Teachers may have provided peek at exam

By Emily Richmond

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004 | 11:07 a.m.

Two Clark County high school teachers are being investigated for allegedly distributing the contents of the statewide math proficiency exam to students before they took the test, according to a report released Wednesday.

At Desert Pines High School a teacher allegedly "copied questions from the test by hand and created a worksheet that was distributed to at least two students," according to a report prepared for the Legislative Committee on Education.

At Western High School a teacher photocopied and cut out portions of the test for his students to use as a practice sheet, the report states. Both incidents occurred in April.

Disciplinary action was taken against both teachers, said Agustin Orci, Clark County School District deputy superintendent of instruction. He said personnel confidentiality laws prohibited him from being more specific.

The state attorney general's office is investigating the incidents and will make a recommendation as to whether the teachers' licenses should be suspended or revoked, said Carol Crothers, evaluation consultant for assessments and program accountability for the Nevada Education Department.

Tom Sargent, spokesman for Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval, said he could not comment on pending investigations.

The report of test security at Nevada public schools for the 2002-03 academic year was slated to be discussed at the interim committee's Wednesday meeting. Discussion on the item was moved to the February agenda because of time constraints.

State Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, and a member of the education committee, said he was troubled by the report's findings of teachers mishandling test booklets, helping students and violating other testing procedures.

"Teachers need to be held responsible for their actions," Washington said. "We need to raise the teacher quality in this state so that our students are learning what they need to know and cheating isn't seen as necessary."

The report found 79 allegations of testing mishaps and improprieties spread throughout the state, ranging from misplaced answer sheets to interruptions by fire drills.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law two years ago today, has put new demands on schools to show student gains on standardized tests or face penalties. And as the stakes have increased so have incidents of teachers breaking rules in an attempt to help students or outright cheating, researchers and educators say.

"This is one of the reasons we worry about high-stakes testing, because of the pressure it puts on people," said Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County Education Association, which representing the majority of the district's 15,000 teachers. "Not everyone tests well and one test isn't always a true measure of what you've learned."

The number of incidents of cheating and testing mishaps has increased over the past few years, Crothers said this morning.

"There's more testing, more schools and more pressure," Crothers said, noting that student enrollments have soared particularly in Southern Nevada. "Increased pressure is going to have an effect on testing security."

The state Education Department is recommending that teachers take a "refresher course" in testing security prior to the spring round of statewide exams, Crothers said. Security is currently a topic for new teacher orientations and usually at one professional development day during year, Crothers said.

"We want to keep this in the forefront of people's minds," Crothers said.

The more corners that are cut in an attempt to boost test scores the less valid the results, said David Berliner, a professor and researcher at Arizona State University's Education Policy Lab. Berliner has studied the effects of tying test results to school ratings, funding and student promotion.

"As the stakes go up the measurement instrument is corrupted and distorted," Berliner said this morning. "You have principals putting kids in special ed just before the test or telling some of them to stay home. You have teachers telling students they have to do well or the school could be closed. What you don't have is valid test results that reflect the actual quality of instruction."

At Bonanza High School in November 2002 students passed each other rough drafts of responses to the writing portion of the proficiency exam, resulting in increased training for exam proctors.

At Harris Elementary School in Las Vegas a fifth grader was caught using a textbook to look up formulas during a statewide math exam. And in the Washoe County School District, a student at Reed High School tried to use a calculator during the math proficiency exam.

Statewide there were 13 allegations of student cheating or student misconduct, 29 instances of tests being improperly administered and five cases where test materials were improperly disclosed.

In most of the cases the situation was resolved at the school or district level, with administrators reminded of state policy regarding the handling of testing materials.

In several instances Clark County schools were commended for taking quick action when testing improprieties were uncovered. At Centennial High School a student was discovered using a calculator during the math proficiency test. The cheating was noticed because the teacher was following guidelines that call for closely monitoring students, the report noted.

"We take test security very seriously," Orci said. "We have a checklist that we provide to schools, and the principals must sign off on it, so there is no question later as to the responsibilities."

One of the report's recommendations is already being implemented. Because of an increase in incidents of testing improprieties at private schools, administrators and teachers at those campuses are now required to undergo the same training as their public school counterparts, the report states.

In addition to the Western and Desert Pines incidents, two other cases were forwarded to the attorney general for review: