The reason I was at work until 10 p.m. tonight, from Tuesday’s front page:

The Wilmer-Hutchins school board will soon be out of work.

State Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley has decided to dissolve the troubled district’s board because state investigators found widespread cheating by Wilmer-Hutchins teachers on the state’s TAKS test.

The investigation – prompted by a series of Dallas Morning News stories in November – found that more than 20 Wilmer-Hutchins teachers and administrators gave answers to students.

According to a confidential Texas Education Agency report obtained by The News, teachers ordered students who finished the test early to fix answers on other students’ answer sheets. Some students were required to have their answers checked before proceeding to the next question. And some teachers prepared answer keys for students.

In all, 22 educators were fingered by the investigation – two-thirds of all the educators who administered tests in the district’s elementary schools.

“This significant number appears to indicate a pervasive lack of oversight at three of the four elementary campuses and at the district level to such an extent that the validity of the test results is compromised,” the report said.

In case you thought I was just kidding in all those previous stories about cheating in Wilmer-Hutchins (and elsewhere).

21 March 2005

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