Editorial: Teacher unloads a shocker

Wednesday, June 28, 2000 | 9:37 a.m.

An ex-Clark County School District teacher, Ramona Johnson, has made startling allegations. Johnson contends that teachers at her former elementary school were using stolen exam booklets to unfairly prepare their students for the Curriculum-Based Assessment Program test and the TerraNova exam, which the state uses to determine whether a school is performing adequately. Johnson said that after her fourth grade students performed poorly, school administrators at Lake Elementary reprimanded her. So, in an effort to find out how to improve her students' scores, Johnson did some research on her own and talked with other teachers.

What Johnson says she found is shocking. As the Sun's Terry Webster reported this week, some of the teacher's fourth grade students who took the Curriculum-Based Assessment Program test the previous year received perfect scores -- yet when they took the TerraNova test (which is similar in content), they performed abysmally. For example, one student who scored 100 on the CBAP's geometry and measurements section in third grade scored just a 17 percent in geometry and 14 percent in measurement on the TerraNova. Sure, student scores can fluctuate, but this dramatic shift does raise eyebrows. In addition, Johnson claims that other teachers told her that she should get an advance copy of the test, as they did, and use it to teach their students on how to take the test.

In most circumstances this would simply be a "he said, she said" scenario -- except for the fact that Johnson actually has a copy of the test, which is supposed to be locked away. Johnson goes on to say that school administrators at Lake Elementary started questioning her job performance after she brought her allegations to their attention, an accusation that Lake Elementary Principal Alma Vining denies.

The Clark County School District currently is investigating Johnson's allegations and the state Department of Education is expected to follow up once the local probe is finished. School officials say that so far no evidence has been uncovered that cheating did occur. Still, the school district needs to ensure that this probe isn't short-circuited and is allowed to go wherever it may lead. There must be zero tolerance for any kind of cheating -- especially by the educators themselves, who are supposed to be role models for our students.