By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

EL PASO, Texas  – The  El Paso Independent School District is home to the latest cheating scandal involving student test scores.

On Wednesday, former EPISD Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia pled guilty to “improperly boosting state and federal accountability scores at several campuses to secure federal funding through No Child Left Behind,” reports the El Paso Times.

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Garcia is believed to have prevented low-achieving students from taking the tests, in order to boost the district’s overall scores.

“A federal information document filed on Wednesday states Garcia conspired with six unnamed people, who have not been indicted, to inflate the scores,” the Times reports.

Norma De La Rosa, president of the El Paso Teachers Association, told the Times that Garcia’s co-conspirators are likely still serving as district administrators.

“I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anybody that they’re people still working at the central office,” De La Rosa said.

This cheating scandal comes almost a full year after it was revealed that some 260 teachers in the Atlanta Public Schools altered student test sheets in order to improve their scores. Those folks did not work in any central office. They were union members.

Undoubtedly, opponents of so-called “high stakes” testing – namely the teacher unions – will use the El Paso case to argue that using such tests have a detrimental effect on public education. They’ll also argue the tests should play no role in assessing a student’s learning or a teacher’s performance.

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Standardized testing may be imperfect, but it is the best tool available for measuring whether or not students are actually learning what they need to be learning. Scrapping these tests should not be an option.

The Atlanta and El Paso cases illustrate the need for schools to place a greater emphasis on integrity and strength of character when hiring teachers and administrators.

It also shows the need for developing a process where outside, independent individuals – retired teachers, for example – oversee the testing process. And there must be stiff penalties for any individuals who are found guilty of cheating.

Only by doing these things can we ensure that another Atlanta or El Paso scandal doesn’t occur again.