Texas Takes Aim at Tainted Testing Program

Responding to a potential cheating scandal uncovered by a recent newspaper investigation, Texas officials last week announced a sweeping review of test security and plans for a new monitoring scheme for the state accountability system, which has served as a model for other states as well as the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“We take cheating very seriously in our state, and we will be taking whatever actions are necessary to maintain the integrity of our testing program,” Commissioner of Education Shirley Neeley said at a Jan. 10 press conference called to outline the state’s response. “This whole situation is embarrassing, … but we’re not putting our heads in the sand over this.”

The move came after an analysis of test scores by The Dallas Morning News found that results at as many as 400 schools out of 7,700 statewide—including one celebrated Houston elementary school—were suspect. The newspaper, which used a regression analysis of all school-level results on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills for 2003 and 2004, outlined unlikely leaps in TAKS scale scores from one year to the next or students’ inability to maintain high levels of achievement as they advanced in school. The analysis compares relationships between variables to gauge or predict consistencies, such as a school’s performance in...