Day two my cheating series is out — here’s the main story:

Last year, 53 sophomores took the math TAKS test at Houston’s Jesse Jackson Academy. Two stood out from the crowd.

They were the only two whose answer sheets don’t show evidence of cheating.

Jackson — a Houston charter school with a long record of trouble with authorities — is home to the most extreme cheating in Texas, according to an in-depth analysis of test scores by The Dallas Morning News.

The cheating spans years, grades and subjects, and it’s on a scale that shocks even veteran hunters of educational fraud. And its existence is the latest black eye for the state’s efforts to regulate its patchwork of charter schools.

“Mind-boggling,” said David Harpp, a Canadian cheating expert who examined the school’s scores. “Total corruption.”

And later:

And most perplexing of all: A state investigation into the allegations is about to clear the school of all charges — without examining a single student answer sheet. Instead, a state employee interviewed school staff and asked whether they had cheated.

“This is ludicrous,” Dr. Harpp said. “That’s not an investigation. That’s just looking around.”

There’s also this sidebar.

04 June 2007

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