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Jun 19, 2009 9:50 am US/Central
400 Students With High Scores Must Retake TAKS
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Four hundred Lang Senior Middle School students in the Dallas Independent School District were already on summer break when they were told to go back to school to retake part of the TAKS test because they did too well.
Jonathan Garza, an eighth grader at the school, showed off his perfect TAKS test math score. He answered all sixty questions correctly. He doesn't want a re-do.
"What if I flunk it and it's going to go on my record? Or if I miss one, it's going to go on my record. It's going to mess up my perfect score," he said.
"I'm mad at the people that want to make him take it again. Are they going to come to my house to help him study for the test again or what?!" his father Peter asked.
But DISD says too many kids had scores like Jonathan's.
"The commended scores are so blockbuster, it's like maybe we want to model this around the country. We definitely want to do it if it's legit. If it's not legit, we need to have another conversation," Ron Price said.
Price is the DISD board member whose district covers Lang Senior Middle School. The district is investigating suspected wrong doing by adults.
The Texas Education Agency said there were "severe test irregularities" in the test scores. That could be anything from too many erasures to prior student access to test booklets.
"I'm disappointed. These are some adults who did some things they shouldn't have been doing and they will be held accountable even if that means termination," Price said.
Thursday, DISD began the task of calling parents, telling them about the new June 30 test date.
"It's kind of difficult to find 400 plus youngsters in the middle of summer. It's like finding a needle in a haystack," said Price. "We have to chase down kids all over the country and ask them to come back and take the test."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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