Prosecutors say evidence and testimony show that Cortez “blatantly promoted the PSSA cheating at Cayuga Elementary School during testing.”
An elementary school principal and four teachers have been charged in connection with an alleged test cheating scheme in the Philadelphia School District.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane says over the course of five years, the group changed answers, provided test answers to students and improperly reviewed test questions before administering Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) standardized tests.
All those charged are either past or present employees at Cayuga Elementary School in the Hunting Park section of Philadelphia.
Evelyn Cortez, 59, of Lenape Drive in Dresher, Pa., was the school principal. She was escorted out of the building last Friday in connection with a separate school district investigation not related to the cheating scandal.
The four teachers charged are:
Jennifer Hughes, 59, of Peachtree Lane in Jeffersonville, Pa.
Lorraine Vicente, 41, of Palmetto Street in Philadelphia
Rita Wyszynski, 65, of Old Newtown Road in Philadelphia
Ary Sloane, 56, of S. 2nd Street in Philadelphia
Hughes and Wyszynski still worked at Cayuga and school officials say they will be replaced with substitutes for the remainder of the school year.
Sloane had since moved on from teaching at Cayuga and is the current principal of Bethune Elementary School.
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