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Students at Volusia County school won't receive college credit after taking bogus exam, report says

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A Department of Education report claims more than 300 Mainland High School students took a mock AP exam that the school tried to pass off as legitimate.

The students now won't be able to collect the college credits they thought they'd be able to receive.

The tipster who informed the Department of Education claims the school did it to pad the school's gap.

Mainland's principal denied that claim and said students were never promised any college credits from the test and that it was simply used as an assessment.

In the report, the Department of Education claims 336 of the 414 students enrolled in the AP research class took the exam, but they were not told by the school that it would not count for college credits.

Principal Cheryl Salerno said the test was only used as a trial run to collect data and that it was too expensive to test every student.

Salerno called the allegations against her "untrue and gut-wrenching." Salerno said the allegations that she committed fraud against the students are offensive and wants to do whatever is necessary to help the students who believe they were cheated out of college credits.

Carl Persis, the president of the school board, stood by Salerno.

"She has a stellar record, so this isn't a principal that has been in any sort of trouble," said Persis.

The school district's interim superintendent will decide if any disciplinary action will be taken.

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