Clarksdale principal barred from license for 20 years

A former Clarksdale principal at the center of a 2013 cheating scandal will not be able to teach in Mississippi or hold a school administrative license for at least 20 years. The state Department of Education commission voted unanimously Thursday to deny Lowanda Tyler-Jones application for license renewal and barred her from reapplying for the next two decades, saying she violated state statute by directing teachers and other employees to cheat on state assessments.

Tyler-Jones, who served as principal at Heidelberg Elementary School, once said her school's dramatic increase on test scores at the end of the 2013 school year was due to prayer. But after hearing from eyewitnesses who said they were told to correct students' answers, the commission rejected Tyler-Jones' notion of divine intervention, finding instead that Tyler-Jones took matters into her own hands.

The Mississippi Department of Education 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.

Education officials said the punishment is a record suspension. The highest one prior to Thursday's ban was 12 years given to a Greenville teacher who dragged a special needs student last year.

Neither Tyler-Jones nor her attorney was present at Thursday's hearing. Officials with the Office of Educator Misconduct said that meant Tyler-Jones waived her rights such as cross-examination or presenting a counter argument.

"This sends a strong message that cheating will not be tolerated in any form or fashion and that the interests of our children should be first and foremost in every educator's mind," said attorney Tommie Cardin.

Because Tyler-Jones license had expired during the process, the ruling was not a revocation. However, state officials recommended that Tyler-Jones not be allowed to reapply for her license for a period of no less than 10 years. After deliberating, the commission returned a verdict that doubled that amount. State law does not allow MDE to permanently revoke teachers' licenses, and officials said this was the longest punishment in recent record.

Testimony by three witnesses painted Tyler-Jones as obsessed with succeeding regardless of the consequences.

An assistant teacher told the commission her lead teacher, Frances Smith Kemp, would use codes to tell students the correct answers during state exams. "She would use an animal's name for A, something else for B," the witness said.

The witness said as a proctor she was told to watch the door to make sure hall monitors did not catch Kemp in the act. She added in a later conversation that Kemp indicated Tyler-Jones had instructed Kemp to aid students who appeared to be struggling.

The commission also heard from a former teacher in the district who said Tyler-Jones' directives caused her physical ailments, leading her to quit.

The former elementary teacher said Tyler-Jones told her and another teacher to pace students on the test. She explained that meant students were to stay on the same page, before moving on. The class was instructed to mark down answers in their test booklet, the teacher was then to walk around and check to see if they were correct, before the answers were transferred to the answer sheet. If teachers noticed the answer was wrong, they were to tap on the student's desk.

The teacher admitted to doing as requested, but said she "wouldn't constantly hit on the same student." And said she never directed which answer to fill in. As a result, her classroom's test scores were not flagged by an investigator that the Department of Education hired to investigate allegations of cheating that first broke in the 2014 Clarion-Ledger investigation.

Reflecting back to her initial conversation with Tyler-Jones, the instructor said the principal warned her, "if you make me look bad, you will not work for me." She recalled that when a coworker asked Tyler-Jones if the superintendent's office knew of her actions that Tyler-Jones responded she had been given the go ahead.

"We found out later that she didn't always tell the truth," the teacher said.

Tyler-Jones' case concludes the last of three civil charges MDE had brought against individuals involved in the cheating scandal. Tetra Winters, a former teacher at Heidelberg, had her license suspended for three years. While Kemp voluntarily surrounded hers. Special Assistant Attorney General Raina Anderson Lee, counsel for MDE, would not say whether Thursday's hearing marked the end of the department's investigation into the incident. Tyler-Jones will have 10 days to appeal to the state Board of Education.

Lisa M. Ross, Tyler-Jones' attorney, said Tyler-Jones does plan to appeal and indicated that going to civil court was possible. Ross said that in the past she objected to the fairness of the proceedings because commissioners while presiding over the hearings had lunch with MDE attorneys and MDE experts, which she argued created a bias.

"She wants to go to a court with real judges who will apply the law without respect of persons. Judges who care about fairness with their attorneys and their experts."

Ross further alleged that Tyler-Jones was racially discriminated against, arguing that the punishments were only given to African-Americans, despite Caucasian teachers testifying in previous hearings that they had also cheated on the test.

Ross said her client maintains her innocence.

"She has maintained from day one that she never encouraged anyone to cheat. And that no one ever told her anyone engaged in cheating."

"Today does not end this matter," she said.

Contact Bracey Harris at 601-961-7248 or bharris2@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter.