Beach Court cheating scandal could net civil, criminal penalties

By Joey Bunch and Jessica Fender
The Denver Post
06/08/2012

Fired Beach Court Elementary School principal Frank Roti could face criminal charges related to the cheating scandal that cost him his job this week.

He also risks losing his teaching license based on continuing investigations into changed answers on standarized tests at his once-celebrated northwest Denver school.

Roti already has been asked to return $32,000 in bonuses he has received based on the school's high test scores, which have won both him and the school high praise.

In a response today to The Denver Post's request for records related to Roti's dismissal under the Colorado Open Records Act, the Department of Education balked, citing exemptions from the law for personnel records and attorney-client privilege.

In an official response, the agency's spokeswoman said the "investigation into potential education licensure violations is still ongoing and may warrant disciplinary action or other agency response."

The Colorado Attorney General's Office oversaw the investigation into Roti and misconduct at Beach Court Elementary. The agencies will turn over their results to the Denver District Attorney's Office, which will determine whether to file criminal charges against Roti, said Carolyn Tyler, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office.

Roti did not immediately return a call for comment this afternoon.
The attorney general's investigation, conducted by a contractor, included interviews with 23 current or former teachers, staff and students.

Denver Public Schools asked the state to step in last month

after an independent audit of test scores found anomalies at Beach Court Elementary and Hallett Fundamental Academy.

While only "technical errors" were found on Hallet's tests, investigators found that Beach Court's tests included changes from wrong to right answers 15 times more often than the statewide mean.


The results of the state's investigation were released Wednesday, when it was announced that Roti had been dismissed and that all Beach Court's 2010 and 2011 CSAP scores had been invalidated.

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg said the investigation found no teachers were involved in the cheating.

Investigators also heard from several sources that last year administrators moved the tests from a secure storage area to an administrative office for an extended period after the children were tested, a violation of state protocol.

Two teachers said their students' high scores on the tests did not reflect their classroom work.

Independently, The Denver Post and the I-News Network examined state-provided data from the Colorado Student Assessment Program from 2007 to 2010.

While a few other schools' students had double-digit declines in proficiency in various subjects, Beach Court Elementary, by far, had the biggest drop in the percentage of students with sharp declines in math, reading and writing proficiencies after they graduated to the next school.

Beach Court cheating scandal could net civil, criminal penalties - The Denver Post