It was only a few months ago when Lavern Jordan stood before an auditorium of high school students and their relatives.

“I’m sure a lot of you are wondering,” he said to them in a voice any preacher would envy, “wondering why your students can get a diploma, when they couldn’t get one from the school they came from.”

That’s right: This wasn’t a church service; it was a graduation.

But not an ordinary one.

That’s because many of the students wearing gowns and caps that day came from high schools where they could not pass the state TAKS test, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

State law is explicit that if a secondary student can’t pass the state assessment test, they can’t graduate from a public school.

So just before the end of their senior year, those kids transferred to Lavern Jordan’s private school, Parkway Christian school, where with $250 they could get a diploma.

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“Every person that God created,” continued Jordan, “he created to be a success story.”

So that day, more than 100 Parkway Christian students walked across the stage to “Pomp and Circumstance,” accepted their diploma and shook hands with Jordan, many of them having never set foot in a Parkway Christian classroom.

“I have no problems with what we do,” Jordan later told 11 News Investigates. Both he and his wife Barbara Jordan are the school’s founders.

“Our goal is very simple,” he said, “To help students reach theirs.”

Jordan admitted that often meant students never taking a class at Parkway.

But he emphasized that incoming senior students couldn’t transfer in and then graduate without a qualified transcript.

“We require a minimum of 22 credits,” he said.

Jordan also made clear that since his school gets no public funding “we’re not required to make students take the TAKS test.”

His wife Barbara also explained it as they were helping students “get on with life.”

But not everyone agrees with the couple’s viewpoint.

“It’s horrible,” said State Rep. Alma Allen. “It’s hollow, it’s shallow and it’s appalling to me.”

Allen has spent nearly 40 years as an educator in public schools and four terms on the State Board of Education.

In this case, she said kids are learning the wrong lesson.

“It’s teaching them how to circumvent,” she said, adding that “there’s no other word for it, a diploma for sale.”

But take the case of basketball whiz Justin Hill.

He bought one of those Parkway Christian diplomas after failing the math portion of the TAKS test six times.

“We were facing him not graduating,” said his mother Jeanette.

His father Philip told 11 News: “When Mr. Jordan came in, it was just an incredible blessing to us.”

And Hill was succinct.

“I wouldn’t have got my scholarship,” he said referring to a basketball scholarship to an Alabama college.

But then,”one of my teachers, you know, told me, hey, there’s a way you can graduate,” Hill said.

In fact, 11 News found public school teachers, counselors, even vice principals telling kids with TAKS problems to go to schools like Parkway, one of four similar institutions in the Houston area.

Sources said in one case a public school teacher packed up a vanload full of kids and drove them to a private school to get diplomas.

So why the push to get TAKS-failing students out the door?

Education professor Kris Sloan of St. Edward’s University in Austin said it’s a matter of job security for teachers and principals at public schools.

Why?

Because of the state rating system for schools.

“The stakes are so high in terms of how schools are rated,” Sloan said.

Good ratings from the state depend on a number of factors including improved TAKS scores and dropout numbers for a school.

But kids who can’t pass the TAKS often dropout Sloan said, making it a double whammy for those educators.

As a result, Sloan said the schools start “pushing an alternative to get this kid off the role so to speak,” and out of the school without counting as a dropout.

He said one way to do that is if those students transfer somewhere else.

So who is referring students to private schools? The Jordans said one place is the Conroe Independent School District.

“We know that the counselors are talking about private schools as options,” said district spokesperson Kathy Clark.

But she claimed it’s only brought up as a last option for students who can’t pass the TAKS.

Clark also said, “We’re going to evaluate, we’re going to take a look and see if there’s an issue we need to deal with.”  

In the meantime, Dr. Alma Allen pledges to try to change state law to try and stop the practice.

“I will be looking at filing a bill that will close the loophole for our children,” Rep. Allen said.

But plenty of parents and even educators said they hope that new law never happens. They said schools like Parkway Christian are rescuing good kids, giving them a chance at a future, despite a bad test score from what they feel is a misguided public school system.