3 Fresno Teachers Disciplined Over Cheating on Test

Three Fresno teachers who let students use study aids while taking a standardized test have been disciplined, according to the California Department of Education.

The incident, one of 11 reports of cheating this year, came to light recently amid a growing focus on the Stanford 9, a nine-hour test administered statewide each spring. The Stanford 9, the common standard by which students, teachers, schools and school districts are evaluated by the state, is used to judge reading, math and language skills in second through 11th grades.

Improved test scores translate into cash bonuses for schools, teachers and students. A poor showing can mean the loss of jobs and autonomy.

“This has become a winner-take-all test, and there is enormous pressure right now on teachers,” said Mike Myslinski, a spokesman for the California Teachers Assn. “Yet these tests are just a snapshot in time, and they have come to mean so much to the fate of these schools and these students.”

The three Fresno teachers let their high school students in the Central Unified School District use charts of the multiplication tables during the math portion of the exam, officials said Thursday. Use of such study aids is forbidden.

A student complained at the time of the April incidents, and the school district investigated. Central Unified school officials did not return calls about the matter, but officials at the Department of Education confirmed that the three teachers have been disciplined.

In 1999, the Fresno Unified School District disciplined three teachers who photocopied a Stanford 9 test to use as a study guide, an illegal use of the test. School officials reported the breach, although the copies never made it into the classroom, state and local officials said.

Reports of cheating this year included allegations that students copied from each other’s answer sheets, that study aids were displayed on classroom walls, that poor students were encouraged to skip exams and that copies of Stanford 9 tests were used as study guides.

“You’re talking about 11 incidents among 285,000 teachers,” said Doug Stone, a spokesman for the state education department. “So 99.9% of them are working very hard with their students to master the new state standards and to do well on the tests the old-fashioned way--by studying.”

About 4.3 million students took the Stanford 9 in California this year. The test measures knowledge of math, language, reading, spelling and, for upper grades, social studies and science.