Placement Exam Results Nullified Because 2 Cheated

The Educational Testing Service ruled this week that 27 seniors at San Clemente High School will have to retake the essay portion of an Advanced Placement exam because two students cheated.

Capistrano Unified School District officials said Wednesday that a student taking the first section of the challenging government and politics exam last month somehow peeked at an upcoming essay question before a 15-minute break. During the break, the student, along with at least one classmate, researched the question, which was about interest groups and voting trends, officials said.

School officials learned of the incident later that morning when a proctor discovered that someone had broken the seal on the essay test, said Bill Eller, associate superintendent of instruction. The test is divided into two parts: multiple choice questions and the essay.

Only two students, both of whom admitted their role in the cheating incident later that day, have been disciplined, district spokeswoman Jacqueline Price said.

The names of the two students and the punishment they received were not released. The two will not be able to retake the exam, which students take in trying to gain college credits.

On Tuesday, Princeton-based Educational Testing Service, which administered the test, ruled that the results of the essays for the remaining 27 seniors in the group would be invalidated since it was “too difficult to delineate between who could have been exposed, or who was exposed, to the question,” Price said. The students may retake the 45-minute essay exam Monday or receive refunds of their $65 test fees, ETS officials said.

San Clemente High School senior Anthony Chute, who took the test but was not involved in the cheating, said that although he was “amazed” by what happened, he understands the pressures facing even the brightest students.

“I think people feel pressure because they studied for an entire year just for this one single test,” he said. “That’s pretty weighty. Colleges don’t care if you learn, they just look at numbers on a sheet.”

Chute said that he, along with most of his classmates, plan to retake the essay.

“I guess it’s kind of a pain to try and think of some of these things all over again, but it doesn’t bother me that much,” he said. “I feel pretty confident about passing it.”

While students and teachers said they don’t know how widespread cheating is at the school, recent studies indicate that about 80% of high school seniors nationwide have cheated at one time or another, Eller said.

“My sense is there is a lot more of it out there than we would hope for,” he said. “But I guess I see a lot of it in the adult world as well, which doesn’t please me either.”

History teacher David DiLeo, who has taught most of the students who were taking the test, said he doesn’t think the cheating was planned.

“These are the best students in the school,” he said. “In terms of ability and mastery of the curriculum, they’re the last kids in the world you would think would do something like that.”

Since the incident occurred on May 15, DiLeo said teachers and officials have met several times to figure out what went wrong. The district is also in the middle of reviewing its policy on cheating.

Generally, Capistrano Unified students caught cheating receive a failing grade, an unsatisfactory grade in citizenship and a possible suspension of one to five days.