TEA investigating over 100 educators linked to teacher certification cheating ring
The Texas Education Agency is investigating over 100 teachers for possible involvement in a Houston-based cheating ring that, according to prosecutors, resulted in hundreds of people obtaining fraudulent educator licenses over the past several years.
Out of 102 teachers being investigated, the TEA identified 15 as having worked at Houston ISD in recent years, according to a list the agency shared Wednesday morning with the Houston Landing. Thirteen of the 15 names match employees listed in the district’s October payroll records.
HISD administrators found out late Tuesday which teachers — in addition to three staffers who were identified in October — were being investigated in connection to the scandal, Communications Chief Alexandra Elizondo said. The district is in the process of putting them on paid leave.
“We find this behavior completely unacceptable,” Elizondo said. “As soon as we learned who was involved and was under investigation for fraudulent certification, we immediately began processing putting them on leave.”
In the Houston region, Cy-Fair, Fort Bend, Spring and Katy ISDs all had two to four educators listed as under review. Nine educators under investigation worked in recent years at Dallas ISD and eight worked at Duncanville ISD.
The investigations, which are separate from the criminal prosecutions of five people tied to the cheating ring, could result in teachers getting their Texas educator license revoked.
The update comes after the Harris County District Attorney’s Office announced in late October that it had charged five people, including three HISD employees, in connection with a years-long scheme to help teachers across the state fraudulently obtain teaching certificates.
The TEA anticipates that more teachers will come under review in the coming weeks and months.
“TEA fully expects additional investigations to be opened as the agency receives more information,” spokesperson Jake Kobersky wrote in an email.
In October, prosecutors said longtime Booker T. Washington High School boys basketball coach Vincent Grayson was the “organizer and kingpin” of the cheating ring, while Washington High Assistant Principal Nicholas Newton and Yates High School employee LaShonda Roberts were co-conspiritors. Prosecutors said Roberts is an assistant principal at Yates High, though district payroll records showed her working as a special education chair at the campus as of early October.
The scheme netted its organizers $1 million, and the fraudulent licenses likely helped school employees get promotions, earn higher salaries and keep their teaching jobs, prosecutors said.
Teachers who participated in the cheating ring typically paid about $2,500 to have Newton take the test in their name, while Grayson led the operation and Roberts “recruited and referred” about 90 teachers, prosecutors said. Newton was eventually “caught red-handed taking tests for two teachers at once and gave a full confession,” prosecutors said. About 20 teachers involved in the scandal also confessed, prosecutors wrote in court records.
In late October, HISD Communications Chief Alexandra Elizondo said Grayson, Newton and Roberts had all been put on paid leave. The district would work with law enforcement and the TEA to identify any teachers involved in the cheating scandal and terminate their contracts, she said at the time.
“The conduct in question is completely unacceptable and completely against every one of HISD’s values, what we believe about teacher certification,” Elizondo said in October.
Asher Lehrer-Small covers Houston ISD for the Landing. Find him @by_ash_ls on Instagram and @small_asher on X, or reach him directly at asher@houstonlanding.org.
This article first appeared on Houston Landing and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
