New testing irregularities confirmed

Terry Webster and Cy Ryan

Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2000 | 11:26 a.m.

Teachers used practice answers contained on the exams, gave students answer sheets and asked them to correct wrong answers. Test booklets were missing or lost.

Education officials Monday admitted to a Legislative Committee on Education that these testing improprieties took place this fall in the Clark County School District.

Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, who chairs the education panel that began its investigation into the district's testing program, said the commitwill be reviewing testing documents produced by the state and the school district.

Names of schools, with the exception of Robert E. Lake Elementary School, and specific dates were not released during the meeting.

While state and local officials acknowledged that any cheating is wrong, they stressed that it is not frequent or widespread.

State officials began the meeting by reporting there were four breaches on the Nevada reports concerning the TerraNova this fall.

The TerraNova exams are used by the state to rate school performance, while the High School Proficiency Exam is a graduation requirement. Without naming schools, Judy Costa, the school district's testing director, discussed various reports of security breaches. In one case, a new principal at a school was asked by a teacher if it was permissible to give other new teachers test preparation materials for the TerraNova prior to testing. "We encourage very little preparation for the TerraNova, other than test-taking skills," Costa said.

On one area of the practice materials, Costa found that about half of the items had been lifted almost verbatim from the TerraNova. "That was very distressing," Costa said.

Costa also said a former principal directed teachers to prepare practice materials for the TerraNova. When confronted, the former principal and teachers claimed they didn't know the practice questions were the same as the test questions, she said.

The school district's investigation into the testing irregularities did not go beyond the initial inquiries, but a letter was placed in the former principal's employee folder in case he reapplies for employment.

Unless an employee admits to wrongdoing, it's often hard to prove, Costa said. Turning to test scores, Costa said four schools had their test scores validated last year after scoring higher than expected in math. During a retest, the scores held up.

"The year before that, we retested a school that had made unusual gains, and scores did not hold up," Costa said.

"When we were out there administering the test, we observed that the children were raising their hands the whole time. It was quite clear to me that the children were expecting their teacher to provide answers."

Costa also said the district has had problems with scores on the Curriculum-Based Assessment Program being disproportionately high. That test is an internal tool the district uses to measure how well students are learning what they are being taught. She referred to practice information that is given to teachers so they know what to focus on. But she added that the information "is never intended to give the practice test items five to 10 times."

Costa also gave an update on the Lake Elementary allegations. Former teacher Ramona Johnson in June claimed the TerraNova booklet was used to teach the test and that the school's curriculum test scores were inflated.

The district is calling for the removal of Johnson's license because the booklet was shown to the media, Costa said.

But Johnson said she did not reveal any answers in the booklet. The investigation, Costa said, is not finished, because Johnson has not talked to school or state officials.

Johnson issued a sworn statement about her allegations Monday before the panel. Under oath, Johnson also gave the panel the name of the teacher who allegedly gave her the booklet and the names of other teachers she believed to be cheating.

Costa said that the district's findings concluded there was "a fundamental lack of understanding on the part of both administrators and teachers regarding what proper preparation for the (curriculum test) were."

About 15 percent of Lake students scored in the top quarter on the third grade curriculum test, but they were in the bottom quarter on the TerraNova, Costa said.

On the curriculum test in other grades, Lake Elementary scores were higher than the district average, Costa said. She said that is not expected, because of the school's student demographics. "Where we've had inappropriate and inflated (curriculum test) scores, it is a result of people focusing very exclusively on the (curriculum test)," she said.

But Costa said the district determined the cause was a lack of understanding of proper testing procedures. Another problem with the curriculum test involved teachers returning answer sheets to students and encouraging them to redo problems that they answered wrong.

Little discussion was held on allegations of cheating on the High School Proficiency Exam that were raised at a recent School Board meeting, along with other allegations that a school official offered answers to that exam for $400.