More Schools Checked for Cheating

After disclosures that 18 Los Angeles elementary schools tampered with scores on statewide standardized tests in 1985-86, officials said Wednesday that six more schools are under investigation in cheating allegations involving the following year.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials said they were told last week by the state Education Department that answer sheets from the 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.

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

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. Even real estate sellers often use high test scores as a sales pitch to prospective home buyers.

Most of the schools named in the state and district investigations have shown marked increases in their CAP scores.

“If there has been tampering, we can’t tolerate it,” said Leonard Britton, district superintendent. “We can’t have a dual standard where teacher says to student, ‘If you cheat in class you’re going to fail,’ and then do nothing if the cheating is by a teacher.”

However, despite a six-month investigation from January until June, 1987, the district did not find who was responsible for cheating at the schools, according to Paul Possemato, associate superintendent of the district.

Four district staff members are in Sacramento this week looking over the 1986-87 test books to determine whether there are more changes on the tests than might normally be expected by students. The investigators are also trying to determine whether changed answer sheets were schoolwide or in specific classrooms. Britton said he did not yet know how many classes in each school were involved.

Teachers handle most testing, but others, such as department chairmen and administrators, are often involved. “There are so many people who could have been involved--volunteers, teachers, aides, principals--it’s just impossible to tell,” Britton said. “Some changes were made. There is no doubt about it. We just can’t prove it.”

Britton added that security measures were tightened for the latest test, which was given in May at the district’s more than 400 elementary schools. Wayne Johnson, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, said he spoke to teachers at two of the schools accused of cheating on the 1986 tests; the teachers said teachers were not involved in the testing and grading.

Clay Brown, principal at Van Gogh, said that he had heard the accusations only on Wednesday and that he was “surprised.” Brown, who was not principal at the school in 1987, would not comment further.

Likewise, Ada Garza, new principal at Stoner Avenue School in West Los Angeles, said she could not comment on testing procedures there because she was not the principal at the time of the alleged cheating.