If, at any point over the past few months, you have wondered:

— “Wow, Josh doesn’t seem to be writing as many stories as usual.” Or:

— “Huh, Josh doesn’t seem to post to crabwalk as often as before.”

…the answer to your unstated queries are in today’s Dallas Morning News. (And tomorrow’s, and Tuesday’s.) A three-day investigative series penned by my colleague Holly Hacker and I is finally in the paper. The main story:

Tens of thousands of students cheat on the TAKS test every year, including thousands on the high-stakes graduation test, according to an in-depth data analysis by The Dallas Morning News.

The analysis — among the first of its kind on this scale — found cases where 30, 50 or even 90 percent of students had suspicious answer patterns that researchers say indicate collusion, either between students or with school staff. Perpetrators go almost entirely undetected and unpunished by state officials.

The study contradicts the Texas Education Agency’s stance that cheating on the TAKS is extraordinarily rare and that the agency has done a good job of policing it. Many schools with big cheating problems, including some in North Texas, have officially been cleared by recent state investigations — in most cases simply by proclaiming their innocence on a state questionnaire.

And there are roughly 753 sidebars: here, here, here, here, here, and here. (Phew. And that’s just day one!) There’s also a fun online graphic here.

More to come — I think you’ll like tomorrow’s story more than today’s.

03 June 2007

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