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State Tosses Out More Of Somerset School's MCAS Scores

SOMERSET (AP) - State education officials have invalidated every MCAS test taken last year by students at a Somerset elementary school after finding evidence of cheating.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education threw out all 74 math exams taken at the Wilbur Elementary School in April for what it called a "disturbing pattern" of answers in which student responses were erased and replaced with correct answers that were illogical or inconsistent with prior work.

But on Wednesday the department also invalidated all English language arts and science and technology/engineering test scores for "test administration and security" violations.

The Herald News reports that state education Commissioner Mitchell Chester said in a letter he is convinced the tests "were not a valid assessment of student learning."

Superintendent Richard Medeiros declined comment.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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