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Corona del Mar High teachers did grade audits in February after cheating scandal

A view of Corona del Mar High School in Corona del Mar in January. Grade audits were conducted after district officials discovered in December that key-logging devices had been attached to the backs of teachers' computers to access passwords with the goal of boosting grades and accessing exams.
A view of Corona del Mar High School in Corona del Mar in January. Grade audits were conducted after district officials discovered in December that key-logging devices had been attached to the backs of teachers’ computers to access passwords with the goal of boosting grades and accessing exams.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Corona del Mar High School teachers were involved in an audit of 52,000 grades in February, Newport-Mesa Unified School District spokeswoman Laura Boss said Wednesday.

The clarification came after confusion over whether the scrutiny was conducted or whether results simply weren’t forwarded to the district. Boss said she was sorry for any misunderstanding.

Boss said Tuesday that teachers were not required to conduct grade audits over the summer. On Wednesday, she said teachers in February had conducted audits of the 2013-14 school year in the wake of the school’s cheating scandal.

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She also said that over the summer the district’s Information Technology Department conducted an audit of an undisclosed number of grades from the 2012-13 school year.

No students were disciplined as a result of the reviews, according to Chuck Hinman, assistant superintendent of secondary education.

The audits were conducted after district officials discovered in December that key-logging devices had been attached to the backs of CdM teachers’ computers to access passwords with the goal of boosting grades and accessing exams. A private tutor has been arrested in connection with the case.

“[The summer audit] was an arduous and tedious task, which is why the district made the decision to have IT review it,” Boss said.

The audits came on the heels of the school board’s decision in January to expel 11 CdM students who officials believe were involved in the cheating scheme.

Parents have suggested that a “culture of cheating” is pervasive at the high-performing school and that as many as 150 teens participated in changing grades over the course of several years.

Several parents and former district official Jane Garland, who resigned in protest during the scandal, believed the audit would show if the cheating was more widespread than the district initially thought.

The district has maintained that it operated within the parameters of the state Education Code during the scandal.

While Hinman suggested it would have been beneficial to have had teachers participate in both grade audits, he agreed with Boss that the task was extremely time consuming.

District officials eventually came to the conclusion that the IT department would be able to adequately recognize discrepancies in grade data.

One student who was expelled from the school alleges that the changes to grades weren’t completed in large chunks, which made it less noticeable for teachers.

A student wrote in a statement to the district that she’d asked tutor Timothy Lance Lai to boost two history test grades between 1% and 3% each.

She estimated that Lai had given her a 2% boost in the class by the end of the year, according to the statement obtained in Orange County Superior Court.

In March, the district implemented a system that flagged changed grades for approval so teachers could more closely monitor them, Boss said.

Nicholas Dix, executive director of the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers, said he believes the district’s effort was an attempt to “put on a good show” in case anyone asked if teachers were given the opportunity to audit the grades.

“It’s our district’s attempt to ignore the parents that say the problem is far-reaching,” he said.

Lai was charged this week with one felony count of second degree commercial burglary and four felony counts of computer access and fraud.

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