HOUSTON – A Texas teacher cheating scandal put at least 200 unqualified teachers into classrooms all over the state during the last four years.
The man accused of running the cheating ring, based in Houston, is the head basketball coach at Booker T. Washington High School in the Houston Independent School District, the state’s largest school district.
Coach Vincent Grayson, 57, took money from teachers who didn’t pass their teacher certification tests and had an assistant principal in the district take the test for them, according to the county district attorney.
The lead investigator said Grayson made more than $1M from the scheme, which included four other people.
In all, an estimated 430 tests were taken fraudulently, and over 210 teachers obtained fraudulent certifications, according to court documents.
Approximately 20 teachers have given more or less complete confessions, according to those same records.
The 5 players charged
- Vincent Grayson, 57, the head boys basketball coach at Booker T. Washington High School in Houston ISD for nearly 20 years. Grayson was charged as the cheating scheme’s organizer. Grayson’s bond has been lowered to $150,000.
- Tywana Gilford Mason, 51, the former director/certifying official at the Houston Training and Education Center. Mason’s role as test proctor allowed her to keep the proxy scheme hidden.
- Nicholas Newton, 35, an assistant principal at the same high school as Coach Grayson. He’s accused of participating in the scheme as the proxy test-taker.
- Darian Nikole Wilhite, 22, a proctor at TACTIX who is alleged to have taken bribes to allow Newton to act as a testing proxy.
- LaShonda Roberts, 39, an assistant principal charged with referring or recruiting 90 teachers to participate in the cheating scheme. She’s also accused of charging teachers sometimes more than $1,000 for access to Grayson and the scheme. Roberts’ bond has been lowered to $50,000.
How the scheme worked
Investigators say teacher certification candidates who failed their tests would usually pay Grayson $2,500. He forwarded roughly 20% of that money to Gilford Mason for her willingness to allow the cheating to occur.
The certification candidate would then reportedly be instructed by Grayson, where and when exactly to take the test again. They would come to that test location, show ID, sign in and leave.
A few minutes later, Nicholas Newton, the proxy tester, would sit in their seat, take and pass the test, investigators said.
On occasion, Newton allegedly took more than one test.
Investigators say Grayson pocketed $1,090,000 from this scheme.
“Greed knew no boundaries in this case,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “If you’ve got an assistant principal, a head coach, and others posing as certified teachers, we just aren’t going to be able to calculate the damage there. But we know that further investigation is needed and we look forward to the teacher taking the responsible and necessary approach to getting these teachers out of our schools and away from kids.”