Fullerton School Faces Probe of Test Scores

A Fullerton school board member said Friday that officials are investigating whether an employee at Commonwealth Elementary School may have changed student answer sheets to boost scores on a standardized test.

“This is blatant,” school board member Kim Ann Guth said. “This is not just a teacher standing over one student’s shoulder and giving them help. This is massive cheating, and it should be dealt with in the most severe manner if the allegations are proven to be true.”

The state Department of Education notified Fullerton School District last month that it had found irregularities on Stanford-9 test sheets for a single class at one of the district’s schools. When district officials investigated, they confirmed that there were problems with the administration of the test to the class in question, according to a statement released by the district. School board members identified the school as Commonwealth.

Officials said they are still investigating and “corrective or disciplinary action will be taken if appropriate.”

State officials flagged Commonwealth along with about 50 other schools with test irregularities, such as high numbers of erasures with wrong answers changed to right ones, as they prepared to release Academic Performance Index scores for districts across California.

They ordered district officials to investigate those cases that were most egregious in terms of potential teacher-led cheating, said Doug Stone, spokesman for the California Department of Education.

The API, part of the state’s new accountability program, evaluates schools on how well they do on the Stanford-9 test and on how much scores improve from year to year. Schools that posted big gains are eligible for significant financial rewards, including $25,000 bonuses to teachers in high-achieving classes.