Test cheating probe nets former educator

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MEMPHIS, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- A Memphis man has been indicted for running a test cheating ring in three southern states for teacher certification exams, court documents indicate.

Clarence Mumford Sr., 58, a former assistant principal and guidance counselor, is accused of collecting fees in return for helping to create fake identification so proxies could take the certification exams, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Mumford, who retired from the Memphis City Schools in 2010, would solicit proxy test-takers, telling them the people who needed help with the tests were in danger of losing their teaching jobs, court documents said.

U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III for the Western District of Tennessee said Mumford operated the testing ring in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee from 1995 through at least March 2010.

The ring was first detected in June 2009 when proctors at an exam in Arkansas caught a substitute teacher taking a test in the morning under a man's name and then again in the afternoon under a woman's name.

The federal investigation of the ring has led to the indictment of 13 others including Mumford's son and former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Cedrick Wilson.