From: David Ross Just more proof of the inefficieny of the TSA -------------------- Feds: No Wrongdoing in Test Prep for Airport Screeners -------------------- By Thomas Frank.WASHINGTON BUREAU June 11, 2003 Washington -- The federal Transportation Security Administration has concluded there was no wrongdoing when airport screeners were given almost all the questions in advance to an exam certifying them to operate bomb-detection machines last year. The TSA launched an internal investigation as a result of Newsday stories saying screeners were read questions and answers before taking an exam to show they knew how to operate machines that detect bombs in luggage. Screeners around the country said they were read questions, often verbatim, and told answers at the end of a week of classroom training in December. The TSA investigation, concluded last month, found that "22 of the 25 questions on the final exam were also on the lesson quizzes" given during the training week. The investigation also found that 24 of 40 screeners interviewed randomly at five airports, including LaGuardia and Kennedy, said "their review questions and answers were identical to the final exam questions." The other 16 screeners said the review questions were "very similar" to those on the final. Seattle-based Advanced Interactive Systems trained a total of 21,500 screeners to operate bomb-detection machines. The TSA said there was no wrongdoing because "training was conducted as prescribed by TSA curriculum guidelines," according to a letter from TSA Administrator James Loy to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who sought the probe. TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said reading questions during training "is based on standard teaching and testing practice." But Schumer criticized the TSA training and investigation. "We want to see if people have learned from what they were taught. Giving them answers ahead of time doesn't solve any problems," Schumer said. "We wouldn't do this for a kid passing high school math, and this is a more serious test than that." A security screener at LaGuardia, who said his instructor read questions and answers just before giving the exam, called the TSA finding "absurd." "How can the TSA turn around and say that by giving the screeners the answers to the exam, that this training is right?" said the screener, who asked not be named fearing retaliation. Screeners and instructors said they were under pressure to make sure everyone passed the exam. The TSA was racing to meet a Dec. 31 deadline - which many experts called unrealistic - to scan all luggage for bombs using newly installed machines. The week of classroom training was broken into five lessons. Each concluded with a five-question open-book quiz, the TSA probe found. Hatfield, the TSA spokesman, said, "The final test was made up of questions from the quizzes." He added, "It wasn't some out-of-the- ordinary process." Officials familiar with public-sector testing said reading questions before an exam is unusual. "You can't give a question to them two days earlier along with an answer and then give them the same question on a test and call it a test, because all it is, is regurgitation and repetition," said Lt. Deb Schroder, who runs instructional services at the California Highway Patrol Academy. Ed Hartin, president of the Northwest Association of Fire Trainers, said, "To solely train them to respond by rote memory might not be the most effective way." Copyright (c) 2003, Newsday, Inc. -------------------- This article originally appeared at: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ustsa113327928jun11,0,2559452.story Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com