Test Cheating Scandal Rocks Atlanta Schools
Via memeorandum: Investigation Finds ‘Widespread’ Cheating in Atlanta Schools
At least 178 teachers and principals at nearly four dozen schools in Atlanta have been implicated in what is likely the largest cheating scandal in U.S. history to date.Check out this snippet from the above:
The report found that teachers, principals and administrators were both helping students on the state's standardized test, the Criterion-Reference Competency Test, and correcting incorrect answers after students had turned the tests in. Eighty-two educators confessed to the allegations detailed in the report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.
Calling it a "dark day" for Atlanta Public Schools, Mayor Kasim Reed said the yearlong investigation "confirms our worst fears ... There is no doubt that systemic cheating occurred on a widespread basis in the school system. Further, there is no question that a complete failure of leadership in the Atlanta Public School system hurt thousands of children who were promoted to the next grade without meeting basic academic standards."
"Beverly Hall is an outstanding superintendent whose leadership has turned Atlanta into a model of urban school reform," said AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech in announcing the award. "Throughout her long and successful tenure in Atlanta, Hall has accomplished significant gains in student achievement. She has demonstrated a commitment to setting high standards for students and school personnel, working collaboratively with the school board, and meeting the needs of the local community. AASA is proud to bestow this national honor on Hall."
 |
| Medal winner for "fraud of the year" |
This appears to be the largest of dozens of major cheating scandals, unearthed across the country. The allegations point an ongoing problem for US education, which has developed an ever-increasing dependence on standardized tests.From AJC: Investigation into APS cheating finds unethical behavior across every level
The report on the Atlanta Public Schools, released Tuesday, indicates a "widespread" conspiracy by teachers, principals and administrators to fix answers on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT), punish whistle-blowers, and hide improprieties.
Across Atlanta Public Schools, staff worked feverishly in secret to transform testing failures into successes.That's because they stopped serving the community long ago. Like I said, public schools are now lifestyle, heathcare and pension management entities that teach on the side, poorly, and at a loss.
Teachers and principals erased and corrected mistakes on students’ answer sheets.
Area superintendents silenced whistle-blowers and rewarded subordinates who met academic goals by any means possible.
Superintendent Beverly Hall and her top aides ignored, buried, destroyed or altered complaints about misconduct, claimed ignorance of wrongdoing and accused naysayers of failing to believe in poor children’s ability to learn.
For years — as long as a decade — this was how the Atlanta school district produced gains on state curriculum tests. The scores soared so dramatically they brought national acclaim to Hall and the district, according to an investigative report released Tuesday by Gov. Nathan Deal.
In the report, the governor’s special investigators describe an enterprise where unethical — and potentially illegal — behavior pierced every level of the bureaucracy, allowing district staff to reap praise and sometimes bonuses by misleading the children, parents and community they served.
“APS is run like the mob,” one teacher told investigators, saying she cheated because she feared retaliation if she didn’t.Probably the most relevant graphic associated with this pattern of behavior by self-serving educrats? Nationally, the cost of K-12 ed vs student test scores:
The voluminous report names 178 educators, including 38 principals, as participants in cheating. More than 80 confessed. The investigators said they confirmed cheating in 44 of 56 schools they examined.
...The findings fly in the face of years of denials from Atlanta administrators. The investigators re-examined the state’s erasure analysis — which they said proved to be valid and reliable — and sought to lay to rest district leaders’ numerous excuses for the suspicious scores.
