Ex-Texas school chief gets 3.5 years for test fraud
EL PASO, Texas A federal judge sentenced the former superintendent of El Paso Independent School District to more than three years in prison Friday for his participation in a conspiracy to improve the district's high-stakes tests scores by removing low-performing students from classrooms.
Lorenzo Garcia's scheme to prevent hundreds of sophomores from taking the accountability tests fooled authorities into believing that academic standards had improved in his West Texas district, resulting in a boost in federal funds and personal bonuses totaling at least $56,000.
Former El Paso Independent School District superintendent Lorenzo Garcia
/ KDBC-TVGarcia pleaded guilty to two fraud counts in June; one in the testing scandal and another in which he misled the school board so that his lover would receive a $450,000 no-bid contract to produce school materials.
On Friday, the judge sentenced him to 42 months in prison on each fraud count, to be served concurrently. Garcia was also fined $56,500, the exact amount of money he took as a bonus from the district for its success on test scores.
Court documents indicate at least six other people helped Garcia organize the testing scheme. An FBI investigation continues.
Garcia, who was hired in 2006, implemented a plan with several other administrators that allowed for the pre-testing of 10th-graders to identify those who were likely to fail the standardized tests. He had one employee photograph students crossing the border so they could be forced out on the grounds that they were living in Mexico rather than within the school district.
The whole idea, said former state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, was to make those students "disappear" so they would not be counted among the students who were tested.
Jesus Salas, a junior at Irvin High School, told CBS affiliate KDBC-TV in El Paso, Texas that he thought it was horrible that kids were trying to do their best in school, and they were forcing them to stay away so they wouldn't ruin the district's scores.
"It is kind of messed up the way that EPISD is missing money and the school needs money, and that guy is just taking everything. That's not right," said Salas.
In the short term, the strategy worked. Test scores improved in most high schools and the district's overall rating improved from "academically acceptable" in 2005 to "recognized" in 2010, the second-highest rating possible.
The Texas Education Agency cleared Garcia in 2010 of allegations made by Shapleigh. But in late 2011, the El Paso Times filed a Freedom of Information Act request for correspondence between the federal Education Department and the school district. When the attorney general ruled that the records must be released, the district acknowledged the scandal.
State officials placed the district on probation, named a monitor to oversee it and said the schools showed "utter disregard" for the students' needs.
Garcia resigned Nov. 8, 2011, and his final day as superintendent of the El Paso Independent School District was on Nov. 30, 2011, KDBC-TV reported. In his resignation letter, he wrote that his leaving his job was not an admission of guilt. Although he was not given severance pay, he was entitled to up to 150 days of already earned leave, which added up to $177,414. He also received a $12,500 retention bonus.
"At this point all we can do is move forward and make sure we take all the steps we can take to prevent a similar situation in the future," school board president Isela Casta?on-Williams said to reporters at the time.
Other large districts have been ensnared in scandals to raise test scores, most recently in Atlanta, where educators gave answers to students or changed answers after tests were completed. But none has been so brazen as to cast off low-scoring students.
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As a former educator myself, I have questioned certain practices within my own school system. As a Career and Technical instructor, it appeared to me that certain students were removed from the student population and placed in GED classes. These students were required to enroll in a Career and Technical Class as a requirement for participation. In several cases I witnessed, the students would drop out of their Career and Tech class after earning their GED.
Regarding the GED placements, I'm not alleging anything unethical or wrong within my former school district. I'm just speculating what would prevent a school system from removing low scoring students from their student population with the primary intent to only increase test scores.
Several initiatives are underway and require rapid and immediate completion. El Paso has a rapidly growing cancer that requires immediate intervention.
First, the immediate removal of all EPISD Trustees and Administrators. The EPISD Trustees and Administrators have proven they are incompetent and uniformed regarding the education of children in El Paso.
Second, the immediate and swift prosecution of those involved in the EPISD corruption.
Third, the immediate prosecution and return of $ 450,000 of Mistress Tracy Rose. The 'services" Miss Rose performed were of no value to the citizens of El Paso.
Fourth, establish a fund to educate those students that were discriminated against in the corruption.
Fifth, express your outrage at The Robing Room where U.S. District Judge David Briones can be rated. He currently has a 70% rating, which is a D.
A sincere "thank you" to former state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh for exposing the corruption and not allowing the elite in El Paso to falter his passion for excellence.
After reading the article, it appears that these students were coming across the border (perhaps illegally) to attend school. I'd still tell this guy to stuff it if I was in that situation and keep on coming to school.
http://www.aolnews.com/2010/03/12/texas-removes-thomas-jefferson-from-teaching-standard/
...and now this.
That state is loaded with nuts.
"Don't mess with Texas". Sure. Don't bother with them to begin with.
Were all the students who were forced to skip the exam from across the border? or is this report just skewed to make it look that way?
All this is far more complicated than one dishonest superintendent.
Well, this is one fruit of the ill-conceived No Child Left Behind.
Absolutely agreed.
NCLB and other initiatives discuss "teacher performance". Well, if the kid doesn't want to learn, if it does not care, or if the parents don't want to discipline because the teacher and principal can't without being sued to nonexistence...
It's amazing how NCLB got passed, given how much it glossed over... most of the outcomes are absolutely predictable... it's one big JOKE. And there are other contexts as well...
I've said in the past some teachers would do things to inflate grades or use other means to look better. Some kids won't study and teachers, or principals, can't do much either without the parents suing because the kid was just "expressing freedom of speech" or whatever 'excuse du jour' would be made to try to justify the indolence of child and parent(s)...
The mess is big and little has been done.
Schools can get rid of casual dress as well... all that does is distract. Kids are there to learn, in an environment free of irrelevant matters...