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Three Houston Independent School District employees are among five people charged in connection with a scheme to help hundreds of people cheat on state teacher certification exams, Harris County prosecutors said Monday.

Prosecutors said Vincent Grayson, the longtime Booker T. Washington High School boys basketball coach, headed a cheating ring in which people typically paid about $2,500 for help fraudulently obtaining a driver’s license. teacher. As many as 400 people may have illegally obtained a teacher certification in Texas since 2020 through the sting ring, which netted organizers about $1 million, prosecutors said.

The scheme involved conspirators taking and administering exams on behalf of aspiring certified teachers, prosecutors said. Investigators believe the hundreds of participants are spread across the state, and some are likely still in classrooms. The furloughs likely helped school employees get promotions, earn higher salaries and keep their teaching jobs, prosecutors said.

“To me, the damage is not only to the education system, which is under great pressure right now, but also to the families of the children who go to those schools, who rely on the government to educate their children and provide for them. safe forever. eight hours a day,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said during a news conference Monday.

Grayson did not immediately respond to a text message or phone call from Houston Landing. His attorney, Cheryl Irvin, declined to comment, telling the Landing that “I know almost nothing” yet about the details of the indictment.

The arrests come amid a increase in non-certified teachers get hired in Texas public schools. Fewer people enter the teaching profession through traditional college education programs. Certified teachers must complete a bachelor’s degree, a Texas college educational preparation program, and a state certification exam.

In a statement Monday, Texas Education Agency spokesman Jake Kobersky wrote that the department “will review all information shared by law enforcement and take appropriate action against any educators involved in this scheme.” The State Board for Educator Certification will decide on any punishment, Kobersky said.

The alleged co-conspirators

The other two HISD employees charged in the case are Washington High assistant principal Nicholas Newton and Yates High School employee LaShonda Roberts. Prosecutors said Roberts is an assistant principal at Yates High, although district payroll records show she worked as a special education director at the campus as of early September.

Prosecutors said Newton took exams for certified teacher candidates, while Roberts “recruited and recommended” about 90 teachers and collected about $267,000 in payments. Newton, who was paid more than $188,000 for his role as an examiner, was “caught red-handed taking exams for two teachers at once and gave a full confession,” prosecutors said.

Roberts and Newton did not have attorneys listed in court records as of Monday afternoon.

The other two defendants are an employee of the Houston Education and Training Center and a testing supervisor. Each of the five defendants faces two felony counts of engaging in organized criminal activity.

HISD learned of the allegations “shortly” before the arrests and on Monday placed the three employees on paid leave, HISD communications chief Alexandra Elizondo said. District leaders “are still learning information” related to the case, Elizondo said.

Grayson earns a salary of about $90,000 a year as an athletic coach at Washington High, according to district payroll records from September. He has totaled more than 200 victories in his 18 years as the school’s boys basketball coach, The Leader. reported last year. Newton receives an annual salary of $129,000, while Roberts earns $92,000, according to September payroll records.

Elizondo said HISD did not yet know if any teachers in the district had obtained their licenses fraudulently. HISD will work with authorities and the Texas Education Agency to identify teachers involved in the cheating scandal and terminate their contracts, Elizondo said.

“The conduct in question is completely unacceptable and goes completely against every single HISD value, what we believe about teacher certification,” Elizondo said.

“Suddenly we were passing.”

Prosecutors said their investigation began in mid-2023 when the Texas Education Agency received a tip about testing irregularities at the Houston Education and Training Center. State education officials and the testing company Pearson noticed that applicants who had previously failed their teacher certification exams were driving from Dallas, Fort Worth and other far-flung areas to take their exams in Houston.

“Then they would drive sometimes four hours or more to the Houston area and suddenly they would pass the tests with flying colors,” Michael Levine, major crimes chief for the Public Corruption Division of the District Attorney’s Office, said Monday.

In court records, Levine described Grayson as the “organizer and kingpin” of the scheme. Levine wrote that Grayson identified Tywana Mason, a Houston Education and Training Center employee, willing to accept bribes.

Prosecutors said certified teacher candidates would arrive, show identification, sign in and leave. Meanwhile, Newton would take the exam to become a certified teacher, investigators said.

Prosecutors said teacher certification candidates would typically pay $2,500 to Grayson, who would send about 20% to Mason to enable the cheating.

As part of the investigation, authorities received thousands of bank and phone records, Levine said. About 20 teachers have given “more or less complete confessions,” Levine wrote in court records.

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