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Almost a Wrist Slap: Even with airtight case, TEA is lax on cheating
Editorial
Theresa B. Lee Academy stopped just short of erecting a neon sign declaring that it had cheated on the TAKS test.
Teachers at the Fort Worth charter school offered jaw-dropping accounts of administrators writing test answers on the chalkboard, composing the students' essays and doctoring TAKS answer sheets. When state investigators sought testing paperwork, school leaders spun an elaborate yarn about a mythical flood that swept the documents away. And when the Texas Education Agency tried to track down Lee students, investigators began to suspect that some of the kids were mythical as well.
The TEA had an airtight case against a school that broke almost every rule in the book – and then claimed to have lost the book in a flood. But when the state's punishment was announced this week, it amounted to little more than a tap – not even a slap – on the wrist.
For all of these egregious violations, Lee will be punished by the presence of a TEA official who will oversee testing and assist with an audit of attendance records. The school still will be entrusted with taxpayer dollars and the education of 178 students.
Such a weak punishment is a disservice to kids who deserve a better education.
But based on the TEA's toothless cheating policy, it's amazing that any school was reprimanded at all. Of the almost 700 schools that were flagged for suspicious test scores, only three were found to have done anything wrong. Two are still under investigation, and the rest have been cleared, primarily by assuring the state that they didn't cheat.
The TEA merely has gone through the motions of rooting out wrongdoing. While this two-year investigation has revealed relatively little about which schools cheated, it has exposed the need for broader state authority to shut down failed charter schools. And it has underscored the importance of appointing a TEA chief who will aggressively investigate testing improprieties.
Acting Commissioner Robert Scott doesn't seem to have the stomach for putting a stop to cheating when he declares, "There's no way TEA has the resources to be in every classroom."
While sending state officials to classrooms appears to be a punishment reserved for only the very worst offenders, the TEA certainly could – and should – do more to enact policies that will make its presence felt in every school on test day.
— Editorial
Dallas Morning News
2007-09-14
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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