Meanwhile, Tigerboard is in full on pants jizz mode over Tony's U18 USA performances......................
Mitchell -- Editorial: DISD must come clean on PinkstonDallas News
Thursday, June 17, 2010
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-pinkston_0618edi.State.Edition1.8d9a3f.htmlOn its face, the allegation is stunning: Pinkston High School administrators are accused of filling in answers on TAKS exit-level exams given to athletes last fall. Also stunning: The Dallas school district has been investigating for months and still has no outcome.
That might be enough uncertainty for one school, but secrecy also surrounds the results of an unrelated DISD investigation into alleged testing irregularities involving Tony Mitchell, a star Pinkston basketball player. Mitchell, a transfer student whose 14 academic credits from a Florida school were rejected at Pinkston, suddenly jumped from freshman to senior status after school officials administered controversial new tests. Still, the nationally acclaimed athlete didn't graduate with his class because he failed the math portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
School district officials confirm the investigations but otherwise have nothing to say, citing privacy concerns. Indeed, confidentiality is important, but so is timeliness, especially given the seriousness of these allegations. Without a publicly aired conclusion, how can anyone know for sure whether these incidents were isolated or part of a widespread problem. Or whether anyone cheated at all.
That uncertainty is not good for Pinkston's students, parents and faculty. The West Dallas high school had been rated academically unacceptable for several years and was in danger of closing unless students pulled off spectacular gains in the spring TAKS testing.
And that they did, posting double-digit improvement in reading, math, science and social studies – the only DISD high school to jump so high in all four categories. Principal Norma Villegas had predicted such robust success in an interview earlier in the year with The Dallas Morning News, pointing to steady improvement she had seen for more than a year.
Without evidence to the contrary, beyond unfinished investigations, it would be unfair to cheapen those academic gains and dismiss the hard work that could have led to them. There are no specific allegations of broader testing irregularities at Pinkston.
The same was true last year at Lang Middle School until a routine review found an extraordinarily high number of erasures that tipped the district to widespread TAKS cheating. After retesting, the scores fell considerably. No one was publicly identified from Lang's testing irregularities, although the school's principal and testing coordinator left the district. The case has lingered at the Texas Education Agency, which is set to review those former employees' education certificates in March 2011.
That sort of silence and delay ill serves Pinkston and all DISD taxpayers. Everyone deserves answers, along with public punishments or name-clearings.
Most importantly, parents who send their children to Pinkston deserve to know whether they are learning and how bona fide those test gains really are. That can't happen until DISD steps up and speaks up, and the sooner that happens, the better.
---
Slow pace of DISD investigations
Spring 2009: DISD begins investigating a suspiciously high number of erasures on TAKS tests at Lang Middle School. By June, the district determines that it must retest a large percentage of the school's students. The test administrator and principal subsequently left the school district, although DISD has never identified them as cheating suspects. The Texas Education Agency has scheduled teaching certification review hearings for them in March 2011.
October 2009: Some Pinkston football players are given TAKS retests, with coaches and administrators allegedly present. Later in the year, DISD began investigation allegations that adults filled in some answers for the athletes. As of June 2010, DISD says the investigation remains open.
November 2009: Star Pinkston basketball player Tony Mitchell is given placement tests to determine his academic standing, after his transfer from a Florida school. Early in 2010, DISD begins investigating this testing and his standing jump from freshman to senior. Mitchell later failed to graduate because he failed part of the exit-level TAKS. DISD still has not released results of its investigation.
