Schools Confront Scandal; Students Who ‘Disappeared’ at Test Time
El Paso Schools Scandal; Students Who ‘Disappeared’ at Test Time
By MANNY FERNANDEZOriginally Published October 12, 2012. The New York Times
EL PASO — It sounded at first like a familiar story: school administrators, seeking to meet state and federal standards, fraudulently raised students’ scores on crucial exams.
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But in the cheating scandal that has shaken the 64,000-student school district in this border city, administrators manipulated more than numbers. They are accused of keeping low-performing students out of classrooms altogether by improperly holding some back, accelerating others and preventing many from showing up for the tests or enrolling in school at all.
It led to a dramatic moment at the federal courthouse this month, when a former schools superintendent, Lorenzo Garcia, was sentenced to prison for his role in orchestrating the testing scandal. But for student