VISTA —— The Vista Unified School District has reprimanded and transferred a teacher at Mission Meadows Elementary School after a district investigation found that the teacher provided improper help to students and caused "irregularities" on state standardized tests, according to a letter district officials sent to the state.

In the June 30 letter to the California Department of Education, which was obtained by the North County Times on Monday, the district said that its investigation into a teacher's handling of the 2005 Standardized Testing and Reporting exam or STAR test found:

n The teacher admitted to having multiplication tables hanging on the wall during the math portion of the standardized test.

n In response to a specific allegation, the teacher said a misunderstanding may have led to one student's perception that she reviewed the standardized test and had students change their answers. The teacher said she reviewed each test to ensure that answers were filled in and that there were no stray marks.

n However, eight out of 17 students interviewed individually about the math portion of the STAR test said they were told which answers to correct when the teacher reviewed the tests.

The district's investigation concluded that testing irregularities did occur on the STAR tests. Superintendent Dave Cowles said that means the teacher did not properly follow the rules and testing procedures.

Cowles said he received a call from the state shortly after the letter was sent, and state officials said the irregularities were insignificant and would not cause the school to be sanctioned. If the state had found any irregularities that affected more than 5 percent of the tests, the school could be sanctioned by the state and potentially lose its Academic Performance Index and statewide school ranking for this year, district officials said.

The letter said the district reprimanded the teacher by placing her on administrative leave for the last two weeks of the school year that ended in June. The district also transferred the teacher from Mission Meadows to another school for this 2005-06 school year.

Cowles declined to name the teacher or where she was transferred to, and said he had no comment on any personnel matters.

In addition, the letter states that there will be at least one "proxy" in the room with the teacher for this year's STAR testing. Cowles said that means that another teacher, parent volunteer or other person will be in the room along with the teacher for the 2006 testing.

The district began investigating the testing irregularities after a complaint from parents, Ronald and Janet Exley about their daughter's third-grade math teacher. The parents alleged that the teacher went over tests with students after they were handed in, told them to change wrong answers and purposefully hung up multiplication tables in the room for children to look at during the tests.

Exley was less than enthused by the district's response to the state, especially because she said she didn't learn of it until hearing it from the media.

"Not yet has anyone from the district stepped up and said what was going on," Exley said. "Ultimately, there has been no accountability."

Cowles said that the district continues to review the incident, and said the "books are not closed on it." He said the district will use the incident as an example to all teachers that they follow the rules of the testing to the letter.

In addition to being upset over the testing, Exley said her daughter did not learn third-grade math last year, and is forced to catch up on her own because the district did not provide any tutoring or extra classes for the affected students.

"My daughter is going into fourth grade without knowing third-grade math," she said. "The district knows this and they haven't done anything."

She said that the district should have done more than suspend the teacher for two weeks and transfer her to a different school.

"In the Vista Unified School District there's no accountability," Exley said. "That's the bottom line."

Contact staff writer Rob O'Dell at (760) 631-6620 or rodell@nctimes.com.