"My head is spinning," Carruth recounted to The Inquirer of his feelings that day in January 2005. "I can't believe it. " Still green on the job at Camden's Dr. Charles E. Brimm Medical Arts High, Carruth needed medical benefits for his ill daughter. He did not have tenure. He was tempted to take whatever steps necessary to keep his job.

"I was thinking, 'How can I do it?' " Carruth said about that day. "And then it's, like, 'What are you doing? You can't do this. '"

In his first public comments about the allegations that have shaken South Jersey's largest school system, Carruth laid out in vivid detail the pressure he said was put on him to keep test scores high. It wasn't just his career at stake. Carruth said his daughter's condition - and his ability to care for her if he didn't have a job - came up in what he said was step-by-step instruction by Assistant Superintendent Luis Pagan on how to cheat on state standardized tests.

Carruth 's allegations highlight the pressures on teachers and administrators to prove that their programs are effective. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, districts can face sanctions, including state takeover, if schools don't improve.

Carruth said he wanted to make it clear that his students had done nothing wrong. "It's adults doing things they shouldn't be doing," he said.

The state Department of Education last month began investigating Carruth 's allegations. It also is examining 2005 test scores at Camden elementary schools after questions raised by The Inquirer about unusually high scores at several schools. At Brimm, more than 91 percent were proficient in 11th-grade math, a 21-point gain. District officials have vigorously denied Carruth 's account, or that there were irregularities in test scores.

Reached at his Medford Township home Friday night, Pagan reiterated what he had previously told The Inquirer: He never had a conversation with Carruth about rigging test scores.

"There's nothing I have to say. The time will come for comment," Pagan said.

Superintendent Annette Knox, who has steadfastly defended the district's test results, declined to comment.

Carruth , a former math teacher who started his career in the district 13 years ago, said it wasn't the first time a superior in Camden had suggested cheating to him.

While he was working at Yorkship Elementary in the mid-1990s, an advance copy of a standardized test was placed in his mailbox, but he ignored it.

"If I did it last year, how could I not do it this year?" he said. "Now I'd be under their thumb. So you might have to do it your whole career. When do you redeem yourself?"

Friends and former colleagues described Carruth , 38, as an ethical man raised by middle-class parents in Lawnside. His mother was a longtime elementary school teacher.

"He was always polite, always a gentleman," said retired Camden principal Therese Marlin, who worked with him for several years. "He was a good teacher."

Said former school board member Dwaine Williams: "I believe that Joe Carruth is genuinely telling the truth and he has no other motivation than to tell truth."

Most of all, Carruth said he wanted to ensure that no one thought less of the students and teachers at Brimm, considered the top school in a district deemed failing by the state because of low test scores. During a three-hour interview Thursday, Carruth recalled the details of the Jan. 21, 2005, meeting in Pagan's office. They met to discuss Carruth 's first evaluation since becoming Brimm's principal in July 1, 2004.

According to Carruth, Pagan began reading the evaluation aloud. Carruth said Pagan left the room for 10 minutes, came back and closed the door. "That caught my attention."

Pagan, Carruth said, then asked about his daughter, who was a year old. She has a severe digestive condition that is being treated with a feeding tube.

"'So, he said, 'I guess you're going to need your benefits,'" Carruth recalled. "He said, 'You know, Joe, what do you think would happen if your kids' test results went down? . . . You'd lose your job."