Ex-EPISD official Gina Oaxaca denies scam role

The former El Paso Independent School District bilingual education director spent Tuesday on the witness stand, denying any role or responsibility in the district's test score cheating scheme.

She testified during a hearing on whether the state should revoke her educator’s license.

Norma Regina “Gina” Oaxaca Gonzalez, known by her married name as Gina Oaxaca, testified that she never had any "intent or motive" to manipulate student subgroups to falsely inflate student test scores.

“Of course, now in 2016, you look at all this that has transpired, but not at the time, no,” Oaxaca said.

She again said she didn’t take responsibility for the improper testing and wrongful exiting of bilingual education students while she was director of the program, which attorneys for the Texas Education Agency allege manipulated the subgroup of limited-English proficient students.

The TEA alleges Oaxaca failed to follow state and federal law and EPISD policies by not making sure students were rightfully exited from bilingual education.

Students are placed in bilingual education or English as a Second Language based on their performance on written and oral tests. Under state law, they can only be tested and exited from the program at the end of the school year. Schools must report the performance of the limited-English proficient subgroup if there are 50 or more LEP students. Lowering the subgroup below that threshold during the 2006-13 EPISD cheating scheme made the district's test scores look better than they were.

During Tuesday's proceedings, lawyers for the TEA accused Oaxaca of “score shopping” to wrongfully exit students and decrease the number of limited-English proficient students below the threshold.

Schools can give students the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System to exit them or use a different “agency approved” test, the TEA attorneys said.

In some cases, EPISD administrators evaluated students via TELPAS, then tested them again with a different exam if they didn’t like the students’ scores, TEA lawyers alleged. They pointed to district documents showing students who performed well on TELPAS, but not high enough to exit, were then given another exam, called a SELP writing test.

“A district is not to pick and choose scores,” TEA lawyer Bridget Remish said.

“I was never aware of that,” Oaxaca said.

Oaxaca acknowledged she spoke to a TEA representative about using the SELP writing test. The representative cautioned against using the SELP writing test just because administrators didn’t like the students’ TELPAS scores, Remish said.

“Why did you go against what (the TEA representative) had said?” Remish asked.

“I don’t think I went against what she said,” Oaxaca replied.

“How do you say that?” Remish asked.

“Because she did not say, ‘You cannot do it,’ ” Oaxaca said.

She also said she wasn't involved in administering the retest to students or in the committee decisions to exit students from bilingual education.

During her more than eight hours on the stand, Oaxaca became emotional when talking about her son’s birth in 2009. It had been a difficult pregnancy because she was 40 years old at the time, she said.

She said some of the emails and memos from EPISD administrators about retesting students occurred while she was on maternity leave.

Oaxaca also addressed accusations that she ignored the case of four Bliss Elementary School students who were wrongfully exited from bilingual education.

Oaxaca said she notified her supervisor once she learned of the allegations in 2014. She said she couldn’t attend a meeting on the allegations at the school because she learned of the meeting that day and was driving a car with improper registration, which wouldn’t be allowed onto Fort Bliss, where the school is located.

Soon after the meeting, Oaxaca was “involuntarily reassigned” from her job as bilingual education director. She said the reassignment was due to reorganization in the district.

That October, Oaxaca was notified that the EPISD wouldn’t seek to renew her contract and she was reassigned to work as a facilitator at the San Jacinto Adult Learning Center.

Oaxaca initially fought the nonrenewal of her contract, but she said she couldn’t afford attorney fees to fight to both keep her contract and her license, so she resigned in summer 2015.

Before her resignation, Oaxaca said she was never investigated or cited for wrongdoing and she never had anyone file a grievance against her.

She currently works at El Paso Community College’s Gateway to College program, which helps high school dropouts or potential dropouts earn their diplomas and college credit.

The hearing will continue at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the 120th District Court, 500 W. San Antonio Ave.

Lindsey Anderson may be reached at 546-6345; landerson@elpasotimes.com; @l_m_anderson on Twitter.