Organizational corruption, test score manipulation, and teacher hiring in Romania

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between organized corruption and the irregularities observed in the score distribution of Romania's national teaching hiring and mobility test, which determines eligibility for fixed-term and open-ended teaching positions. Despite its strict scoring rules, there was a significant excess of scores at the critical cut-off values. Both bunching analyses and binomial generalized linear mixed models identified organizational but not individual corruption, as a significant predictor of scoring irregularities at the minimum value required for open-ended positions.Organizational corruption was also associated with a higher probability that scoring precisely at this threshold value would secure an open-ended position. The results further indicated that other factors may contribute to the scoring irregularities at the minimum value required for the less desirable fixed-term positions.