HOUSTON — The Texas Education Agency is investigating 60 more teachers in connection to its probe into a statewide cheating scandal, the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday.

The 60 teachers are spread across 33 school districts and are accused of obtaining fraudulent teaching certifications via a cheating ring allegedly spearheaded by a Houston ISD basketball coach.

What You Need To Know

  • The Texas Education Agency is investigating 60 more teachers in connection to a cheating scandal, the Houston Chronicle reported

  • The 60 teachers come from 33 different Texas school districts and are accused of obtaining fraudulent teaching certifications via a cheating ring

  • The investigation was announced in November 2024. Houston District Attorney Kim Ogg said the accused netted at least $1 million 

  • The scheme stretches back to at least May 2020, Ogg said

Five people were charged in November 2024 in connection to the scandal.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg referred to the alleged cheating ring as a “circle of greed” and said it netted the accused at least $1 million.

 Ogg said money was collected from aspiring teachers and that one of the accused, a proxy, would take the test for them in Houston with the aid of a “corrupt testing proctor.”

Ogg said the investigation shows the scheme goes back to May 2020, the beginning of COVID lockdowns, and more than 200 current and former teachers were fraudulently certified. All of them are or were working as teachers in Texas public schools in districts across the state, Ogg said.

Assistant Harris County District Attorney Mike Levine, who worked on the case for more than a year, said the scheme came to light when the Texas Education Agency noticed irregularities at Houston’s Training and Education Center, or HTECH. 

HTECH is an approved location for teacher candidates to take the certification test. 

Levine said candidates would drive for hours to take the test in Houston.

Prosecutors said they were tipped off by a former Houston-area coach who was applying to be a police officer elsewhere in Texas. Investigators interviewed numerous teachers who corroborated the story and reviewed thousands of pages of phone and bank records to build their case.

It’s thought that at least 400 certification tests were taken fraudulently. 

In order to teach in Texas, a person must earn a bachelor’s degree, complete a teacher preparation program, pass teacher certification exams, complete fingerprinting and apply for certification.