This Only Cheats Schools: Top TEA officials must get with it or get out

Strong statement by the editors of the Dallas Morning News today. They're wanting clarification from the TEA on the extent of teaching. -Angela

08:34 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Pardon our disgust, but it's asking a lot that Texas swallow the "chill pill" that Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley recommends to calm the furor over the TAKS cheating mess.

You can't blame local superintendents for getting worked up by their inability to get details on why schools in their districts popped up in a consultant's report on possible cheating in 2005.

A lot is on the line. And it's not just the integrity of the test that forms the spine of Texas' system of judging and, increasingly, rewarding districts. The integrity of schools and individual educators – many of them innocent, no doubt – has been drawn into question.

Yet the Texas Education Agency has been slow to wake up to the importance of quickly getting additional data to local officials to help clear the air.

Not everyone has been as lackadaisical. One Houston-area district hired a lawyer to pry the information loose from the state. If only the TEA had been as aggressive on its end.

Ms. Neeley last week promised to take the vital step of going back to the consultant to request additional data on student test results – a promise that came seven weeks after the cheating report was released.

Foot-dragging in Austin fits the TEA's pattern of minimizing the report's fallout. We'll grant the agency's contention that cheating didn't occur in each of the 609 schools cited; some large achievement gains certainly are attributable to stellar teaching and students' effort.

And give the TEA credit for agreeing to investigate suspected repeat or egregious violators, along with a handful of schools that await TAKS achievement bonuses from the governor's office.

The rest is up to local educators, especially the messy matters of suspicious erasures and similarities between answer sheets. As for the importance of accountability to the public, some superintendents seem to get it.

Gov. Rick Perry has said the state must "get to the bottom of this important question," an indication that he seems to get it.

If top state education officials don't get it – all the way up to Ms. Neeley – maybe they need to get out.

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-cheating_18edi.ART.State.Edition1.2402de4.html