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For 15 years, teachers in three Southern states paid Clarence Mumford Sr. — himself a longtime educator — to send someone else to take the tests in their place, authorities said. Each time, Mumford received a fee of between $1,500 and $3,000 to send one of his test ringers with fake identification to the Praxis exam. In return, his customers got a passing grade and began their careers as cheaters, according to federal prosecutors in Memphis.
Authorities say the scheme affected hundreds — if not thousands — of public school students who ended up being taught by unqualified instructors.
Mel Evans / AP
Princeton, N.J.-based Educational Testing Services writes and administers Praxis teacher certification examinations.
Mumford faces more than 60 fraud and conspiracy charges that claim he created fake driver's licenses with the information of a teacher or an aspiring teacher and attached the photograph of a test-taker. Prospective teachers are accused of giving Mumford their Social Security numbers for him to make the fake identities.
The hired-test takers went to testing centers, showed the proctor the fake license, and passed the certification exam, prosecutors say. Then, the aspiring teacher used the test score to secure a job with a public school district, the indictment alleges. Fourteen people have been charged with mail and Social Security fraud, and four people have pleaded guilty to charges associated with the scheme.
Mumford "obtained tens of thousands of dollars" during the alleged conspiracy, which prosecutors say lasted from 1995 to 2010 in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Among those charged is former University of Tennessee and NFL wide receiver Cedrick Wilson, who is accused of employing a test-taker for a Praxis physical education exam. He was charged in late October with four counts of Social Security and mail fraud. He has pleaded not guilty and is out of jail on a $10,000 bond. He has been suspended by the Memphis City Schools system.
Charlie Riedel / AP
In this photo taken Friday, Nov. 23, Neal Kingston, director of the Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation at the University of Kansas, talks about testing fraud in his Lawrence, Kan., office.
If convicted, Mumford could face between two and 20 years in prison on each count. The teachers face between two and 20 years in prison on each count if convicted.
Lawyers for Mumford and Wilson did not return calls for comment.
Prosecutors and standardized test experts say students were hurt the most by the scheme because they were being taught by unqualified teachers. It also sheds some light on the nature of cheating and the lengths people go to in order to get ahead.
"As technology keeps advancing, there are more and more ways to cheat on tests of this kind," said Neal Kingston, director of the Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation at the University of Kansas. "There's a never-ending war between those who try to maintain standards and those who are looking out for their own interests."
Cheating on standardized tests is not new, and it can be as simple as looking at the other person's test sheet. The Internet and cell phones have made it easier for students to cheat in a variety of ways. In the past few years, investigations into cheating on standardized tests for K-12 students have surfaced in Atlanta, New York and El Paso, Texas.
Still, most of the recent test-taking scandals involved students taking tests, not people taking teacher certification exams. Cheating scams involving teacher certification tests are more unusual, said Robert Schaeffer, public education director for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing.
Schaeffer notes that a large-scale scandal involving teacher certification tests was discovered in 2000, also in the South. In that case, 52 teachers were charged with paying up to $1,000 apiece to a former Educational Testing Services proctor to ensure a passing grade on teacher certification tests.
Teachers from Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi took tests through Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., in 1998. The college was not accused of wrongdoing.
Educational Testing Services also writes and administers the Praxis examinations involved in the Memphis case. ETS spokesman Tom Ewing said the company discovered the cheating in June 2009, conducted an investigation and canceled scores. The company began meeting with authorities to turn over the information in late 2009, Ewing said.
"These cases are rare, but we consider them to be very serious and something we have to guard against happening for all the honest test-takers, students and teachers," Ewing said.
Ewing said ETS observes test-takers and reviews test scores to try to root out cheaters. ETS also has received anonymous tips that have led them to cheaters, Ewing said.
Prosecutors in the Mumford case say he, the teachers and test-takers used the Internet and the U.S. Postal Service to register and pay for the tests, and to receive payment. The indictment does not say how much he allegedly paid the test-takers.
An experienced educator, Mumford was working for Memphis City Schools when the alleged scam took place. Authorities say Mumford defrauded the three states by making the fake driver's licenses.
