Principal claims he was pressured to cheat on state tests

Melanie Burney:

Principal Joseph Carruth was riding down the slow, paneled elevator at Camden's district office, ready to cave in to pressure from a superior who he says had just given him a tutorial on how to cheat on state tests.

"My head is spinning," Carruth recounted to The Inquirer of his feelings that day in January 2005. "I can't believe it."

Still green on the job at Camden's Dr. Charles E. Brimm Medical Arts High, Carruth needed medical benefits for his ill daughter. He did not have tenure. He was tempted to take whatever steps necessary to keep his job.

"I was thinking, 'How can I do it?' " Carruth said about that day. "And then it's, like, 'What are you doing? You can't do this.'"

In his first public comments about the allegations that have shaken South Jersey's largest school system, Carruth laid out in vivid detail the pressure he said was put on him to keep test scores high.

It wasn't just his career at stake. Carruth said his daughter's condition - and his ability to care for her if he didn't have a job - came up in what he said was step-by-step instruction by Assistant Superintendent Luis Pagan on how to cheat on state standardized tests.

Carruth's allegations highlight the pressures on teachers and administrators to prove that their programs are effective. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, districts can face sanctions, including state takeover, if schools don't improve.

Carruth said he wanted to make it clear that his students had done nothing wrong. "It's adults doing things they shouldn't be doing," he said.

The state Department of Education last month began investigating Carruth's allegations. It also is examining 2005 test scores at Camden elementary schools after questions raised by The Inquirer about unusually high scores at several schools. At Brimm, more than 91 percent were proficient in 11th-grade math, a 21-point gain.

No cheat left behind

A principal stands up for honest students

District to probe test scores

Camden principal says he was told to rig test scores