Two more Philadelphia school officials finished by cheating scandal

Two more retired Philadelphia School District administrators have surrendered their academic credentials as part of the continuing investigation into cheating on state standardized tests.

Darlynn L. Gray, 54, a former principal at Delaplaine McDaniel Elementary School in South Philadelphia, has surrendered her professional certifications in the face of allegations she violated the "integrity and security" of the PSSA exams, according to the state Department of Education.

The state did not provide details of the alleged misconduct.

"I did the best that I could," Gray said in a brief interview Thursday. "There are consequences for actions."

Gray began her work in the district as a per-diem substitute in 1996 and was hired as a full-time teacher in September 1999, according to the district. She was named principal at McDaniel in 2006.

Ellen J. Berson, 45, who had been an assistant principal at McDaniel during Gray's tenure, gave up her credentials for the same reason.

Berson could not be reached for comment.

The district said she, too, had started as a per-diem substitute in November 2001 and became a full-time teacher in September 2005.

A district spokeswoman said both women retired from the district in June 2013.

Gray and Berson are the 10th and 11th district educators to be disciplined since a statewide cheating scandal was uncovered in 2011, state records show.

Seven teachers and administrators also have been criminally charged.

A statewide grand jury concluded that between 2009 and 2011, "significant pressures existed for various schools to increase PSSA performance."

In all, 53 district schools were or are being investigated for possible tampering with state tests. McDaniel was one of them. District officials have said that 138 educators have been implicated in the Philadelphia cheating probes.

The notification of the action taken against Berson was posted on the Education Department's website July 13; Gray's was posted last month.

According to the settlement that Gray signed, the Education Department received two complaints in April 2014 alleging that she had engaged in professional misconduct.

The department also received a complaint of professional misconduct against Berson in April 2014. She denied the allegation but agreed to give up her teaching and professional credentials.

The Inquirer first reported Philadelphia test-score cheating in 2011, when some educators told the newspaper about rapidly rising test scores that they said were achieved partly through cheating by adults.

Also in 2011, the Public School Notebook unearthed a forensic analysis of 2009 state exams that showed likely cheating in many city schools. The state-commissioned analysis identified suspicious patterns of erasures on exams at schools across the state.

The Education Department has disciplined eight educators in other districts for PSSA irregularities.

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