| Cheating teacher fired by board By Eleanor Evans Staff Writer August 2, 2005 BENTONVILLE — A high school teacher has been terminated upon a board ruling that she knowingly gave test answers to a student in hopes of helping that student receive high school credit. Nancy Hickman, a special education teacher at Bentonville High School, was unanimously terminated by the Bentonville School Board after a personnel hearing Monday night. Upon the recommendation of BHS principal Steve Jacoby, Hickman was suspended without pay by Superintendent Gary Compton on May 31. In June, Compton made the recommendation to the board to terminate Hickman. Jacoby offered his testimonial to the board at Monday’s open hearing. "Based upon the information I received, this was a violation of the most serious type of integrity," Jacoby said. "For a student to receive credit … for work they had not done, for me was a serious ethics violation," Jacoby said. Attorney Betsy Murray, who represented the School Board for the hearing, argued that while a BHS student was at the Benton County Juvenile Detention Center, Hickman presented the student with answers to tests for Portable Assisted Study Sequence Material (PASS). The PASS program allows students to earn credits toward high school graduation or promotion through completion of the curriculum outside the regular school program. Materials for the curriculum, including textbooks, workbooks, tests and answers were accessible in the special education file room, to which Hickman had access, according to various testimonials during the hearing. During testimony, Hickman admitted that she gave the materials to the student during the student’s time at the detention center, but that the answers were for "pre- tests," not official tests required to complete the curriculum. Tests were submitted to Shad Lamp of the detention center to proctor, Hickman said. Hickman also testified that she was not making an attempt for the student to receive course credit for the exam. Hickman testified that the student had experienced some hardship and was behind on course work. "I wanted to make sure (the student) stayed on some kind of track … to jump-start (the student) into taking the classes I knew (the student) was going to have to take," Hickman said. To assist the student with this "jump-start," Hickman said, she mailed what she referred to as "answers to pretests" to the student at the detention center. The "answers" were handwritten on sheets of notebook paper in Hickman’s writing, Hickman testified, with no questions to accompany the answers. However, the answers matched the official curriculum tests, as shown when Murray read out the handwritten answers before the board and had Hickman compare the answers from an official test answer sheet. Attorney David Carruth, who represented Hickman during the hearing, argued there was no proof the student would have obtained credit from taking the tests from the PASS curriculum, as they are only available to atrisk or special-education students, which the student in question was not, as determined by Hickman and Jacoby. "Why would anyone in their right mind, unless it was to cheat, copy the answers by hand?" Murray asked. The board agreed with Murray’s argument. After a brief discussion in executive session, the board reconvened and had a unanimous vote by voice to affirm Compton’ s recommendation to terminate Hickman on the grounds that she "provided answers to the PASS curriculum … for work (the student) did not complete." http://nwanews.com/story.php?paper=bcdr§ion=News&storyid=23436 Back To Guvment Skool Page 8 COPYRIGHT "DUHMAG.COM" 2005 |