Cheating in the Camden School District dates as far back as the 1980s, long before the 2005 school year now under state scrutiny, an Inquirer investigation has found.

For years, pockets of Camden teachers and administrators cultivated an informal culture of cheating to cope with growing pressure to boost test scores.

The cheating was orchestrated by administrators, principals, guidance counselors, teachers, and anyone else willing to cooperate, according to a dozen teachers who took part in or witnessed it, and half a dozen more who were told of such occurrences.

Their experiences span at least a third of the city's 29 schools and two decades, they said in interviews conducted during the last 10 months.

They said the not-so-subtle message conveyed by their superiors had been clear: Raise scores by any means necessary. Many interpreted that to mean cheat.

"It was the expectation for many years," said a current teacher with 17 years of experience at two city schools. "No one would ever tell you to cheat directly, but it was clear what the expectation was: The children had to do well."

She and others said the pressure had come from teachers, supervisors and principals. Some said the impetus had been the threatened takeover of the Camden schools in the 1980s. Others said it had accelerated in 2002 with the implementation of No Child Left Behind.

A former department chairman recalled when, in the mid-1990s, a teacher walked up and down aisles during testing and used answers written on his arms - 50 on one and 50 on the other - to help students. "There was a lot of cheating going on."

During the 2004-05 school year, a teacher at Cooper's Poynt Elementary - one of five schools identified by the state Department of Education as having suspiciously high scores - saw a guidance counselor changing students answers and asked why.

"If I don't do it, I won't have a job next year," the counselor replied.

Camden School Board President Philip E. Freeman said he was not surprised by The Inquirer's findings, given what he had learned in recent months.

Freeman said recent internal investigations, including of allegations of grade changing in two high schools, had confirmed a "culture inherent throughout the district that has been difficult to dissolve because it's been so deeply entrenched."

"We recognize that the problems began long before this current board," he said.

Jose E. Delgado, who served on the board for 18 years, ending in 2002, said at least one former teacher had recently confided to him that she was aware of cheating going back to 1987. She told The Inquirer that she had been given an advance copy of the test to help prepare students. While Delgado couldn't say how many teachers had confided in him, he did say he recalled that when the topic of cheating came up in group settings, teachers would nod their heads in agreement.

Initially, he said, he wrongly believed that teachers were carrying out cheating by themselves, but now he believes that others must have been involved because of test security. Only guidance counselors or principals have access to tests.

"I always thought it was just a few rogue people. Now that I think about it, that was a stupid thing for me to think," Delgado said.

For years, rumors about cheating were common, he said, but there was little hard evidence until now.

The Inquirer agreed to grant anonymity to current and former district personnel who would talk about cheating. Many feared reprisals, including the loss of their job and pension, and betraying friends.

The Inquirer also analyzed test results and reviewed documents, including separate state and school board investigations that corroborate the accounts.

Camden's state standardized test scores for the 2004-05 school year came under scrutiny in February when The Inquirer questioned suspiciously high results at two elementary schools.

The state, addressing those concerns in a report of its investigation in August, blamed "adult interference" for high scores at those two schools. The state did not accuse anyone of cheating. It singled out the two elementary schools' principals and a literacy coach for pressuring teachers to ignore rules.

Specifically, it said H.B. Wilson Elementary School principal Michael Hailey had directed teachers "to do everything necessary to have students pass the tests." Hailey denied to investigators that there had been breaches of test security, but has declined public comment.

Two former teachers who were on the job during the 2004-05 school year told The Inquirer that they had seen colleagues give clues to students during the tests - a stare, or a finger pointed at an incorrect answer. They also saw them post helpful information on walls, and change answers.

A guidance counselor still recalls the question she got from a concerned parent: "My child really cannot read. How could they get these grades?"

A state grand jury is looking at cheating allegations and spending and bonuses received by former Camden Superintendent Annette D. Knox. Knox has maintained that the scores are legitmmate, and that she had followed spending and bonus procedures as she understood them.

State police have interviewed numerous district employees, including teachers and administrators, in recent months. The investigators are asking about when alleged cheating began to surface, teachers who have been interviewed say. The district has turned over thousands of documents, but no one has been called to testify before a grand jury.

The probe appears to focus on the dramatic drops in scores between 2005 and 2006, when the state sent monitors to oversee the tests, according to several people who spoke with state investigators. Charges could include official misconduct and tampering with records.

The state did not report on any earlier year, even though the 2004 scores for some schools show the same level of scoring that the state deemed suspiciously high in 2005. (Years earlier than 2004 cannot be compared because the test changed.)

In a statement late Friday, the state did not respond to a question about whether it planned to look at earlier years' tests.

Penelope Lattimer, the Department of Education's chief of staff, said officials are "concerned" when they hear allegations of corruption and cheating in the Camden district.

She noted that the state had conducted "several investigations" in Camden during the last year, and had turned over the results to the state attorney general.

David G. Sciarra, executive director of the nonprofit Education Law Center, said the Department of Education had done a "miserable" job in Camden the last four or five years.

"You have to wonder why things like this can happen under their noses," said Sciarra, whose organization has sued the state to get more funding for poor districts, including Camden.

Former Education Commissioner David Hespe, now a Rowan University associate professor, said he had not been made aware of any "pattern of cheating" during his 1999-2001 tenure. Rather, he said, there was a culture of "noninterference" that made it difficult to penetrate the school system to even find such things.

"The integrity of these test scores are very important, so you'd have to be alarmed by it," he said of Inquirer interviews with teachers.

Some teachers interviewed by The Inquirer said they knew nothing about cheating and considered their colleagues honest.

Those who did know about cheating said they were unaware of systemic, or direct, instruction on how to cheat from the central administration.

*Rather, they said, participants were subtly recruited by other teachers, counselors or principals. If they gave any hint that they considered the practice illegal or improper, the solicitor moved on. If they signaled approval, they were given answer sheets or prompts for test day. Those who boosted scores won praise from supervisors at district meetings.

A Camden High School teacher said: "Last year I was called into the guidance office to fill in some missing grades for students. When I said to the group, 'You want me to cheat - I've never met these students,' they backed off, and that was the end of that."Sources interviewed by The Inquirer described these methods used to violate test security:

Teachers were given advance copies of tests, but told that they were practice tests. Some knew that they had received the real test; others didn't.

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.

One former Washington Elementary teacher recalled seeing two teachers walk the aisles as state exams were administered in the spring of 2005.

"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.