By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

PITTSBURGH – Add Pennsylvania to the growing list of states that are investigating teachers in multiple school districts for possible cheating on standardized tests.

The state probe in Pennsylvania is focused on 10 school districts. In the Pittsburgh school district, 53 schools are under investigation, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

We’re encouraged by the diligence of state officials to get to the bottom of the cheating problem, and they’ve appeared to make significant progress. Our hope is the state imposes harsh and decisive disciplinary action on any adult involved, to make it clear manipulating important test results won’t be tolerated.

It’s critical that public schools across the country accurately measure student progress, and hold instructors responsible. Teachers or school administrators who break the rules are putting their own self interests above their students, who are robbed of a fair assessment and important academic support because of the cheating.

Pennsylvania’s continuing investigation involves test scores from 2009, 2010, and 2011 on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test administered to students in grades 3-8 and 11, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

“The state initially investigated 38 school districts and charter schools, clearing some and finding cheating in some others, including some in Western Pennsylvania,” the newspaper reports.

Neighboring Ohio and other states are also investigating teachers and administrators who allegedly cheated on standardized tests.

In Columbus, school officials are accused of withdrawing students and re-enrolling them to break their continuous streak of school enrollment, so their scores weren’t counted on state tests.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

Superintendent Donna Hubbard was allegedly caught conducting the same scam in the Lockland, Ohio school district, and Toledo schools are facing similar allegations, according to media reports.

EAGnews has documented recent cheating scandals in Texas and Oklahoma City, as well, since the first widespread scandal was exposed in Atlanta in 2011.

They’re all part of a sickening trend in public education that needs to stop now. Critics of standardized tests claim that pressure to improve student learning had led some teachers and administrators to cheat. We believe they cheat because they’re losers who prefer to take the easy way out rather than put in the hard work necessary to help students learn.