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In mid-2023, the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the state agency that oversees primary and secondary public education, said it had become aware of "certain irregularities" at Houston’s Training and Education Center, known as HTEC, a location for candidates to take certification exams.

Investigators noticed a pattern, they said: Numerous teacher certification candidates who previously failed certification exams would drive from faraway Texas cities to the Houston area to take exams.

“Suddenly, they were passing the test with flying colors,” Mike Levine, a felony chief in the DA’s Public Corruption Division, told reporters.

Then a tip came in that exposed the cheating scheme, authorities said.