Former Harlem teacher Bertshunia Hillard is a repeat cheat offender, nabbed on two occasions for aiding students on exams.
The Office of Special Investigations substantiated two cases of Hillard, a teacher at PS 46 and PS 200 (pictured), providing students with answers on state math and English Language Arts tests.
It was later discovered that she also previously assisted her third-grade students on the 2012 ELA and math exams, investigators said.
In each case, six students told investigators she would come to their desks and point to the correct answers.
Hillard told students at PS 200 that they should leave questions they found troublesome blank and that she would walk around and give them the answers, according to OSI interviews.
Students said Hillard provided them answers to the exams, according to an April 18, 2014, OSI report.
One pupil, identified as “Student C,” said that students asked Hillard for help during the tests and that Hillard obliged.
She read the questions aloud and gave the students the correct answers, the student said. Afterward, Hillard advised the kids to deny she gave them answers because she could get fired for doing so, students told investigators.
Hillard denied to investigators that she gave out answers and was reassigned to a district office. But then the OSI received more accusations of cheating by Hillard on the third-grade state exams the prior year at PS 46.
“Student S,” then a fifth-grader, said Hillard came up to her desk and put lines in bubbles on her answer sheet, indicating the correct answers, during math and ELA exams.
“Student U” said Hillard came to his desk and told him which of his answers were wrong on the math exam and then pointed to the correct answers in his test booklet. He changed his answers to the ones given by Hillard.
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