Test cheat allegations at Vegas school still unresolved

State Superintendent of Public Schools Dale Erquiaga said five months ago that “student answer sheets were altered by one or more adults,” in test cheating at Kelly Elementary School, but the battle still rages over evidence that might support the allegation.

Stephen Augspurger, executive director of the union representing Clark County school administrators, recently argued that documents and testimony collected in a 17-month state investigation announced in April yielded no direct evidence of cheating at the Las Vegas school or identified any alleged culprits. The state is now asking Augspurger to provide the materials used to come to such a conclusion.

“The very information you seek is readily available to you as raw data from the Nevada Department of Education investigation,” Augspurger wrote Monday in a response to Greg Ott, deputy attorney general assigned to the education department. “Please do not purport to investigate the very serious concerns raised in the (union’s) analysis by requesting additional information from (the union).”

Augspurger in early August said the state education department and attorney general’s office relied on an unusually high number of erasures on multiple-choice state exams to reach a “preconceived conclusion” of cheating through “manipulated and manufactured” evidence. He called on Erquiaga to rescind the Nevada Department of Education’s “flawed” findings.

Three weeks later, Augspurger got a reply: Ott asked him for the union’s evidence so the state could “fully and completely investigate.”

On Monday Augspurger made it known that he’s none too happy with the state’s request, claiming in his response to Ott that “it is without question that the Nevada Department of Education report is fundamentally flawed.” To come to that conclusion, his union used the “same raw data” of the state’s investigation.

But the state isn’t only talking about its own information, Erquiaga told the Review-Journal. It’s requesting the independent review of the state’s erasure analysis Augspurger’s union commissioned.

“I’d like to see it,” said Erquiaga, noting that he had education department analysts and the attorney general’s office review the erasure analysis again. “I’d like to have all the information. Mr. Augspurger’s response tells me he has no interested in cooperating.”

“I’m very interested in cooperating,” Augspurger said Monday. He said he’s offered three times to meet with Erquiaga since mid-July, but Erquiaga refused, sending Ott instead.

To the state’s request for his independent analysis, Augspurger said, “I have no interest in doing their work. That’s what I have no interest in doing.”

Erquiaga asserted that Augspurger’s motivations are to protect his union members, not correct any wrongdoing.

“Clearly, he’s not interested in helping those students,” Erquiaga said.

To that, Augspurger responded, “It’s pretty easy to take a shot at a union.”

But there’s no protection to be had for union members, Augspurger emphasized. Two Kelly Elementary administrators were suspended with pay immediately after Erquiaga leveled allegations of cheating on standardized tests and admonished the two in writing for failure to follow test-security procedures.

However, Clark County Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky reinstated Principal Patricia Harris and Assistant Principal Steven Niemeier in the wake of an Aug. 10 Review-Journal report on flaws in the state investigation.

“They’re already back at work,” Augspurger said of Erquiaga’s comment about protecting union members. “I dispute that accusation, vigorously. This is about a school and its children maligned by a state official who couldn’t find who did it. The truth may be no one did it. There’s not one thing in the erasure analysis that will tell you who did it or when they did it.”

Augspurger emphasized that he has publicly admonished administrators for wrongdoings, most recently last week when high-ranking district administrator Bramby Tollen was found to have taken a job in Washington state while still on sick leave in Las Vegas.

Harris and Niemeier were reinstated because no individuals could be identified as responsible for changing student answers, Clark County School District spokeswoman Melinda Malone said Monday. The district will release its own lengthy investigative report in less than a week, she said.

“I’m waiting for Clark County’s action, and then I will close the investigation,” Erquiaga said. “The state is holding people accountable. I’m sorry if that makes Mr. Augspurger uncomfortable.”

To that, Augspurger retorted, “To make wild accusations and claim that much of your proof is confidential, I do find that disturbing.”