My Alma Mater

NEW YORK (AP) City and state education officials are investigating claims that a high school tampered with students' scores on key state tests.

Teachers at Susan E. Wagner High School in Staten Island say administrators pushed to raise some students' scores on Regents science, English and history exams last June, teachers' union spokesman Stuart Marques said Thursday.

A group of 17 science teachers reported the allegations to United Federation of Teachers representatives last month, and the union quickly alerted city Department of Education officials, Marques said.

City schools Chancellor Joel Klein called the matter "serious."

"It's a serious allegation," he said, "and we'll do a serious investigation on it."

State Department of Education spokesman Tom Dunn said the state also was looking into the claims.

Wagner Principal Gary M. Giordano did not promptly return a telephone call to his office Thursday. But his lawyer, Mark Fonte, called the charges "ridiculous" and "truly unfair."

Public high school students must pass at least five Regents exams to graduate, and the tests are used as measures of schools' performance. Schools score their own students' tests, using state guidelines.

Wagner has about 3,000 students.