New School Test Procedure ‘Going Well’ : California Assessment Program Exam Given Under Strict Security

Thousands of Los Angeles district high school seniors took the California Assessment Program test this week under tightened security prompted by disclosures of test-tampering and teachers’ protests that they were unfairly blamed for the cheating.

“We think it’s going very well,” Associate Supt. Gabriel Cortina said Thursday.

A spokesman for the teachers’ union agreed.

The CAP test was given at some Los Angeles Unified School District high schools as early as Tuesday and is expected to be completed by about 24,000 12th-graders by next week.

The district and the United Teachers-Los Angeles union did not agree upon the new test procedures until late last week. Before that, teachers had not agreed to conduct the test, in part because they were angry at district management for suggesting it was teachers who were responsible for tampering with elementary grade CAP tests at 24 district schools.

The irregularities were identified at those schools by the state Department of Education, which scores and reports on the CAP tests statewide.

The agreement was reached after state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig had warned that the district would be penalized financially if it did not conduct the tests by the Dec. 16 deadline.

Some schools had to scramble to comply with the requirements, including one saying that administrators must collect and transport all test materials once the seals on the state-provided packets have been broken. The new rules also call for a minimum of two teachers to be assigned to each test room.

Dorsey High in Los Angeles, where 12th-graders took the two-hour test early Thursday, was typical of how schools adapted. Most juniors and sophomores were given the morning off, while all seniors were to report and take the test in their home-room classes.

Under a carefully orchestrated plan, teachers and administrators oversaw the testing, jointly signing forms and sealing envelopes as tests were collected.

In the past, sealed envelopes were used, but teachers transported tests to the office. In addition, Dorsey and many other schools used to give the tests to small groups of students at various times during the day, usually in government classes.

Most praised the changes, particularly teachers who see it as clearly shifting responsibility for test security to administrators.

Some school administrators grumbled about the additional work and planning, noting that no CAP cheating has been alleged at the senior high level.

But most said the new procedures are an improvement. “I think overall the extra security sends the message to students that we are serious; that honesty on test-taking is important,” said Deanna McGruder, a Dorsey administrator, as she walked the halls collecting tests.

Several Dorsey teachers and students said attendance for the test appeared to be low, in part because seniors knew other students had the morning off and because the CAP test does not affect students’ grades.

Still, some students said they preferred to take the test first thing in the morning. “When you take tests in the middle of the day you get kind of drained out,” senior Pam Jones said.

Her friend, Paige Dalbert, agreed: “I feel it’s better. When everybody takes it at the same time there’s more concentration.”