Some cases closed

Other cases in which cheating was found have been closed because some type of action was taken “sufficient to address the problem,” Mr. Tomalis said.

That includes Big Beaver Falls Area in Beaver County and New Kensington-Arnold in Westmoreland County.

At Big Beaver Falls, one teacher received a 10-day unpaid suspension and can no longer administer a statewide test to his or her own students or proctor any other students alone.

This was one of only two personnel actions taken by schools statewide; the other was a 10-day unpaid principal suspension in Berwick Area in Luzerne County.

The state Education Department investigators found one grade at Beaver Falls Middle School had a high number of wrong-to-right erasures.

Big Beaver Falls superintendent Donna Nugent said she was surprised but took the concerns “very seriously.”

“One student involved moved from proficient to advanced, but that had no statistical impact,” Ms. Nugent said.

As for the 2012 scores, Ms. Nugent couldn’t say whether scores dropped significantly in the grade level involved in the cheating probe.

“Across the board in the district, our scores dropped to a level that we are concerned about,” she said.

In New Kensington-Arnold, the state Department of Education identified one grade in the Greenwald Elementary School as having a number of students with a high number of wrong-toright erasures.

According to a letter from the state to the district, the department accepted the district’s investigatory report even though it did not result in the discipline of any employees.

However, the department said the test administrator it identified can no longer administer a statewide test to his or her own students or proctor any students alone.

New Kensington-Arnold acting superintendent Thomas Rocchi said the district has changed the way it administers the PSSA so that all students in a grade level take the test together in a large area such as a cafeteria or multipurpose room ,and all teachers are present to administer and proctor the test.

“That removes any suspicion of any individual being alone,” Mr. Rocchi said.

Mr. Rocchi said the district’s investigation into the erasures found that teachers instructed students to cross out wrong answers as they went along, then after selecting the correct answer, to erase the crossed out answers.

He said there was no drop in scores at Greenwald Elementary as a result of the changes in test administration.