Reseda School Puts Character Above Scores

At Cleveland High School, students sign “commitment to character contracts” promising to be responsible citizens, and weekly awards are made to recognize good deeds, honesty and responsibility.

So news last week that dozens of California teachers had helped students cheat on state exams did not go over well.

“I would expect more from a teacher,” said Deborah Hefter, 18. “It seems ridiculous that a teacher would do this.”

Students and teachers at the Reseda campus know about the pressures of testing. On Friday, they celebrated the end of a grueling week of standardized state exams, the same kind of tests that had prompted investigations of more than 200 teachers, with 75 proven cases of cheating over five years.

According to state records, teachers on some campuses across California have allowed extra time, erased and changed score sheets, read answers and dropped hints during state tests.

The Cleveland students don’t care much for the exams -- they complained about having been holed up in a classroom all week. Unlike Advanced Placement or college placement exams that directly affect their education, some said, they see little point in a state test.

“I think it’s a waste of time,” said Masha Grigoryan, 16. “It’s really tedious.”

But their teachers have tried to impress upon them the importance of the tests. Under state and federal education codes, a school can lose funding or teachers can be reassigned if scores are consistently poor.

“We know how big an issue it is; it’s a huge pressure,” social studies teacher Danielle Aucoin said.

Still, among students and staff there was little empathy for cheaters. Those teachers “are being hypocrites because they punish students for cheating off of each other,” Grigoryan said. “I don’t think cheating is acceptable in anything, whether it’s a game, or a test or life.”

Assistant Principal Barbara Garry agrees.

“Cheating is always unconscionable. Nothing is worse than losing your professional or personal integrity,” she said.

The campus daily emphasizes ethics as part of a program begun three years ago by local district Supt. Bob Collins, who oversees the southwest San Fernando Valley area of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Collins requires all 77,000 students in the subdistrict to sign the so-called character contracts, promising to be responsible citizens.

Cleveland Principal Allan Wiener said he makes regular announcements over the public address system about the importance of good character. And when teachers spot students on his campus displaying exemplary behavior -- good sportsmanship, good manners, peacemaking efforts -- they recommend them for recognition in the weekly award program.

Students who violate certain school rules may be assigned to read a book or story with an ethical message and write an essay about it instead of being suspended, Weiner said.

Before state tests are held, Wiener holds assemblies to tell students how important the exams are to the school’s reputation and to warn them not to cheat. “It’s not worth it to look at someone else’s paper or ask for answers,” Wiener said he tells students. “The consequences are too great.”

He said he expects the same ethical behavior from teachers.

He reviews testing rules with them, too: no reading aloud of test questions more than once; no translation of questions into other languages; no posters, books or other items in the classroom that might contain hints about answers. Question books and answer sheets must be turned in to authorities immediately when testing time ends.

Many students and staff at Cleveland said the demands to boost test scores probably pushed some teachers to bend rules.

“I don’t think it’s right, and I would never do it,” Aucoin said, “but at the same time, there’s so much pressure with testing and getting kids to take it seriously.”

That’s no excuse, said Stacey Klein, 18. “They are role models. If kids see their teachers cheating, they are likely to do so themselves.”