Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2000 | 11:14 a.m.
Clark County School Board members and Superintendent Carlos Garcia called Tuesday for an investigation into new test cheating allegations -- this time on the High School Proficiency Exam.
The latest allegations come in the wake of an investigation into charges of cheating on tests at a Las Vegas elementary school.
Former Rancho High School students and a former Horizon North student claim cheating occurred on the proficiency exam in 1999 and spring 2000.
The allegations are not tied to the exam administered earlier this month.
The former Horizon student talked about the cheating Tuesday at a legislative committee meeting at the Sawyer State Office Building in Las Vegas. At Tuesday night's School Board meeting, an activist who works with students and also is a radio talk-show host, made similar charges.
None of the claims have been substantiated.
"We never want to see cheating on a test or a breach of test security," board President Mary Beth Scow said. "We should conduct an investigation."
School officials said an assistant superintendent will investigate the proficiency exam cheating claims.
Scow cautioned that until a thorough investigation is completed, no assumptions should be made.
The school district, Nevada Department of Education and state Attorney General's Office have yet to release reports on allegations of testing improprieties at Robert E. Lake Elementary School.
Garcia has said the district "found nothing."
The Lake Elementary investigation, which began in June, involved allegations of inflating scores on the district's internal curriculum test and the use of fourth grade TerraNova booklets to teach the test. The TerraNova is an exam the state uses to rate school performance.
The High School Proficiency Exam, by contrast, is a Nevada graduation requirement.
Former Horizon North student Felicia Taylor told the Legislative Committee on Education on Tuesday that answers to the proficiency exam were passed around during the test.
Taylor said students had answer sheets "written on small pieces of paper." She could not explain where the sheets originated.
Taylor also said that teachers wrote answers on chalkboards during testing.
Previously, she told the Sun that an announcement over the school intercom last spring indicated the exam had to be postponed because of the discovery of the answer sheets.
Two legislators who remained Tuesday during public-comment portion of the meeting told Taylor her story is hearsay and asked her to provide proof.
"They don't care, and they don't want to hear it," Taylor said after the meeting.
Taylor attended the meeting with Patricia Cunningham of the Alliance for Social Justice, who addressed the cheating allegations on her radio talk show on KCEP 88.1-FM and spoke at Tuesday's School Board meeting.
During the Saturday radio program, Anitra Adams, a former Rancho student, said classmates bragged to her about cheating with the help of a test proctor.
She claims to have turned to school administrators for help because she was angry.
"I told them I heard that cheating was going on," Adams said. "A couple of students personally came to me and were bragging. I didn't think it was fair, and I think the test should be totally given over -- to all students -- so there isn't any cheating."
Adams said she was not happy with the outcome. She said that nothing was done.
"The message, I'm afraid, that students are being given," Cunningham said, "is pass the test or else."
When asked several weeks ago about the former student's claims, school district spokeswoman Mary Stanley-Larsen dismissed them as unfounded rumors.
School district officials appeared shocked and troubled when Cunningham spoke on the issue during Tuesday's meeting.
She told the board the High School Proficiency Exam should be detached from graduation and the Millennium Scholarship.
A state report shows that statewide there were 12 High School Proficiency Exam security breaches and four TerraNova security breaches reported in 1999. In 2000, seven security breaches were reported on the High School Proficiency Exam, along with four on the TerraNova.
The report does not list school names nor detail the breaches.
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