Education officials have expanded their investigation into suspected cheating at a Dallas middle school.
The Dallas Independent School District is expanding its investigation to include seventh-grade writing results after the Texas Education Agency discovered testing irregularities at Lang Middle School.
"This is a very serious matter, and we intend to find out who is responsible so they can be held accountable," said Superintendent Michael Hinojosa in a statement.
The Texas Education Agency ordered about 407 eighth-graders to retake the 2009 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills math test June 30. The agency found "severe testing irregularities" in the April test.
According to a statement from the Dallas Independent School District, students who retook the test scored 36 percent lower on the retake. That's compared to students who took the test in the spring.
Hinojosa said the decrease in scores could attributed to two factors: the scores in the April test were not accurate because of the security breach and the summertime retest was "not conducive for positive results."
Because the writing test does not help determine academic placement, the seventh-grade students will not have to retake the writing test that is also being investigated.
The district does not suspect students are involved with the irregularities.
