A local teacher wanted his students to succeed on the standardized history exam so badly, he may have given them the answers.
Not only did his students get the answers to the test, but they also showed up at a neighboring school district.
About 184 Española Valley High School sophomores could have the scores from the May 14 and 15 world history end-of-course exam invalidated because District officials believe history teacher John Casias gave an answer key to some of his students. Those answers were also circulated in the Pojoaque Valley School District.
Española District officials came to the conclusion Casias gave students the answers, after conducting an investigation that included interviewing several students and teachers.
“A 10th grader reported that Mr. Casias told his second period class he had taken the test and given all the students the answers to the eoc (end of course) for world history,” the irregularities report states. “It has been determined that students were sharing answers during the world history (end of course).”
According to the report, Casias allegedly didn’t deny that he “helped a few students with a few questions.” However, in a written statement supplied to investigators, Casias said the help was limited to disclosing general test-taking strategies.
“I advised a handful of students, but I cannot remember who they were throughout the two days of testing,” he wrote. “I would be walking around the room and a student would ask me for help and I would advise them to use the process of elimination method.”
Casias, in a June 15 telephone interview, said he didn’t have any comment, other than it was “blown out of proportion.”
High School Counselor Margaret Alire said she wasn’t familiar with the details, but doesn’t believe having the exams voided would create too much of a hardship for the students because as 10th-graders, they will be given the test again in later years.
The irregularity report also discloses that students were sent to take the test in an unsupervised area, where they were able to use the cheat sheet.
“Three students also reported they took the test in a non-designated testing location because they had the answers and were absent on the day their class took the test,” the report states. “Two students took the test in the lab during credit recovery. One student took the test in the lab near the library.”
Technology
aides dishonesty
After Casias allegedly gave his second period class the answers, they eventually went viral, so to speak. The answers reportedly made it to the phones of many of the school’s 184 10th grade students.
“Numerous students admitted to cheating and distributing a picture of a notebook with the answers to other students — all in the 10th grade,” the irregularity report states. “Students reported they thought the entire 10th grade class received the picture.”
Investigators weren’t able to determine who originally sent the picture of the answer key, but somehow an unidentified Pojoaque Valley High School 10th-grader got ahold of the answers and passed them to a couple of her friends.
Altogether, three Pojoaque sophomores may have their world history end-of-course exams invalidated, according to Pojoaque Valley Superintendent Mel Morgan.
He said his administrators took appropriate disciplinary action, but didn’t elaborate.
“We administered appropriate punishment, which is something we probably shouldn’t talk about,” he said. “We also filed the testing irregularities with the state and I don’t know if they have gotten back to us. I would expect them to invalidate all three tests.”
Since the Pojoaque District uses the test in question as a sizable portion of the students’ class grade, Morgan said the three students did get a chance to make up the exam.
“I know we used the end-of-course test for their final exam,” he said. “So we had a teacher design a final for the students.”
Morgan said he is pleased the way his staff quickly identified and addressed the problem.
However, emails sent to Española’s former acting superintendent Denise Johnston show Morgan had a difficult time reaching someone in the District to share his concerns.
“We have tried to call every number available for your school district and all it does is ring and ring,” Morgan wrote in an email. “I need to speak directly with you about an issue you have with a teacher and student and that our students have then been involved with.”
The cheating led to Johnston filing an ethics complaint with the state’s Department of Education against Casias. Her complaint is based on the fact that Casias participated in test-security training and therefore should have known it was not proper to “‘help a few students with a few question(s).’”
District Test Coordinator Holly Martinez pointed out that the training manual specifically states that coaching one during the test is considered improper. Investigators also asked him directly, if he had violated testing protocols and he “stated he had helped only a few students.”