State education officials are seeking to revoke the teaching license of a second Clarksdale educator accused of cheating on statewide tests.
For a second day in a row, members of the teacher licensure commission sat listening to testimony over whether a fourth-grade teacher at Heidelberg Elementary in Clarksdale changed student answers on a statewide assessment.
Tetra Winters is the second teacher to be accused of cheating in the 2013 administration of the MCT-2 test. The first admitted to cheating earlier this year and voluntarily surrendered her license for a two-year period.
Jaime Moore taught Winters’ class during the first three nine-week periods during the 2012-2013 school year, before being reassigned. During testimony, she says students who scored advanced on the tests were not able to read.
MDE officials began looking into cheating in the Clarksdale School District last year, when students who scored well on assessments, showed up to school the following year not nearly as academically prepared.
Tommie Cardin is a Jackson attorney who is representing the Department of Education during the hearing. He says the state has wrapped up its arguments.
"The testimony as a whole supported the allegations that there had been coaching and pacing and testing irregularities that took place in the classroom that was administered by Ms. Winters."
Lawyers for Tetra Winters will present their defense during a third day of testimony tomorrow.
