Test Tampering by Teachers at School Denied

A third-grade teacher at Colfax Avenue Elementary School in North Hollywood who was questioned by district officials over alleged tampering on a statewide standardized test two years ago denied Wednesday that teachers changed exam results at her school.

“We didn’t cheat, we didn’t change any scores, we didn’t erase (answers). We were never accused of cheating and never reprimanded in writing or verbally,” said Aiko Utsumi, one of three Colfax instructors who were among a group of teachers and principals asked about irregularities on the 1985-86 California Assessment Program test of academic skills.

Meanwhile, a teacher from another school where cheating allegedly took place, Franklin Avenue Elementary, also said teachers could not have tampered with student scores because they did not handle the tests.

After disclosing that 18 Los Angeles elementary schools--including Colfax and Franklin--tampered with scores on the statewide standardized tests in 1985-86, district officials said Wednesday that six more schools are under investigation for alleged cheating the following year. Officials also said Wednesday that, after testing security measures were tightened, at least one additional school may have changed students’ answers on the latest test given in May.

District officials said they were informed last week by the state Education Department that answer sheets from the six elementary schools had an “unusually high” number of erasures on the 1986-87 California Assessment Program tests.

The schools include third-grade classes at McKinley Avenue, South Park, Stoner and Vena, and sixth-grade classes at Melrose and Van Gogh.

Supt. Leonard Britton said Wednesday that state Education Department officials have indicated that a computer scan of student answer sheets from the CAP test given in May showed an unusually high number of erasures of answers from wrong to right at one school, but the state has not identified the school.

The latest disclosures follow last week’s accusations by state officials that 40 elementary schools statewide, including several in Los Angeles Unified, cheated on the 1985-86 California Assessment Program tests.

State officials said they did not know who tampered with the tests. But Los Angeles district officials last week said that teachers had changed wrong answers on student test sheets and that no teachers had been reprimanded. However, district officials now say they do not know who was responsible for the altered tests.

The Colfax teacher, Utsumi, a 24-year veteran of teaching, said teachers “didn’t do it” and that she did not know who at her school would change the answer sheets to raise scores. A confidential district report said an abnormally high number of answers--243 out of 269--were changed from wrong to right in three of the school’s third-grade classes.

At Franklin, teacher Bill Fink, whose class was not among two with “highly questionable” test book alterations, said teachers did not administer the CAP test at his school and did not handle the answer sheets. To minimize disruptions, teachers at his school were not asked to give the tests.

“I’m concerned that teachers not be scapegoated,” he said.

About 5,000 elementary schools give the test annually to third-, sixth- and eight-grade students to measure the effectiveness of the school system--not student performance--in reading, writing and mathematics. The CAP scores are widely used by parents to judge the quality of their children’s schools.