Education Board Informed of Lax Test Procedures

Testing procedures were so lax at some of the 18 Los Angeles Unified School District schools accused of cheating on a state examination that booklets were left in “unlocked areas and unsecured rooms,” and teachers had access to tests several days before and after they were administered, according to a report released by the district Thursday.

At four schools, no training was provided to the staff members who were to administer the test, and at one school, the principal and the testing coordinator “could not recall” who on the staff gave the test to students, the district report said.

The report was made public at a special school board meeting called Thursday to review charges of tampering on the California Assessment Program test of basic skills, which the state and districts use to measure schools’ academic progress.

Board Questions Staff

A frustrated school board questioned district staff members for two hours about the alleged cheating. The meeting produced these results:

- Although no formal action was taken, some board members agreed that the district should give up hope of ever knowing who was responsible for changing scores on the 1985-86 test, but should continue to investigate cheating on the later tests.

- District officials said a school police officer would join the investigation into test tampering on the 1986-87 CAP test.

- Starting this year, all people who handle the tests at schools will be required to sign a checklist to that effect.

In addition, the report revealed that South Park Elementary School in South Los Angeles is so far the only district school suspected of tampering with student answer sheets on the latest CAP test which was administered in May.

State Cites Cheating

Last week, the state Department of Education named 40 schools statewide, including seven in Los Angeles Unified, that were found to have tampered with student answer sheets on the 1985-86 test, and the district separately disclosed that an additional 11 schools were involved. Earlier this week, the district identified six more schools that may have tampered with results on tests in 1986-87.

Supt. Leonard Britton told board members that no doubt remained that “someone other than the students” changed answers on test booklets at 18 schools in 1985-86. But because of a “lack of solid and clear evidence,” he said, “disciplinary action against any individual staff member would be difficult, if not impossible, to substantiate.”

The report released Thursday showed that in 13 out of the 18 schools, “test booklets were stored before and after testing in unlocked areas and in unsecured rooms” and that teachers in some schools had the tests “several days before and up to one week after” the test was given.

Further, an array of school employees, including teachers, aides and test coordinators, frequently “cleaned up” test sheets after the exams, which typically involved erasing doodle marks but also included writing over student responses to make them more legible.

Aide Was in Charge

The report, dated June, 1987, by the district’s Policy Implementation and Evaluation Unit, also said that in one school, Franklin Avenue, a classroom aide administered and “cleaned up” all of the tests and was responsible for storing the test books and returning the completed exams to a central district office.

Test monitoring was inconsistent, the report also stated, and generally consisted of a “walk through of the halls” by the principal or the test coordinator, who could be an administrator or a teacher.

The school at which the principal and coordinator “could not recall” who administered the test was not identified in the report.

Board member Julie Korenstein said, “I’m really appalled we didn’t give better instructions way back when.”

Although the report notes that regular classroom teachers “generally” administered the tests to their classes, district officials stressed that they lacked evidence to pin responsibility for the cheating on any individuals, whether teachers, aides or school administrators.

Cites Legal Reasons

Associate Supt. Paul M. Possemato said officials were able to determine that only at Franklin were teachers not directly involved in administering or handling the tests.

He said that for legal reasons, officials were prohibited from asking teachers directly if they tampered with scores.

“There is no evidence that anyone pressured teachers or testing coordinators” at any schools to raise test scores through tampering, he said.

Possemato noted that teachers “benefit very little” from the CAP test because it is designed to measure school-wide progress. Test results are not given to schools for individual students or classes.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE CHEATING PROBE

A summary of actions taken by the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Policy Implementation and Evaluation Unit on alleged California Assessment Program cheating in 1985-86 at 18 elementary schools. The information was taken from a report released Thursday by the district Board of Education.

Oct. 22, 1986: Reviewed oral report by the Office of Instruction about a possibility of error or discrepancy in 1986 CAP score at one elementary school.

Dec. 22, 1986: Sent a staffer to the state Department of Education in Sacramento to review answer sheets.

Dec. 24, 1986: Met with superintendent to clarify Sacramento visit and inform him of potential problems.

Jan. 2, 1987: Received directive from superintendent requesting a plan of action.

Jan. 6, 1987: Met with deputy superintendent to discuss a plan.

Feb. 3, 1987: Assigned two staff members to review answer sheets.

March 18, 1987: Determined which schools might have cheated, informed Board of Education and began to prepare interview questions.

April 24, 1987: Called in principals and testing coordinators of selected schools with questionable answer sheets. Sent out people to interview local school staff.

May 19, 1987: Presented findings and recommendations to the superintendent.

May 26, 1987: Took appropriate administrative action.

June 1, 1987: Informed Board of Education and state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig.