wfn.org | Philander Smith president denies college involved in cheating

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 18, 2000  News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202) 546-8722·Washington
10-31-71B{377}

By United Methodist News Service

The president of United Methodist-related Philander Smith College in Little
Rock, Ark., is denying a news report that her school was involved in a
test-cheating scheme.

The Associated Press reported Aug. 17 that at least 52 teachers were allowed
to cheat on state-required competency exams by paying bribes to the
supervisors for extra time and answers. The test, required of teachers in 34
states, was administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS) of New Jersey,
a nonprofit national test provider. ETS said it questioned the results of a
test given in 1998 and turned the materials over to the FBI in Little Rock. 

The FBI had no comment when contacted by United Methodist News Service. A
call to the U.S. Attorney's office in Little Rock wasn't returned by
deadline.

The test in question, reportedly involving teachers from Mississippi,
Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas, was given in spring 1998 at
Philander Smith College. The testing service has since cancelled the scores
of those teachers and notified the relevant state education departments,
according to a statement issued by ETS on Aug. 15.

College President Trudie Kibbe Reed said the school did not extend the hours
of the test or receive any form of compensation for the test services. The
college, she declared, is not under investigation and has been approved by
ETS for use as a future testing site following a visit to the campus since
the initial investigation.

A former college employee is believed to have been involved in the test
scheme, she said.
The employee, who is reported to have given the test in question, resigned
within six months of Reed taking office in mid-1998 and was gone before the
school was notified of the alleged activity, Reed said. The employee
resigned for unrelated reasons, she said.

ETS, which also administers the better-known ACT and GRE tests, said that
the private, liberal arts college has been a test site for more than 20
years and continues to be one.

"I have been assisting the Educational Testing Service, the U.S. Attorney's
Office and the FBI to bring justice to this case and to ensure that all
parties involved are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Reed
said.

Tom Ewing, speaking for ETS, said that, contrary to allegations in the AP
story, there is no expectation by ETS that either the testing service or
Philander Smith College would be charged. ETS discovered the scheme and
turned its investigation over to the FBI when it realized that the agency
had jurisdiction, he said. He confirmed Reed's statement that only one
college employee was involved.

"Our institution has existed for 123 years to provide a quality education to
African-American students," she said in a written statement. "It is a crime
when the integrity of our institution is compromised by one person's greed
and lack of loyalty to the mission of our campus."

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United Methodist News Service
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