40 Grade Schools Cheated on Skill Tests, State Finds

Forty elementary schools statewide, including 12 in Southern California, cheated on the 1985-86 California Assessment Program test used to measure overall school progress in basic reading, writing and mathematics, according to a state Department of Education investigation.

A separate investigation by Los Angeles Unified School District officials turned up an additional 11 elementary schools where teachers and a classroom aide admitted either changing scores or coaching students during the test.

The state detected the cheating in April of last year when a computer check of student answer sheets found an abnormally high number of erasures on the forms turned in by the 40 schools.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig revealed Tuesday that the investigation had taken place.

About 5,000 elementary schools give the test annually to third-, sixth- and eighth-grade students. The CAP scores are widely used by parents to judge the quality of their children’s schools and by real estate sellers who often use high test scores in their sales pitches to prospective home buyers.

Seventeen schools are suspected of tampering with scores on the 1986-87 CAP test--including two schools from the previous year’s list--but state Education Department officials said Wednesday that they will not identify those schools until they have a chance to respond to the cheating charges. The department also plans to check the 1987-88 scores, which are scheduled for public release in October.

Honig has touted recent improvements in test scores as evidence that tougher school standards are working. But Honig said Wednesday that the cheating does not lessen the credibility of the test and rejected the notion that increasing state pressure on schools to improve should excuse it.

“It’s dishonorable” to cheat on the test, he said, and suggested that the persons who changed test scores should be fired.

Honig said he did not know who was involved in the cheating or whether they were teachers or school administrators.

State officials said the scores for the 40 schools were thrown out and not included in the district or state CAP score averages.

A high-ranking Los Angeles school district official said Wednesday that the district decided not to punish teachers who changed answers or gave students “inappropriate assistance” during the test because the district had not adequately informed them of proper testing procedures.

“In all fairness, I don’t think we had a basis for reprimanding the teachers given that we did not have clearly delineated guidelines for them,” said Associate Supt. Paul Possemato, who led the district’s investigation. “Now we have clear directives.”

Possemato did not identify the teachers and the aide involved.

He said the district issued a bulletin to all schools last Oct. 9 spelling out proper security measures for CAP testing, such as ensuring that no answer keys are kept in the school, locking all student test booklets in a secure cabinet and promptly returning unused test books and answer sheets to a central district office.

In addition, the state has asked districts to provide independent proctors during CAP testing. The state previously had required proctoring only for 12th-grade CAP tests.

The state Education Department found cheating in eight schools in Los Angeles County, including Pleasant View Elementary School in the Baldwin Park Unified School District and seven Los Angeles school district schools. The Los Angeles schools were Colfax Avenue, Compton Avenue, Franklin Avenue, Lanai Road, Russell, Kennedy and Russell Gifted/High Ability Magnet Center.

The district through its own investigation uncovered cheating or “inappropriate” testing procedures at 11 more schools: Bandini, Crescent Heights, Gault, Lorena, Mayberry, 112th Street, Parmelee, Ritter, Brainard, Mid-City Alternative and West Hollywood.

According to Possemato, 25 teachers in 18 schools were found to have erased incorrect answers or to have given students clues that they had answered a question wrong. “There were cases of teachers saying things like, ‘Take a look at that answer. Is that what we discussed in class?’ ” Possemato said.

While he said he does not condone giving students that kind of assistance on a standardized test, Possemato said he understands why a teacher might do it.

“As a teacher in the past, I can recall many times walking up and down the aisle and saying (to a student), ‘Look at what you’ve done. You skipped a question.’ You want to give students their best shot. . . . (But) teachers have no right to provide that kind of assistance during a standardized test.” Possemato said district officials held “clarification conferences” with the teachers and administrators at the 18 schools to make clear to them they had acted “inappropriately” in changing scores or coaching pupils during testing.

At Robert F. Kennedy School in the City Terrace area, Principal Frank Beltran said he was “totally surprised” by the allegations against three third-grade teachers at his school.

“I hold those particular teachers in high esteem and would consider them some of the strongest teachers in the school,” said Beltran, who was not principal when the cheating occurred. “I would not think that they would change any test answers.”

He speculated that the reason why a teacher might be tempted to tamper with student test scores would be to boost their self-esteem.

“Sometimes in the L.A. Unified School District, schools test below the state average. They might have wanted to make their children feel that we’re breaking out of this educational (rut) of low test scores,” Beltran said.

E. David Barker, superintendent of the Baldwin Park school district, said district officials investigated the cheating charges against Pleasant View Elementary School, but “we could find no solid evidence which allowed us to take any action against any personnel.”

Catherine Carey, a spokeswoman for United Teachers-Los Angeles, the union that represents the district’s teachers, said that while the union does not condone cheating, she understands the conditions that might encourage it.

“There is an awful lot of pressure put on (teachers) by administrators and by the district in general to perform” better on the CAP test, she said. “More pressure has been exerted in the last five to eight years. . . . (And) there is pressure on teachers that if their students are doing well, that will affect their evaluation and their status.”

Honig said that pressure on schools to improve their test scores has increased but that it is no excuse for cheating. “That’s like the Olympic coach saying there is a lot of pressure (on his athletes) to go over the bar, so let’s lower the bar.”

Honig emphasized that cheating on the 1985-86 CAP test was found in a very small number of schools and only in third- and sixth-grade classes. “You’ve still got 99% of the schools doing the right thing,” he said.

The 40 schools found to have cheated ran the gamut academically, including both high- and low-achieving schools.

Honig said only one of the 40 schools--Dorsa Elementary School in the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District in Santa Clara County--has denied that cheating occurred. Alum Rock district officials could not be reached late Wednesday.

Six of the schools were in the Oakland Unified School District, and four were in the San Francisco Unified School District.

Also contributing to this story were Times staff writers Marita Hernandez, Mark Arax, Mary Barber and Carlos Lozano.

SCHOOLS ACCUSED OF CHEATING

Southern California elementary schools accused by the state Department of Education of cheating on the 1985-86 California Assessment Program test: LOS ANGELES COUNTY L.A. Unified School District:

Colfax Avenue

Compton Avenue

Franklin Avenue

Kennedy

Lanai Road

Russell

Russell Gifted Magnet Baldwin Park Unified:

Pleasant View VENTURA COUNTY Santa Paula Elementary School District:

Grace Thille RIVERSIDE COUNTY Nuview Union School District:

Nuview SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY San Bernardino City School District:

Hunt

SAN DIEGO COUNTY Carlsbad Unified School District:

Jefferson National Elementary School District:

Las Palmas Schools that Los Angeles district officials say engaged in cheating or “inappropriate” testing procedures on 1985-86 California Assessment Program tests:

Bandini

Brainard

Crescent Heights

Gault

Lorena

Mayberry

Mid City Alternative

112th Street

Parmelee

Ritter

West Hollywood