DAYTON — How did a traditionally low-scoring charter school that ranked last in Ohio on one state math test in 2005 suddenly outperform perennial top-scorer Oakwood on a state math test in 2006?

That would seem to be a logical question, but until the Dayton Daily News last week reported on the extraordinary test scores posted by the Dayton charter school in last year's state math tests, nobody at the state department of education office seemed to take notice. The episode raises questions about how well the state monitors school-to-school test practices, and if it is protecting the integrity of the tests given all public school students in Ohio starting at third grade.

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The Daily News reported last week that the practice tests City Day students took prior to taking the state exam last March contained 44 questions that were identical or substantially the same as questions that appeared on the actual test.

"If they did that, they should lose their charter," said Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, who promised to look into the matter.

City Day's superintendent, Roseda Goff, said she doesn't know how those questions appeared on the practice tests and asserts that the security of state tests delivered to the school last February was not compromised.

But Carl Wick, a state school board member from Centerville, said, "Those wide swings are unlikely to happen unless something else is going on."

Wick said the education department has had discussions about ways to "look at those wide disparities and flag them."

"That's going to be addressed," he said.

A spokeswoman for Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann said he wants to know more about City Day's test preparation.

"If they did violate state statutes he (Dann) definitely would take action against the school, if the department of education found they were really teaching the test basically," said Dann's spokeswoman Jennifer Brindisi.

Test score data obtained by the Dayton Daily News from the Ohio Department of Education demonstrate just how extraordinary City Day's gains in 2005-06 were over the school's prior year performance.

Consider City Day's 2004-05 fourth graders. That class had an average score that ranked worst in the state — last out of 2,007 schools that reported scores for that exam.

But the next year, many of those same kids helped produce an average score on the state's fifth-grade exam that outdid more than 640 schools — scoring better than more than a third of the 1,820 schools that reported scores.

At seventh grade, the change was even more dramatic.

City Day's average score on the sixth-grade math test in 2004-05 ranked in the bottom 3 percent among 1,364 schools that reported scores. But in 2005-06, the average score on the state math exam for the school's seventh graders ranked in the top 4 percent among 1,043 schools that reported scores.

City Day's seventh-grade math results in 2005-06 bested such traditional Miami Valley high scoring districts as Oakwood, Russia and Cedarville.

State Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton, said City Day should have to provide other evidence to support last year's scores, such as other standardized test scores and student grades, just as any public school would in a state investigation.

To clear the school's name, Goff should offer to have students re-take the exam, said Luckie, a former Dayton school board member.

"If she's so confident, have the kids take the test again and prove it. You have to have accountability. This is taxpayer dollars going to an unregulated public school with no accountability."

While City Day was making amazing gains in math, its reading scores did not share in the good fortune.

City Day's average score on the fourth-grade state reading exam in 2004-05 was seventh worst in the state out of 2,004 schools that reported scores — worse than 99.5 percent of all Ohio schools. And in 2005-06, the average score on the state reading exam for the school's fifth grade ranked only slightly better — still falling in the bottom 3 percent among 1,822 schools that reported scores.

City Day's average score on the state sixth-grade reading exam in 2004-05 was 26th worst in the state out of 1,339 schools that reported scores — in the bottom 2 percent. And in 2005-06, the average score on the state reading exam for the school's seventh grade did better but still ranked in the bottom quarter of 1,024 schools that reported scores.

A consultant hired by City Day to help prepare students of the state tests, Rachel Armour, told the Daily News she created practice math tests using what she thought were sample questions given to her by Goff, the school's superintendent. Goff said she only gave Armour traditional practice materials.

But copies of those practice tests include nearly four dozen questions that are strikingly similar to questions from the actual state exam. The state tests given in March 2006 were publicly released on a state education department Web site in July 2006 but questions from that test were top secret prior to the exam dates.

The Ohio Department of Education has a policy of not commenting on investigations into testing irregularities.

"We are monitoring the situation," department spokesman J. C. Benton said.

Wick said he wants some quick answers.

"I'm going to talk to (state testing director) Mitch Chester about this," he said. "I certainly need to know in my mind how this is being addressed and to what extent. There has to be some accountability through the state board."

Wick also co-chairs a state school board subcommittee that oversees accountability for charter schools and has begun work on procedures for the privately run but publicly funded schools.

"What disturbs me about this is the fact that if there is cheating taking place, it impacts the kids," Wick said. "The purpose of those tests is to provide benchmarks of where the kids and the schools are, but those tests are also designed (to identify) what interventions the students might need. That's just shortchanging the kids."