Discipline or prosecution

In the 2012 PSSA administration, any staff person with custody of the tests had to sign a statement vouching that they won’t reveal the contents of the tests to anyone, provide any answers or alter responses.

The statement noted they could face professional discipline and/or criminal prosecution.

The crime would be unsworn falsification to authorities.

The procedures also established a chain of command for test materials, which arrived in a sealed box, were to be returned to the school test coordinator at the end of each day of testing and were to be locked up overnight.

Those administering the test could give words of encouragement and general instructions but could answer student questions only on directions.

The state recommended — and in some schools required — that teachers not give the exams to their own students.

In some schools, the state sent personnel to monitor the administration of the exams.

Mr. Tomalis said the state will continue to contract for erasure studies at a cost of about $100,000 a year.

Allegations of cheating on state tests has surfaced elsewhere across the country as a result of erasure studies, including Georgia, New Jersey and Florida.

In Atlanta Public Schools, about 180 educators were named in a state investigation into cheating, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Some of the evidence included excessive erasures.

The newspaper last month summarized 164 of the cases and found that 110 educators resigned or retired, 17 were terminated by a tribunal, 16 were reinstated and 20 had tribunals pending.

Ms. Lane said she discussed the Atlanta allegations with principals a year ago.

“We absolutely want our PSSA results to accurately reflect the achievement of kids,” she said. “Nobody wants higher PSSA scores than I do, but first there’s

only one way we want them.”