Who got caught cheating on the nclex pn test?

Answer 1

According to an article by Tammelleo, A. David published in the Regan Report on Nursing Law in-APR-97: On July 7 and 8, 1993, candidates for licensure as professional nurses throughout the country took the NCLEX test. Jennifer Johnson Culpepper was one of 731 candidates who took the Arizona exam at the Phoenix Civic Center. Approximately forty-five minutes into the ninety minute Part One portion of the examination, Dorothy Moore, a proctor assigned to Culpepper's group, noticed suspicious behavior by Culpepper. The proctor saw Culpepper move her body and chair to the left and closer to T. L. Culpepper (T.L.), seated to her immediate left. Although they have the same last name, T.L. and Culpepper are not related. They did not know each other prior to the exam. The proctor then observed Culpepper look at T.L.'s test booklet. She watched Culpepper for several minutes and from different angles. Culpepper continued to turn toward T.L. on her left, return to her own test booklet and mark it. The proctor then asked James Mitchell, assistant examiner, to watch Culpepper. Mitchell saw Culpepper engage in the same suspicious behavior. The two times that Mitchell checked to see if Culpepper and T.L. were working on the same part of the exam, the booklets were opened to the same page. After concluding that Culpepper was looking at T.L.'s exam booklet, Mitchell reported the situation to Constance Connell, the examiner in charge. Connell also observed the same behavior that both the proctor and the assistant examiner had observed. Part Two of the exam took place in the afternoon of July 7th. The examiner instructed Mitchell to sit in a chair directly in front of Culpepper during Part Two, to monitor her. He did so and continued to observe Culpepper looking to her left at T.L.'s booklet. Connell told Culpepper to keep her eyes on her own exam and advised T.L to cover his booklet. On July 8th, the examiners separated the two from each other by six to eight feet. Culpepper was not observed engaging in any further suspicious activity. The examiner filed a cheating incident report regarding Culpepper's suspicious behavior with the National Council of State Nursing Boards. The examiner requested the testing service to conduct a cheating analysis of Culpepper's and T.L.'s exams. The results of the analysis were as follows: The two candidates had 82.8% identical responses in Book One for Part One of the exam. The candidates had 67.7% identical responses in Book Two for Part Two of the exam. For the following day the candidates had 57.0% identical responses in Book Three and 52.2% identical responses in Book Four. A three day hearing was conducted beginning in April, 1994. After the hearing, a Hearing Officer found "substantial evidence" that Culpepper had engaged in "fraud and deceit during the exam by copying your answers from another candidate's test book". The Hearing Officer recommended that the Board deny Culpepper's license application. The Arizona State Board of Nursing denied Culpepper licensure as a professional nurse. Culpepper filed suit against the Board in Superior Court. The Superior Court, Maricopa County, affirmed the decision of the Board. Culpepper appealed. COURT'S OPINION: The Court of Appeals of Arizona affirmed the decision of the Lower Court and the Board. The Court held that "substantial evidence" of Culpepper's cheating supported the Board's decision. The Court found that the Board applied the correct standard of proof and that the denial of Culpepper's application for a nursing license was not an excessive penalty. The Court noted that no Arizona case had addressed the standard of proof required in such hearings. However, the Court noted that the United States Supreme Court considered the issue in a proceeding conducted pursuant to the Federal Administrative Procedures Act, Steadman v. Securities and Exch. Comm'n, 450 U.S. 91, 101 S.Ct. 999, 67 L.Ed.2d 69 (1981). The United States Supreme Court held that a "preponderance of the evidence" standard applied.