By Joshua Benton and Holly K. Hacker Staff Writers Page 1A A Dallas Morning News data analysis has uncovered strong evidence of organized, educator-led cheating on the TAKS test in dozens of Texas schools – and suspicious scores in hundreds more. The analysis found a poor urban school where third- and fifth-graders are among the […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A On this year’s third-grade TAKS reading test, an unlikely school finished No. 1 in the state. Wilmer Elementary – a perennial underachiever in a district many consider the state’s worst – beat out the scores of 3,212 other elementary schools. But substantial evidence, including a Dallas Morning News […]
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By Colleen McCain Nelson and Joshua Benton Staff Writers Page 25A Dallas Independent School District officials said Wednesday that they are investigating allegations of cheating on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills at Onesimo Hernandez Elementary School. Dr. William J. Webster, deputy superintendent for evaluation and accountability, said DISD officials have begun interviewing students, staff […]
An Amarillo teacher leaked a portion of this spring’s TAKS writing test to his colleagues because he wanted his school’s students to have a better chance at passing, a state investigation has found.
The teacher said that he leaked the information because he believed that educators in other districts were doing the same and that Amarillo students were “as deserving of prior knowledge of TAKS test information as students” in those other Texas districts, according to an investigative report released by the Texas Education Agency.
David Tamez, an elementary bilingual teacher, told investigators that he obtained the test information by volunteering to serve on a statewide committee of educators who help determine which questions make it onto the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills each year, the report states. He alleged that members of those committees regularly smuggle out secret TAKS information to share in their home districts – a contention TEA officials vigorously dispute.
“You know good and well what people are doing,” Mr. Tamez said, according to a tape recording of his interview with investigators. “They’re writing down prompts; they’re writing down information.”
The TEA inspector general’s office is recommending a further investigation to determine whether Mr. Tamez’s claims of widespread improprieties are valid. […]
It’s the school district that refuses to die.
For decades, Wilmer-Hutchins ISD was an object of investigation and a subject of derision. It was, by common assent, the worst district in North Texas: miserable test scores, a chaotic school board and a string of financial problems.
But now, a year after the district’s state-induced euthanasia, some Wilmer-Hutchins residents are feeling a strange emotion: nostalgia.
“We deserve to have our own schools back,” said Faye Gafford, who leads a group trying to bring Wilmer-Hutchins back to life.
It’s been two years since Wilmer-Hutchins schools enrolled any students, and one since Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley formally and permanently shut the district’s doors. The district was merged into the neighboring Dallas school system. But Ms. Gafford and others say their students aren’t getting the attention they deserve in the bigger district.
Ms. Gafford’s group appealed to lawmakers during the last legislative session, asking them to revive Wilmer-Hutchins through a rider attached to other legislation. That didn’t work. Now, she and her allies are considering legal action. […]
The state’s investigation into cheating on the 2005 TAKS test has borne its first fruit.
Theresa B. Lee Academy, a Fort Worth charter school with a long history of problems, improperly tampered with the 2005 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, state officials announced Thursday. As a result, the Texas Education Agency could launch proceedings to close the school permanently.
“I think this could be the beginning of the end,” agency spokeswoman Suzanne Marchman said.
Lee was one of two schools highlighted last week in a Dallas Morning News investigation that found evidence of extensive cheating at a number of Texas charter schools. The two with the biggest problems, according to The News’ statistical analysis, were Lee and its sister school, Jesse Jackson Academy in Houston.
But while Lee is facing sanctions, the state investigation at Jesse Jackson Academy has concluded without finding any cheating. That’s in part because the investigation did not examine a single student answer sheet. […]
Starting next spring, Texas schools will have to record whom students sit next to during the TAKS test, according to a set of anti-cheating reforms announced Monday.
The Texas Education Agency also will send inspectors unannounced to schools on test day, track which adults administer the tests to students and create an honor code for test takers.
The moves come one week after a Dallas Morning News investigation found more than 50,000 students with extremely unusual answer patterns on the 2005 and 2006 TAKS test. Experts say those patterns strongly suggest cheating by students or school personnel.
“The findings were definitely troubling and certainly raised suspicions,” TEA spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said Monday.
But the agency will not take the step researchers say would be most effective at deterring cheating: scrambling the order of test questions so students can’t copy off each other. […]
State may switch to online tests Page 12A One possible path to cutting cheating on exams is digital: switching to computerized testing. The state has conducted several experiments with online tests, and officials have said some state tests – although probably not the TAKS – could be administered solely online within two years. Without a […]
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Page 6A A group of charter schools approved controversially in 1998 are, among all their other problems, a significant source of the state’s cheating. The 100-plus schools were approved at a rambunctious meeting of a State Board of Education committee. That’s when board members rejected staff recommendations and decided to give a charter school – […]
Page 22A Accusations of cheating in Texas schools began in earnest in 2004, when a series of stories in The News uncovered cheating in Wilmer-Hutchins schools in southern Dallas County. The Texas Education Agency initially declined to investigate. But eventually a TEA team found that two-thirds of the test proctors in the district’s elementary schools […]