Ewing confirms one of his workers spotted odd behavior that triggered a 45-count indictment against Clarence Mumford and the de-certification of more than 50 teachers in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.
"The people who serve as our test center supervisors, monitors, and room proctors are our first defense against such things," Ewing explained.
According to court documents, Mumford hired four co-conspirators to assume the identities of teachers and aspiring teachers who could not pass the PRAXIS teacher certification test.
A PRAXIS worker noticed one person taking the same test several times in one day.
But technology may be the reason it went undetected 15 years.
Investigators say Mumford manufactured fake drivers licenses with his test takers photos and the aspiring teachers' information.
Ewing says the vast majority of teachers who take the tests are honest, but changes are in store, including biometric voice scanning.
How voice enrollments and matching will work isn't spelled out. I would have thought that since ID photos were the problem, facial recognition might have helped. I mean, you have one guy with one face who took, and passed, the test like fifty times!
Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee
