8 Teachers Accused of Showing State Exam to Students Before Test

Eight teachers at Woodland High School just outside Sacramento are under investigation after allegations they shared a standardized state science test with students preparing to take the exam.

The Woodland Joint Unified School District announced Wednesday that the teachers have been placed on paid administrative leave while the charges are investigated.

“As a district, we are shocked, appalled and tremendously disappointed in the unethical conduct of a few employees,” said Supt. Linda Weesner.

Pressure on teachers to produce higher test scores may have prompted cheating, said Wayne Johnson, president of the California Teachers Assn.

“I can tell you from visiting schools around the state that there is tremendous pressure on teachers to get these scores up,” he said.

The Stanford 9 achievement tests are being administered this week at the 2,000-student Woodland campus and throughout the state. Nearly all of California’s second- through 11th-graders must take the exam this spring.

Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature have established a system that ranks schools on the basis of performances on the test. In January, the first rankings put Woodland High in the bottom half of the state’s schools.

District administrators said they received a tip Monday that the science teachers illegally copied portions of the achievement test and used them to prepare their students for the exam.