"What happens at many testing centers is that a whole bunch of test-takers show up simultaneously, early on a Saturday morning, and the proctors give only a cursory look to the identification," Schaeffer said. "It's not like going through airport security where a guy holds up a magnifying glass and puts our license under ultraviolet light to make sure it has not been tampered with."
Mumford was fired after news of the investigation came out, and others, like Wilson, have been suspended. But at least three teachers implicated in the scandal remain employed with their school district.
Kingston, the university professor, said prospective teachers may not be confident in their knowledge base to pass the test. Or, the cheaters may believe they are smart enough to pass on their own but also know they are poor test takers.
Kingston said his research has shown that cheating on exams is getting more prevalent.
"The propensity to cheat on exams both through college and for licensure and certification exams seems to be increasing over time," said Kingston. "People often don't see it as something wrong."
The pressure of passing the test could make people do things they normally would not do. And it could take a while for authorities and test-taking services to catch up with the cheaters.
"When people come up with a new method for cheating, it takes some time for folks to figure it out, partly because this has been an understudied area in the field of assessment," Kingston said.
Nina Monfredo, a 23-year-old history teacher at Power Center Academy in Memphis, has taken Praxis exams for history, geography, middle school content, and secondary teaching and learning.
Monfredo, who passed all her tests and is not involved in the fraud case, said the exams she took were relatively easy for someone who has a high school education. She said some people use study aids to prepare, but she didn't. And she didn't feel much pressure because it was her understanding that she could take the test again if she did not pass.
"If you feel like you can't pass and you hire someone it means you really didn't know what you were doing," she said. "I think it would be easier to just learn what's on the test."
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A list of those teachers proven to have received a fraudulent certification should be published on the Internet.
Please remember that when comparing the US to other countries, the US educates ALL students no matter what disability they have. Other countries DO NOT educate ALL students with disabilities. Also, this reflects our society as a WHOLE. The ENTIRE society has to shoulder at least some of the blame.
An interesting tid-bit:
In the state where I teach high school, a student can flunk every subject up to and including the 8th grade and proceed to the next grade...as long as the parental units say its o.k. There are few parents that hold their child back. Then in high school (where the student is held accountable for their credits earned) and they continue to fail (hence getting no credits) they end up dropping out. The high school is gauged by graduation rate, with those students that have dropped out as part of the statistics, and the high school then looks to be inferior.
What's up with that?
How odd that someone would want to cheat to become, of all things, a teacher! Was it the big money or the constant respect that drove them to doing this?
They're black. Go figure.
Since when is it a Federal Crime for teachers to cheat. The feds cheat all the time . Look what they did by allowing an alien to occupy the Whitehouse. the feds need to clean their closet before stepping into States jurisdictions.And dont tell us its a matter of the social security card. if that's the case its time to TRY obama for using a S.S. card that doesnt belong to him either
Go home Feds Take a hike and get the Vacuum into the Whitehouse & congress
A military man publicly dis'n the Commander in Chief? What's wrong with this picture? ...and I'm not an Obama fan either, but as I understand it, those in the military are supposed keep quiet about such.
Must be Bush's fault
nothing new i was offered a job as a test taker in 1972 i wouldn't do it cause i hate cheaters
To the teachers who couldn't pass the Praxis, I say get a different job. Test is joke, I took it with time to spare, a perfect score AND the information tested is useless in the classroom.
To those who chose to use a comparison of US schools and European or Asian schools, please remember that the students are tracked. They recognize that people have different talents and all students do do not need a 4 year college degree. They also do not have laws that require all students to say in school until 18 whether they are learning, causing trouble or just breathing. They also do not have the laws that require all students regardless of disability to be in school and pass the same test as every other student (student A has an IQ of 140 takes the same test as student B with an IQ of 80 and both are required to pass). Testing is a bad joke in our education system.
Another thing to keep in mind is that when taking a test (whether a student taking the Standardized tests or those taking the tests to become teachers, etc.), there are groups of questions that are not scored for certain ethnic groups because they are viewed as inappropriate or slanted toward the white population. As a result while a white person is scored on all questions others could be scored on as few as 75% of the test content. This is a fact that can be verified by researching the evolution of testing programs and Federal regulatory changes by the Dept. of Education. As far back as the late 1970's when I took the exam to qualify in my chosen profession this existed. Proctors would walk around the room and put a number on the right top corner of the exam. When I questioned that, I was told it indicated which question grouping would/would not be scored on my exam. The minute the Proctor left my desk I removed the number he had placed on my exam.
