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Jun 22, 2009 10:50 pm US/Central
Controversy Continues Over Lang TAKS Testing
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Dallas School Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa says cheating will not be tolerated and the district will take disciplinary action against whoever is responsible for test irregularities at Harold Wendell Lang Sr. Middle School.
More than 400 eighth graders from Lang are being asked to return to the campus on June 30th to retake the math portion of the TAKS Test. State and local officials say they have found "substantial and widespread irregularities" but they say students are not to blame.
Hinojosa says at least one adult is to blame, but he will not name any individuals. "From the preliminary view it does look like some adults [were] involved in it at the campus level," said the superintendent.
But the president of the Dallas Chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Rena Honea, says the preliminary findings should be made public. "I think it's very unfair. Who are the people who could have breached that security?"
While the school district says at least one adult is responsible, it's not known exactly who breached security. "Why not talk to those people individually? Have they done that?" asked Honea. "If they have, let it be known. There's just a huge cloud of question marks over this whole situation."
Asked why more information is not being made available to parents, students and staff, Hinojosa would not comment about specific elements of the investigation. "It's not being swept under the rug. It will be a full report," said Hinojosa. "All of the Office of Professional Responsibility reports are public and that report will be made public when it's finalized and they are concluding their investigation as we speak."
Lang students will be retested in a week and the Dallas school district also announced that tutors will be available for three days. While the might help some, there are those who are refusing to go through the exam process again.
Fourteen-year-old twins, Jacob and Jonathan Garza will not be there next Tuesday for re-testing. Their mother, Marissa Garza, says her sons worked hard during the school year. "There's principle behind it," the mother said. "Why put them through this again?"
Jacob Garza says he expects to be promoted to the 9th grade after a grade place committee reviews his classroom grades. "I don't need to take the test" he says. "I've been doing good in school, especially in math."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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