A longtime Memphis, Tenn., educator who helped teachers cheat on certification exams over a 15-year period was sentenced last week to seven years in federal prison.
Clarence Mumford, 59, pleaded guilty in February to arranging for people to take Praxis tests on behalf of aspiring teachers in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
Teachers paid Mr. Mumford up to $3,000 each to hire ringers to take reading, writing, math, physical education, and other exams on their behalf. That fee included fake driver’s licenses Mr. Mumford made for the test-takers, who showed them to proctors at examination centers.
The teachers used the passing scores to get jobs in public schools.
The former guidance counselor and assistant principal paid the test-takers hundreds of dollars for each test. Still, federal prosecutors said he made $120,000 in the scheme, which ran from 1995 to 2010.