Teachers who cheat should be fired. Period. No debate. No second chance.
You can have the best teachers in the world in a school system, but if kids do not have parents at home who value education, who read to their preschoolers and grade schoolers, who turn the TV off, who put restricitons on video games, who require their kids to do homework, who visit the schools, who talk to their kids about the importance of education, who provide a safe and caring home life, who properly feed their kids, who are involved on a daily basis with their kids lives, what is a teacher to do? I am not an educator, but I know that a teacher only has a student for 6-7 ours a day and parents have them the rest of the time. It is up to parents to instill the importance of education in their own kids. Americans have become lazy and apathetic and that is our downfall. We can't blame the schools or the government. Americans have forgotten to learn history and learn from the past. We don't value science and math and literature anymore. We care more about the things we can buy. We watch stupid TV shows about teen moms and honey booboo. We don't know what is going on around the world even with all media and internet access we have. It's shameful. I have friends from various European countries and Asian countries and they are more informed about U.S. politics and world affairs than most of my American friends. My European and Asian friends' children think American schools are behind their native countries and English is not even their first language, yet they think our schools are easy. We need to quit blaming teachers and blame parents whose kids can't pass tests and can't earn a high school diploma. It all starts in the home.
This is ridiculous that this kind of certification is allowed in our education systems. Cheating could easily be stopped. My Georgia drivers license now has a hologram on it like our money has watermarks. The best way is to not allow anything to be taken into the test room by anyone and have very inexpensive cameras installed within each room to record the testing. All of this is not only a deterent by letting everyone know they are being watched, and recorded but also can be used as evidence. Those suspected should be fired and loose their teaching certificate. No wonder we have substandard teachers and a substandard educational system. Teachers pay has drastically increased over the past few years and it has attracted people who want good pay, great benefits, and what is perceived as an easy job. And it is an easy job for those who want it to be. I was Chairman of our Local Board of Education and was appalled that the majority of the problem was teachers and not students. During my one term, we replaced the Superintendent, Principals, Assistant Principals, and 35% of the teachers and our test scores increased. I would also like to mention that each of my 4 years we reduced the tax rate and found easily that money was not a problem at all. If the system does not want to improve then it will not improve. Most of the people who have control of the systems do not want it to improve.
I do not believe this statement whatsoever. In my opinion, these people are people who feel entitled to something they are not willing or able to earn AND they will cheat whenever it seems to their advantage.
It is a shame that in our society these teachers, when convicted, cannot be publicly stockaded and flogged, daily, for an example to the children at the schools.
The article states that this fraudulent testing has been going on since 1995. It is appalling, and all who have participated in this sham need to be brought to justice. The real losers are the students who may have been deprived from the benefit of great, not mediocre or inadequate, teachers. I held a management position for a Fortune 500 company, and it was a real eye-opener to have employees who were unable to write an effective letter, memo, proposal, etc. Some of these individuals had Masters, and some dual Masters, and yet they were unable to coherently and logically present effective written communication.
I am in agreement with "Pray Hard" in that education begins in the home. I think that so many parents are so busy trying to make it today that children lack the support and structure they need to succeed in school and in the world. It is a two-way street. Parents need to support teachers by providing their children with a safe, structured environment conducive to learning at home. The children should be required to do their homework at home, discuss it with parents, and be encouraged by parents to participate fully in the learning experience. Teachers can only do so much in the few hours they have to teach a student. Parents need to do the rest. Turn off the television and phones. Our childrens' future depends on it and so does ours!
Don't worry... The Union will protect them.
I am not sure why this is such a big deal to the liberals that are on here. Afterall it is okay for the President to lie about what happened in Benghazi, why shouldn't it be okay for public schools teachers to cheat on the Praxis. This is what they are being taught in the first place. (Yeah, I went there, just to rile you liberals up!)
The Praxis test is a joke. It does not give any information about whether or not the person can actually teach. All it does it sees if you know the information. It is a practically useless test. Do the teachers needs to know what they are teaching? Well sure they do! Did they not get a college degree that says they know their stuff? I would hope so! Maybe to be hired you should have a certain GPA in a particular subject, rather than taking a knowledge test like Praxis.
