Reversal of exam decision is sought

Legal wrangling over a decision to throw out the scores of 690 Advanced Placement exams taken at Trabuco Hills High School increased Wednesday when the Department of Education appealed to national test administrators to reverse their action.

The College Board and the Educational Testing Service, which administers AP exams for the board, “breached their contractual obligation to the Saddleback Valley Unified School District and the students from Trabuco Hills High School who participated in the AP testing” when they failed to conduct an adequate investigation to determine if test security breaches were widespread, Ronald D. Wenkart, county education department general counsel, wrote in a letter to the testing service.

The New Jersey-based testing service has accused the school of violating several test protocols during the May exams, including providing too few proctors, seating test-takers too close together and not enforcing cellphone bans. Ten of the 385 Trabuco Hills students who took the tests have admitted to cheating on three of the 10 college-level exams.

Wenkart argued that testing service investigators failed to conduct a “reasonable” inquiry to determine if the seven other exams were compromised and whether those scores should be reinstated.

-- Carla Rivera