By LEONARD GRAY – Managing Editor

LULING – A test security policy revision was approved Wednesday, making a security breach grounds for dismissal.

This action followed published reports of three teachers who were disciplined for alleged breaches of test security.

“A breach of test security is intolerable,” School Board member Steve Crovetto said.

At Norco 4-6 Elementary School, teachers helped students with test questions, according to the St. Charles investigation report provided to the Louisiana Board of Education. A teacher has since resigned.

Additionally, 30 students at Norco and Ethel Schoeffner Elementary will receive scores of zero for the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, which students in third, fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth grades take each spring, school officials stated.

However, as district spokeswoman Rochelle Cancienne emphasized, the students will be re-tested. “Only the schools and the district will be penalized,” she said. “We will take every step to make sure the students will not be penalized.”

Meanwhile, those zero scores will factor into each school’s performance scores, Superintendent Dr. Rodney Lafon stated.

Lafon continued, “There was no cheating on the part of students.”

As the district reported itself to the state Board of Education, once the violations came to light, Lafon commented Wednesday,

“We police ourselves, and somehow, that got lost. We did the honest and upright thing and somehow that got lost,”Lafon said.

Two teachers, from Ethel Schoeffner Elementary School and Hahnville High School, received three-day suspensions for breaches of test security.