The problem with the education system is two fold. One the children in the public school system or as I like tocall it the government school system are not required to get the answer right. As long as they feel good about themselves and the answer they gave, then they get a good grade. Johnny said 2+2 was 5, but he felt great about his answer, so we move him along. Johnny graduates, gets a job and the boss goes to Johnny and tells him that he has to get the answer right or he will lose his job. Johnny gets the answer wrong, and Johnny is unemployed, receiving welfare and food stamps which is exactly what the government wants.
The other issue is the amount information that children today are force fed. Germany and Japan teach half the amount of curriculum that we do, yet their students score higher than ours. Why is that? That is easy to answer. Students in Germany and Japan are required to MASTER the material. Students in the US are only required to regurgitate the material. No learning is taking place. Plain and simple.
The fix? Break up the unions, especially the NEA. They do not care about the students. Look it up. Go see what their mission statement is. The welfare and the education of the child is not part of their mission statement. Take a hard look at what just took place in Chicago. The teachers did not want to judged on their classroom performance. Why is that? Because, their record is horrible. The Chicago public school children are some of the most undereducated students in the US. But the teachers are some of the highest paid. In the real world most of them would have been fired by now based on performance alone. Yet the government school system teaches children that you do not have to do a good job and you do not have to get the answer right.
Thanks to the government school system, facts do not matter. The 2012 election is proof of that.
Unions? In the South? Mississippi has no teacher's union. The other states probably do not, either. Unions are not big down here.
How about we just blame the people who decided to cheat? How about we look at what passes for "ethics" and "morality" in post-modern America?
And why are at least three of the people implicated in the cheating still teaching? And what do these teachers do to penalize their own students who are caught cheating?
Better yet...Why don't we hold teachers accountable for the success of their students? Why don't we tech the children that 2+2 = 4 and not care about how they feel about the damn answer. Why don't we do away with participation trophies and teach kids how to compete and that it is okay to win? This is the way the real world operates. Do you think that Bill Gates wants people who are okay being second, third, or fourth best? Do you think businesses care if you feel good about your answer? The answer is no! Why don't we teach our children that it is okay to excel and be the best? Why don't we teach our children that it is okay to be successful?
Oops! I forgot, the country doesn't want that anymore. 60+ million voted for mediocrity! My bad!
Wow, cheating teachers face 20 yrs in prison, while cheating bankers get bonuses. Our country seems to embrace cheating as a means to an end. Just look at the election, illegal voter purges, fake letters sent with mis-information on voting dates and places, corrupted voting machines, untenable registration requirements etc. So why is this such a big deal and why doesn't the FBI go after those people responsible for the collapse of our housing market?
hotalaskan: $$$$$- that is why!
Pogo1: and what good will $$$$ do after our fiat currency collapses?
If Jack the Ripper headed Morgan Stanley should any corrupt teacher be excused?
College graduates cheating to secure positions of low pay and even lower levels of respect form the general public? Why bother? The profession is not the same as it used to be and the grief is not worth it.
My hope has been that the system would collapse from lack of support nad be rebuilt on a foundation of realization that it is truly our best hope for the survival of our society. The public sure doesn't see it that way now.
Teachers should be required to recertify their credentials every three years as do many other professions. They should fall under the same standards as other qualified jobs, in that they should be learning a higher education to keep up with the world and it's current day technologies. This should also be true with the U.S. Government letting anyone getting a drivers license take a more stringent test, since so many illegas are being allowed to drive on U.S. highways with no skills or understanding of our laws.
Well... education is in some sort of trouble...and it's bigger than cheating teachers. I hear stuff... You know, like teaching kids in Spanish because it's their native language... while English speaking people learning Spanish pay extra for total immersion camps..
I hear that the State picks up the cost of home schooling... which is popular with religious extremists who don't want their kids exposed to ideas like evolution and "old earth" theory... and I do wonder about the generalized competency of the decision makers in such a system, as much as I wonder where their values are.
Though I gotta say, it's funny that the right winged "small government" Evangelicals even WANT government support...
