Teachers ordered cheating

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

DALLAS — Texas’ top education official intends to remove a local school board because investigators found teachers helped students cheat on state tests.

State Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley moved Monday to dissolve the Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District board after 22 educators were found cheating, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Teachers ordered students who finished the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test early to fix answers on other students’ answer sheets. Some students were required to have their answers checked before proceeding, according to a confidential state report obtained by the News.

In a Monday letter to the board, Mrs. Neeley said, “School governance is unstable in Wilmer Hutchins ISD and has been so for many years.”

School board President Luther Edwards said the board “was being declared guilty for nothing. … It’s the major power brokers who are arranging all this.”

Cheating is only the latest problem to confront officials in the district south of Dallas. The superintendent was fired in November after being indicted on felony document-tampering charges.