Third El Paso School District Confesses to Dishonest Practices

According to reports, a third El Paso school district has confessed to cheating on student progress testing as a means for meeting federal accountability measures. Officials from the San Elizario Independent School District say they recently discovered that numerous students’ credits were being forged to keep them from being transferred to the appropriate grade.

Recent allegations at other schools in the area are what prompted the investigation into San Elizaro. So far, the district says they are doing what they can to erase the dishonesty of the past administration and are working to ensure that all students have the proper amount of earned credits.

An investigation conducted by Pam Padilla, a former superintendent of the Canutillo Independent School District, uncovered about 31 discrepancies in which the credits of students that were classified as limited-English proficient were manipulated to either promote them to the next grade or keep them held back. Many of these students intend to graduate this year, according to the report.

Padilla’s findings are now in the hands of the Texas Education Agency who plans to review them further. Incidentally, former El Paso school superintendent Lorenzo Garcia is currently serving time in a federal prison for masterminding a similar scam. As of right now, no criminal charges are being pursued regarding this matter.

The El Paso Independent School District has already been appointed a board of managers to oversea its operations since the cheating scandal surfaced in December. This is reportedly the most serious plan of action that can be taken without actually closing it and having it annexed to another district.