The principal of a Texas border high school, reprimanded for her alleged role in a pervasive test cheating scandal, was promoted to oversee the school district’s curriculum and instruction.
Kristine Ferret, principal of El Paso High School, was tapped by El Paso Independent School District Superintendent Juan Cabrera late last week to serve as executive director of curriculum and instruction, even though the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) sanctioned her on May 11.
Breitbart Texas reported that, in 2012, Ferret, as the high school’s principal, purportedly gave students credit for subjects they did not show they mastered when taking the state’s former standardized annual exam, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). Ultimately, she was one of 21 El Paso ISD employees punished in some form for their alleged roles in the cheating scheme.
From 2006-13, El Paso ISD administrators doctored documents to make it appear as if students passed their courses, allowing the school district to meet or exceed state and federal accountability standards under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Breitbart Texas reported the falsified records disguised that certain campuses were failing to avoid possible closure.
Education officials later accused the school district of robbing students of a proper education because administrators manipulated attendance records, put some students in the wrong grades to avoid standardized testing, pushed others out of school, and even assigned some high school students to “minimesters,” so-called credit-recovery courses to boost the district’s test scores, Breitbart Texas reported.
In 2014, the state began to take action against employees who purportedly participated in the ruse masterminded by Lorenzo García, the former superintendent, Breitbart Texas reported. Two years earlier, García pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to defraud the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and U.S. Department of Education. He served 42 months in prison, received three years supervised release, and paid a restitution fine of $180,000. He voluntarily relinquished his teaching credentials. Because García participated in a drug counseling program, the feds shortened his sentence by 11 months, releasing him in 2014.
Ferret, who took over as El Paso High’s principal in the spring of 2012, denied any wrongdoing but agreed to the sanction and avoided possible litigation. In June, she commented on the reprimand: “I was surprised when I heard that TEA wanted to take action on a concern that was resolved by the district over four years ago.”
She added that she ended that program after her first semester as principal “months before it ended district-wide, preferring a more regulated and rigorous approach to demonstrating mastery.”
The reprimand, though, appears on Ferret’s records but does not affect her employment with El Paso ISD. In her new role, she will research, design, and pilot new curriculum programs, plus compile, maintain, and report district data.
Norma De La Rosa, president of the El Paso Teachers Association, criticized Ferret’s promotion, saying it created distrust.
“When people are allowed to continue to work in these administrative positions, under these circumstances, it doesn’t send a very positive message to teachers,” she told the El Paso Times. “A lot of teachers feel that if she had been a teacher there would have been a move to terminate her.”
However, the superintendent defended the promotion, saying he chose Ferret because of her accomplishments including leading and managing dual-language programs.
“I looked at her record during my tenure,” said Cabrera,who became superintendent in 2013. He told the El Paso newspaper he thought it was “important to note” that Ferret joined the district “in the very last few months of the previous superintendent’s tenure.”
Cabrera did not believe Ferret’s reprimand would affect her new position.
Follow Merrill Hope, a member of the original Breitbart Texas team, on Twitter.
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