I can't even THINK of an excuse for the US being 17th in the world for education...Something is very very wrong, and somebody has to do a better job.
Now the US is failing generally... we are like, 12th for economic freedom, 22nd in justice for individuals... Our politicians are corrupt...and corruption has been legalized. We have the largest prison system in the history of history, and so, failing schools is just one more nail in our coffin... but it is a coffin, and our schools are a nail.
We won't need many more nails in order to get buried.
...
A failed education system produces "assets" for the prison industry.
I was wondering why all these states want to secede. More Republicans getting found out. News flash Republicans, you can't cheat your way through everything.....
Thanks come and take it...You hit the nail on the head. My two children were in the very same situation with spending most of their education in private school then the last two years of public school and they blasted past everybody in their college prep courses. The problem with education is not the teachers as much as the union that protects them Bad teachers are moved to another school, teachers caught in "bad situations" with students are moved to other schools, and the number of teachers accused and sentenced for inappropriate sex with students has skyrocketed. Oh , by the way, Nunez, my facts are straight. Unfortunate that, with this issue, the teachers union cannot protect the three current cases. My question for mister NUNEZ:
Although California is still the 8th largest economy in the world, we have 14 percent unemployment and the worst educatio in the United States.... In 1960 we were ranked 10th in the Nation. In 1984 we were ranked 14th in the Nation. Fast forward to 2012. were almost last. In 2011 the average teacher salary last year was $67,932, an increase of 1.4 percent from 2009, according to new state figures. The average superintendent salary last year was $158,622, an increase of 0.6 percent from 2009. Much of the increase in average teacher pay was related to districts laying off thousands of less-experienced, lower-paid teachers. Combined teacher payroll for all districts fell by about $600 million, or 3 percent. Teacher pay varies widely by district." That's right you all laid off new teachers, expanded your classrooms again and then took the $600 million in salaries and you all got raises over the last two years. The states education system is in shambles, the teachers union is out of control and the state just increased sales tax to 10 cents on the dollar to generate more wasted revenue to pay for the multitudes of public school administrators and teachers benefits and little will go to the classroom again. Public sentiment is at an all time low against our education system. Oh, by the way, I taught in my earlier years and yes I am a member in STRS and I'm not afraid to speak out against the fraud that takes place in our education system.. I left teaching because the majority of you all are hippocrites. Your more concerned about your pockets and less concerned about the student.And no all teachers are not bad, you just can't admit where all your failures are and you protect the very weakness in your organization!
Those who can ..Do! Those who can't...teach. Teachers know all about the cheating that takes place by their fellow educators. The have been caught in California giving the students answers to pass the proficiency exams. and this they will deny as well. Only teachers can clean up their profession and ranks. Stop enabling your buddies and get back down to business. And no school administrator should be making over 150,000 a year. and folks, this is without benefits. Check the facts that they try to hide. Do away with that magical word
Tenure and you'll have a much better system. Get rid of 2/3rds of the administrators which crowd your school offices and you'll have better education. Want to give the teachers a raise. Fire the administrators and keep
a Principal.
So there's a massive fraud scheme in three SOUTHERN, REPUBLICAN, RIGHT-TO-WORK, NON-UNION states, and some reactionary wants to turn this into an anti-union issue.
If teachers in those states were treated and paid like professionals, those states might attract a better class of teacher candidate, people who might be less inclined to act like they were still working at a fast food joint feeding their friends out the back door.
Look up teacher pay in Louisiana (http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/uploads/15869.pdf): $14,600 with a BA, and they'll let you teach with 2 years of college for $11,095.....that's $7.66 an hour, $10.08 with a BA.
Starting pay in California, where I teach in an urban public school, is around $45,000. We have a strong union. And no PRAXIS cheating scandal.
There are bad teachers, and incompetent teachers, and I would argue that just as with doctors, none of them should be allowed to practice. The work we do is too important. But the ONLY reason ANY of those bums are in a classroom is because management is too bone lazy to evaluate them properly. The rest is just rhetoric.
