Mollie Bryant

The Clarion-Ledger

Lowanda Tyler-Jones, the Clarksdale principal accused of directing teachers to cheat on standardized exams, told a state education official that a dramatic increase on test scores was due to prayer.

“She indicated to me during an interview that she anointed the desks, the pencils, the doorways and also the students’ heads with holy water,” said Walt Drane, Mississippi Department of Education’s executive director of student assessment and accountability.

Testimony continued Tuesday in Tyler-Jones’ disciplinary hearing with Drane, whose office bears most of the responsibility of investigating testing irregularities.

Several Heidelberg Elementary School educators, including Francis Smith-Kemp, who surrendered her license in connection with the cheating scandal, told Drane that Tyler-Jones had instructed them to coach students and change their responses during testing.

Dennis Maynes, a data analyst for Caveon Test Security, testified that he examined test data and found that the same students from Heidelberg scored lower than expected and made fewer wrong-to-right erasures a year later when they attended school at Oakhurst.

According to Drane’s testimony, MDE has paid Caveon Test Security and Caveon Investigative Services $246,000 in connection with the Clarksdale Municipal School District investigation.

MDE’s initial review of Heidelberg’s scores found students answered an extreme number of questions in the same way, and the agency requested the district conduct its own investigation into the matter.

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Superintendent Dennis Dupree conducted the investigation, which found no testing violations had occurred, and during that time, Tyler-Jones provided a statement that said the campus followed testing procedures and she didn’t receive reports of violations.

When Tyler-Jones’ attorney, Lisa Ross, asked Drane if he “sat on the information” without acting on it, he said that his office had taken Dupree’s investigation at face value.

“This instance was the first time, to my knowledge, that the state’s ever been involved in anything that was so systemic,” Drane said. “… A lot of times, internal investigations produce evidence against an educator, and we’ll have hearings like we’re having today, and we’ll take people’s licenses and drive on. I’ve never been involved in a case where a superintendent lied before on affidavits.”

MDE didn’t conduct its own investigation until a 2014 Clarion-Ledger report found a dramatic increase in test scores at Heidelberg. The day the story was published, the agency sent an auditor to the school district, Drane said.

During a joint investigation between MDE and Caveon, the agency found a high number of erasures in students’ test booklets and changes in proficiency a year later. Smith-Kemp later was accused of cheating, as well as Tetra Winters, who the licensure board suspended for five years.

During the investigation, Drane did not interview Clarksdale ISD’s assistant superintendent and asked to interview a female school district employee at either his hotel or her home. She refused the interview.

“At this time, we were getting to the end of the investigation, and she was one of the last ones to interview,” Drane said. “… I wanted to interview her either at a hotel, at her home, perfectly fine to do it at the school, but it was at night.

“You heard the litany of people we interviewed. That’s a long list. The days are long, so by the time we got to her, it was nighttime.”

Contact Mollie Bryant at mbryant2@gannett.com or 601-961-7251. Follow @MollieEBryant on Twitter.