12:14 PM CDT on Friday, June 9, 2006

By GARY REAVES / WFAA-TV

IRWIN THOMPSON/DMN

None of the districts News 8 spoke with said they believed cheating was a serious problem.

A new study, which was initiated to probe the possibility of cheating on TAKS tests, found possible testing irregularities in nearly 1,000 Texas schools.

Allegations of cheating in 2005 led the Texas Education Agency to hire a Utah test security company, Caveon, to analyze TAKS test scores. The company looked for unusually high increases in test scores, unusual patterns of answers and papers with similar wrong answers.

The result found 984 possible irregularities in Texas schools, including 112 possible problems in the Dallas Independent School District, 23 in Plano, 15 in Kennedale, 14 in Fort Worth, 10 in Highland Park and nine in Richardson.

Despite the report, none of the districts News 8 spoke with said they believed it was a serious problem. In fact, some said the findings might be more of a positive than a negative.

"The report that was presented even suggests there could be excellent teaching going on in classrooms where these situations are happening," said DISD spokesman Donny Claxton.

All the possible problems found within Highland Park were for unusual test score gains. The district said it believes that is only proof of good teaching.

The consultants' study said many of the irregularities could be explained that way.

But in Dallas, most of the questions were about many students having the same wrong answers. The irregularities were also concentrated in the 11th grade on the test that students must pass to graduate.

While that could mean they are copying from one other, that may not necessarily be true.

Caveon emphasized that although they found unusual patterns, the results aren't 100 percent proof of irregularities.

E-mail greaves@wfaa.com