San Fernando Valley : Cheating Scandal Leads to Hard Times

Talk about a tough finals month. Dozens of students at a Woodland Hills high school will be forced to retake Advanced Placement exams after a handful of their classmates cheated.

Officials at the Educational Testing Service, which administers the exams, said the tests’ integrity was compromised by the cheating students at Taft High School.

In one case, a student apparently broke the seal on the exam shortly before the English test, took a peek at essay questions and told an unknown number of friends. All 64 students who took that exam will have to retake the the essay portion Monday.

Another student stole a portion of the biology exam and shared it with seven classmates during a 15-minute break. The seven were suspended, and they must either retake the essay portion Friday, have their scores from the multiple-choice section apply to the essay questions or have their scores canceled.

The exam thief was barred from retaking the exam. But the pain might be temporary. The test-stealing senior has been accepted by a University of California campus this fall. . . .