Educators to be Placed on Leave after Cheating Allegations

Close to seventeen Hopeville Elementary School educators will be placed on administrative leave early next week following an investigation into alleged cheating on the Connecticut Mastery Tests.

According to Waterbury Board of Education President Patrick Hayes Jr, anyone that had anything to do with the allegations will be put on leave while the State Department of Education conducts the investigation.

Waterbury Superintendent David Snead agreed to remove the school educators until an investigation can determine who was responsible for the testing irregularities.

A probe was launched last week after the elementary school tested abnormally high on the Connecticut Mastery Tests.

The state’s preliminary review turned up numbers of erasures in the elementary school’s student booklets for the Mastery Test taken in March according to the Republican American

Overwhelmingly, the official said, the erasures were changed from wrong answers to correct ones, with very few going the other way.

Acting Connecticut Education Commissioner George Coleman was in Waterbury on Wednesday to meet with local officials, who brought the anomalies to the state's attention, the Associated Press reports. 

Hayes said the state has taken control of the investigation and he could not discuss details.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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