TEST SCORE SCANDAL BREWING?

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Four Rhode Island school districts have been singled out for having "suspicious test scores" in a national investigation by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The four districts are Coventry, East Providence, Providence and Woonsocket, where irregularities were found during at least one of the testing years between 2008 and 2011.

The Georgia newspaper analyzed test results for 69,000 public schools and found suspicious reading or math scores in roughly 200 school districts across the country.

Classes with scores rising or dropping with a probability of less than 0.05 from one year to the next were flagged as "unusual."

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the AJC's nationwide findings "concerning."

The methodology used explains that a statistical analysis "cannot prove cheating" but suggests further investigation is warranted.