These cheaters should be banned from the profession. Period.
good try. you can evade these questions maybe with your students, but not with those here on the post with more education than you have. Don't change what I said and bring up Louisiana. All my comments were about California...you know, where you work. You can't deny anything I've posted because its all fact and has been researched and published by several leading newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the Sacramento Bee. You can't deny the facts stated about sexual misconduct that occurs more often than not. Or about the what Tenure really means. Remember PAL....I did what you do until I realized what a scam your profession has become, and I used My numerous degrees to get a more rewarding job.
Oh by the way, when I worken they would fire you for non performance. In California schools they only move you when your tenured...ask any union rep!
Yes, by all means don't bring up the states where the cheating actually occurred and where there ARE no teacher's unions.
MissMiss, I know you get the point...just refuse to admit it. Teachers cheat. They cheat in Louisiana and they cheat in California. Your not ignorant to the facts...just trying to look that way. Non of you have still tried to argue the California facts which only beg the question...what has really happened to your profession nationwide. Again the teacher test cheating in this story has been going on for 18 years you idiot. Ask yourself why only now has it come to light. The real reason is a teacher who paid three thousand dollars to pass...her "test taker" actually failed and there was not enough time for the real teacher to take the exam over and lost her temporary job and the $3000.00. So who is the real whistleblower
I'm sorry to burst your bubble Chief, but
1-The only cheating scandals we have in California involved cheating on standardized STUDENT testing by teachers in charter schools, again, non-union, under-qualified and under paid para-professionals with no more qualifications than most playground aides.
2-There is no such thing as tenure outside of universities. I have a "permanent contract" which means that I cannot be fired without cause and without due process. Any teacher who has a year of negative evaluations, is offered the chance to improve, and does not do so, can be fired. The problem is that school administrators don't do the due diligence to meet those rather basic threshold requirements.
I'm pretty sure that even back in the day when you were a teacher, you were evaluated by administrators, by management, not by your union.Corgrats on finding a more congenial career btw; more teachers should do that.
3-The LA Times is virulently anti teacher, and is owned by corporate interests who see public education as a big fat payday for investors in the charter school network. Every year, for every charter shut down for fraud, misappropriation of funds, cheating, and general malfeasance there are a dozen more given "one more chance" by school boards who give their superintendents even less oversight than bad teachers get.
Since Louisiana IS one of the states they're talking about in this story, I think what teachers are paid there is germaine;Look up Mississippi (http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/docs/school-financial-services/12-13_salary_schedule_to_post.pdf?sfvrsn=0) ; their starting pay is $24/hour, which beats Louisiaqna and explains why it was worth $3000 to get into the teaching system.
Unions have their flaws, but they can only protect the incompetent when those who evaluate them are even more incompetent.
The US currently ranks 25th in Math and 17th in Science compared to other countries (OECD statistics -10th grade). It ranks 12th in Reading. This should be a wake up call. Yes, the US has a diverse population, but so does many of the other countries that outrank them. More worrying is the fact that the Work Economic Forum ranks the US 48th in the quality of math and science education. "Barely 18% of US 12th grade students were at or above the proficient level in science." An area where we used to excel.
So what does the US decide, well, of course, let Texas have a hand at reconstructing the education text books which will be used in a majority of states. Add in divine creation as a theory, forgetting all the human artifacts that well predate the 6,000 years of 'bibilical creationism". Let's just go ahead and drop to a ranking below uzbekistan,stan.
Thanks to labor unions that lobbied for expedient legislation and more government bureaucracy in education, the possession of a degree in education and a teaching credential have become a substitute for subject proficiency. Today's public school teacher need not know the subject sufficiently, but is allowed to teach it nevertheless because the teacher has a degree in education and a teaching certificate.
The American public school system is a disgrace and a symptom of the larger decline of general morality. As the American public schools are funded by the government and operated by the socialist teachers' labor unions, it should not come as a surprise that public schools have devolved into the locus of depravity. Too many female teachers are having sex with boys; labor strikes for more salary and benefit under the dubious claim that it's all for the student; incompetent teaching has created several generations of illiterate adults; and now, the rampant cheating on taking the certification test.
For a glimpse of the future of America, look no further than the public school system.
You of course neglect to mention that the states involved have weak or non-existent teacher's unions, the lowest pay for teachers, and rank lowest in educational effectiveness.
So perhaps the problem is as simple as this: you get what you pay for.