies “bullet sheet,” knowing of the use of prohibited materials during the testing, and permitting the administration of tests in unauthorized locations, and thus, dismissed those charges. However, the EPSB rejected the recommendations of the hearing officer as to the remaining charges. Specifically, the EPSB found that Gambrel was the KIRIS building coordinator for BCHS in 1996.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
104 S.W.3d 767, 2002 Ky. App. LEXIS 1158, 2002 WL 1232937, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kentucky-education-professional-standards-board-v-gambrel-kyctapp-2002.