Difficult questions were obtained in advance and taught to students before the test.

Information such as the periodic table, math formulas - even answers to questions - was left on walls.

Teachers relayed information to students during testing, or tapped on their desk as a hint to reconsider answers. Some outrightly suggested that an answer should be looked at again.

The assertions echoed some of the findings of the state Department of Education report citing "adult interference" in 2005.

After the state sent monitors to oversee security during tests administered in March 2006, math and language-arts scores plummeted in the district.

At H.B. Wilson, the percentage of fourth graders proficient in math dropped from 100 percent in 2005 to 23 percent in 2006 - a slide of 77 points. Wiggins' math proficiency score fell from 98 percent to 56 percent.

Across the district, preliminary results show that third- and fourth-grade language-arts scores dropped at all but two of 19 elementary schools. Math scores fell at all but three.

Eleventh-grade math scores also tumbled at the Dr. Charles E. Brimm Medical Arts High, from 92 percent in 2005 to 75 percent. That school's former principal has alleged that Luis Pagan, an assistant superintendent, pressured him to rig the 2005 scores, but that he refused to participate. Pagan has denied the allegations.

Separately, the district is investigating allegations that a guidance counselor and a principal tampered with students' academic records.

Several teachers told The Inquirer that they had been asked to participate in grade-changing schemes, inflate grades, or alter report cards to promote failing students.

The school board last month filed charges that could lead to the firing of a high school guidance counselor accused of changing 200 grades on transcripts. It suspended Camden High principal Al Davis last week amid a probe into allegations that he was involved in changing grades for athletes.

At H.B. Wilson, district investigators are trying to determine whether rosters were packed with "ghost students" to increase enrollment and funding, and possibly test scores, sources said.

One teacher from H.B. Wilson told The Inquirer that students' names remained on the rolls months after they had transferred. Attendance records were altered to minimize absences and tardiness to make the school look good, she said.

Longtime employees said cheating went back as early as the late 1980s, when the state threatened to take over the district. At least two quit over the practice, partly in disgust.

"I left with such sadness that it could happen in the district. I just felt there was an injustice," said a middle school teacher who resigned at the end of the 2004-05 school year.

A second teacher said she had quit at the end of the 2004-05 school year in part because she did not want to turn a blind eye to prompts such as signs left on walls to coach students during language-arts tests.

Nick Timpanelli, vice president of the Camden Education Association, the teachers' union, said, "I wouldn't think it [cheating] just started." But he added, "I don't see teachers doing that unless they're threatened." Timpanelli, a Camden teacher for 37 years, teaches chemistry at Woodrow Wilson High School.

The retired department chairman who saw the teacher with answers written on his arms in the mid-'90s said an assistant principal had pressured him to use an advance copy of the test to prepare students. The state investigated, but staff refused to cooperate, and the probe fizzled, he said.

The teachers believe cheating accelerated under the federal 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, which requires districts to improve test scores or face tough sanctions.