Three Houston ISD employees are among the five people charged in connection with a scheme to help hundreds of people cheat on state teacher certification tests, Harris County prosecutors said Monday.
Prosecutors said longtime Booker T. Washington High School boys basketball coach Vincent Grayson led a cheating ring in which people typically paid about $2,500 for help fraudulently obtaining a teacher license. As many as 400 people might have illegally obtained a teacher certification in Texas since 2020 through the cheating ring, which netted the organizers about $1 million, prosecutors said.
The scheme involved conspirators taking and administering tests on behalf of aspiring certified teachers, prosecutors said. Investigators believe the hundreds of participants are spread throughout the state, with some likely still in classrooms. The licenses likely helped school employees get promotions, earn higher salaries and keep their teaching jobs, prosecutors said.
“To me, the damage is not just to the education system, which is under great duress right now, but it’s actually to to the families of the children who go to those schools, who trust the government to educate their kids and keep them safe for eight hours a day,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said during a press conference Monday.
Grayson did not immediately respond to a text or phone call from the Houston Landing. His lawyer, Cheryl Irvin, declined to comment, telling the Landing that “I don’t know hardly anything” about the details of the indictment yet.
The arrests come amid a rise in uncertified teachers getting hired in Texas public schools, as fewer people enter the teaching profession through traditional college education programs. Certified teachers must complete a bachelor’s degree, a Texas university education preparation program and a state certification exam.
In a statement Monday, Texas Education Agency spokesperson Jake Kobersky wrote that the department “will review any and all information shared by law enforcement and pursue appropriate action against any educator involved in this scheme.” The State Board of Educator Certification will decide on any punishment, Kobersky said.
You can read on for the details. It’s not hard to understand why such a thing might exist – the motivation is more or less the same as the motivation to hire someone to take your SAT, for one example. This has allegedly been going on for awhile, so I wonder how long it was in operation before it was discovered. I assume there was some amount of time taken for the investigation, but one presumes they would want to shut it down before too many more possibly unqualified teachers benefitted from it. This will be handed off to the next DA, so we’ll see what happens. The Chron has more.
Can’t blame this one on Baba Yaga Miles.
Corruption runs deep in Houston ISD. Add this to the many scandals that have been discovered in the last few years.
The Corruption of Republicans is worse. Look no further than the Orange man’s family and himself.