Announced last week by the Harris County District Attorney’s office, it has been revealed that a $1 million teacher certification cheating scheme had been running within Houston ISD. It is currently estimated that at least 400 tests were taken since May 2020, with at least 200 active educators who were not meant to be certified employed across the state. At least two of the falsely certified teachers were discovered to be sexual predators, with this number possibly increasing as more people are found to be connected.
Five people have been charged in connection to the scheme including Vincent Grayson, head boys basketball coach and teacher at Booker T. Washington High School in HISD; Tywana Gilford Mason, a former director at the Houston Training and Education Center; Nicholas Newton, assistant principal at Booker T. Washington High School; Darian Nikole Wilhite, a proctor at TACTIX; and LaShonda Roberts, assistant principal at Yates High School also in HISD. The current charges are a first-degree felony of money laundering due to contributors profiting over $300,000, and the second charge is tampering with a government document.
All HISD staff involved were placed on paid leave until the legal proceedings finished, the district stating it only became aware of the investigation itself shortly before the arrests were made. The Texas Education Agency began to see red flags in 2023 at Houston’s Training and Education Center, an approved location for the candidates to take their certification exams. Around 20 teachers told investigators near-identical versions of events, all from far-off cities, often having failed multiple times previously, then suddenly passing when at the Houston center.
What is currently known for how the scheme was successful, candidates would usually pay around $2,500 to Grayson with Gilford Mason receiving 20% of that money to permit the cheating to occur at the center with Newton signing in as the proxy test taker. Grayson alone is suspected to have made at least $1.09 million with contributors Gilford Mason making at least $125,000 over the course of 350 transactions; and Newton made at least $188,000 taking more than 430 certification tests from May 2020 to February 2024. Roberts, who sent more than 90 teachers over, personally sent over $267,000 to Grayson.
The TEA is said to be handling all issues regarding the review and revoking of certificates believed to possibly be falsely obtained. This comes at a time when HISD is already under scrutiny from the public due to reportedly having over 2,000 uncertified teachers and staff, in addition to the state taking over control of the district in 2023 due to reports of school board misconduct and low accountability ratings. Grayson and other contributors’ cases began to be reviewed in court on Tuesday, October 29, with no other comments about the defendants or TEA’s action plan.
