Four teachers at Stillwater Area High School have been suspended for 10 days without pay for allegedly cheating on a training course required for all elementary and special-education staff who teach literacy.

District officials say the incidents of cheating ranged from looking up answers on Google to sharing answers to having another teacher complete their assessments.

The actions taken by the four teachers “represent a serious breach of professional and ethical responsibilities, and are contrary to the expectations of our district,” Superintendent Mike Funk said.

The training course was a response to legislative action aimed at improving reading scores in the state.

The Minnesota Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act, approved by the Minnesota Legislature in 2023, stipulates that by the 2026-27 school year, each school district in the state must provide research-backed reading instruction rooted in phonics and other foundational skills.The Minnesota Department of Education expects most elementary and special-education educators to be trained in these “science of reading” methods by this summer. Teachers who support literacy instruction, but are not directly involved, are to be trained by summer 2027.

Stillwater Area School District officials selected LETRS, or Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, as the district’s training program, and entered into a contract with Massachusetts-based Lexia to provide the training and assessments.

Teachers must successfully complete the LETRS training program, which takes about 80 hours to complete, and achieve a minimum score of 80 percent on assessments to obtain their certification in the “science of reading.” Additional days were added to the district’s professional development calendar for teachers to complete the LETRS training, which is “equivalent to four graduate-level courses and requires extensive coursework and rigorous evaluations, including multiple assessments throughout the program,” according to the district.

Teachers who obtain certification can earn a district stipend of $1,140 or earn 12 graduate credits that will apply to a “lane change,” an incremental movement across the salary schedule that increases the teacher’s pay. It takes 15 credits to qualify for a lane change, according to the district.

Alerted by training company

In January, officials from Lexia contacted district officials to inform them “that some teachers had completed their literacy certification assessments in an unusually short amount of time,” district officials said in a statement. “The implication was that the teachers may have cheated on the assessment.”

District officials began an investigation that included reviewing electronic records and interviewing 78 teachers. Three teachers left the district after the incident was brought to light, but no disciplinary action was taken against them. Two of the teachers resigned, and one retired. The school board confirmed the teachers’ departures in a consent-agenda vote on March 18.

Four other teachers ended up being suspended for 10 days without pay for cheating on the LETRS course, district officials said.

One teacher received an email from colleagues on Sept. 30 with answers to LETRS assessments, district officials said. The teacher “subsequently completed the LETRS training in less than 20 percent of the recommended amount of time,” officials said. “Additionally, (she) created a Google Drive folder that contained the answers to the LETRS assessments. She then shared the Google Drive folder with seven colleagues. (She) also used a colleague’s login credentials and took the LETRS Unit-4 assessment for the colleague. Finally, (she) violated a directive not to talk to colleagues about the district’s investigation. The district had issued this directive to preserve the integrity of the investigation.”

Another teacher Googled the answers to the Unit-I and Unit-2 LETRS assessments, district officials said. Additionally, a colleague reportedly gave her access to a Google file folder containing answers to LETRS assessments, and the teacher viewed the answers and downloaded them, but “did not complete the training,” officials said. “Instead, she gave her username and password to two colleagues. The colleagues used (her) username and password to complete the training for (her). … (She) acknowledged that she knew this was wrong, but she did it anyway.”

A third teacher accessed a Google Drive folder containing the answers to LETRS assessments and spent less than two hours on training for Units 3 and 4 — training that should normally take 15 hours to complete, officials said. She also provided her username and password to a colleague who completed several assessments for her. During her investigative interview, the teacher “provided conflicting accounts of what had occurred,” district officials said.

The fourth teacher used the learning platform Quizlet “to look up answers when taking LETRS assessments,” district officials said. “He also had access and viewed a Google Drive folder containing answer keys for LETRS assessments. In addition, (he) offered to take LETRS assessments for colleagues. He subsequently used the username and password of two other teachers in the district and took LETRS assessments for those teachers.”

During his investigative interview, the fourth teacher stated that “he did not take the training seriously and believed it was acceptable to take shortcuts to get through it.”

‘Open book, open note’

A local union official said there could have been better communication about expectations.

Teachers were told that the LETRS training was “open book, open note,” and that the tests could be taken collaboratively, said Tony Klehr, president of the St. Croix Education Association, the union that represents teachers in the Stillwater Area School District.

The union “doesn’t condone the behavior of a small group of educators,” but does believe discipline could have been avoided “had we had some more and better communication around the expectations and norms for the professional development that we went through,” he said.

District officials said the LETRS program provides instructions around assessments that includes the use of the participants’ notes from online learning, in-person sessions, etc.

“There is a distinction between using one’s notes and textbook and using an answer key,” district officials said Thursday. “Teachers are also encouraged to collaborate to learn the material, this does not include taking assessments with the answers in hand or sharing login credentials so one teacher can take a test for another.”

‘Deeply disappointing’

Education Minnesota knows of no similar disciplinary cases against educators in other Minnesota school districts, spokesman Chris Williams said.

The Minnesota Department of Education did not provide information about whether it was aware of similar cases.

The Stillwater district, the teachers’ union and the four teachers have entered into a memorandum of agreement regarding their discipline.

The memorandum contains a final warning and a directive that states that for the remainder of the teacher’s employment with the district, the teacher must not engage in any act of dishonesty or deception, and that if they violate the directive, the district will take action to discharge the teacher.

“While this situation is deeply disappointing, it reinforces our commitment to accountability and to the high standards of our community,” Funk said. “We remain focused on maintaining the integrity of our education programs, repairing the harm that has occurred, and maintaining our expectation that all staff uphold the values that define our profession.”

The vast majority of teachers in the district have approached the LETRS training with the “utmost of integrity,” Klehr said. “While early, what we are seeing out of the students and their results is generally positive, and most teachers are appreciative of this training and are reporting that it is quality professional development.”