"This answer isn't right," she said they had told students. "Go back and look again. Don't you think letter C would work better?"

She notified the state Department of Education but never got a response, she said.

Former school board members Dwaine Williams and Zawdie Abdul-Malik recalled a 1997 visit to East Camden Middle, where they saw a teacher quiz students with questions from the state's eighth-grade test and give them the answers.

"I'm confident no one has answers the day of the test. But a week or two weeks out, when they know they have to perform well, they are prepping them on the answers," Williams said.

One former middle school teacher saw the same.

"Somehow - I never knew nor asked how - but advanced test questions were available," she said. Low-performing students were encouraged to stay home during tests, the teacher said.

Another former middle school teacher, who left the district more than five years ago, said veteran teachers had carried out "the business of leading the deceit."

"Vice principals, principals all knew exactly what was going on and turned their heads. Rookie teachers were too afraid to rock the boat, afraid of retaliation of others."

"Make no mistake, the level of incompetence, indifference, and lack of moral code was rampant," she said.

Find complete coverage of the investigation into allegations of cheating and grade-fixing at http://go.philly.com/camdenscores

Find complete coverage of the investigation into allegations of cheating and grade-fixing at http://go.philly.com/camdenscores

Find complete coverage of the investigation into allegations of cheating and grade-fixing at http://go.philly.com/camdenscores

View a graphic of the Camden schools test scores.