Atlanta Teachers Involved in Cheating Scandal Told to Resign or Get Fired

This is a follow-up to what is currently happening in Atlanta schools.  We found this statement by new interim Superintendent, Erroll Davis, refreshing:

Davis told CNN that the students were the ones who were cheated amid the scandal.

"We can't allow that to happen, and we can't allow anyone who was involved with that remain in our system," he told CNN. "We will identify those children, and we will make the requisite investments to remediate the wrongs that were done against them."

Students and their education should always be the #1 priority in the public schools.  The interim Superintendent, Erroll Davis, sounds like he should be made the permanent superintendent after his actions in this matter.  We would be willing to bet there are several teachers who were whistle blowers that were named as cheaters.  With the former Administration that was in place with their history of retaliation, that would be a legitimate assumption.  It is going to take a thorough review to sort out who was involved and then get rid of those teachers through resignation or being fired.

Teachers Implicated In Atlanta Cheating Scandal Told To Resign Or Get Fired 

First Posted: 7/17/11 01:50 AM ET Updated: 7/17/11 01:50 AM ET 

The 178 educators implicated in the Atlanta Public Schools' cheating investigation received letters in their mailboxes Friday from interim Superintendent Erroll Davis. The message: Resign by Wednesday, or get fired. 

The announcement comes after Davis replaced four area superintendents and two principals as a result of the investigation into alleged cheating by teachers, revealed early this month. APS Human Resources Chief Millicent Few resigned Monday. Investigators accused Few of illegally ordering the destruction or altering of important documents that evidenced the cheating.

The report determined that teachers in at least 44 of the 56 schools had participated in various forms of cheating, including erasing and correcting wrong answers on students' answer sheets for mandated standardized tests. 

Davis' office will accept resignations Monday through Wednesday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. After Wednesday, the district will commence termination proceedings.

But because teachers have rights to due process, the educator wipe-out could be lengthy and take several months, AJC reports. Some teachers have already hired lawyers.
At a town hall meeting Thursday night, parents questioned districts officials about how their children will be affected by the scandal. The same evening that Davis sent the letters to implicated educators, he assured parents that those involved in the incident would not be back in front of classrooms.

"It is not an overnight process to get rid of them," WAGA-TV reports Davis telling parents. "It certainly is an overnight process to tell them not to show up." 

Excerpt:  Read more of this cheating scandal at Huffington Post

Teacher's union will have a field day with this and look for them to end up on the side of the guilty and throw whistle blowers under the bus.  First thing out of their union mouths will probably be "Bush's Fault."  Have you noticed that Democrats never mention Ted Kennedy on 'No Child Left Behind' -- it is only Bush if there is a problem.

Have no respect for teacher's unions period starting with their national Union. If you want to point one finger at what is wrong in education, point it right at the National Education Association (NEA) Union.  The sole purpose of their union seems to be to protect lackluster/bad teachers to make sure they get their raises and don't get fired.  It is sure not putting students first.  

When teachers strike, they should be fired just like the air traffic controllers were by President Reagan because they are public employees.  Striking for higher wages shows who they put first -- themselves not the students.  For years NEA had a monopoly on extra benefits for teachers but in recent years organizations have sprung up for teachers that are not involved in the unions.  The NEA hold on good teachers is rapidly disappearing as they can join these other non-union organizations in Right to Work states.  NEA is as much responsible for failing schools as anyone with their protect teachers at all cost along with low expectation on the teaching ability.  An example:

No list about government waste would be complete without a visit to one of the best… of the worst in public education: the Chicago Public School System where bad teachers survive and illiterate kids waste away. Grace Currin’s entire fourth grade class will be showing up for summer school because of her inability to educate them sufficiently to pass. That’s right, they all failed. Three different principals in her school tried to fire her. They failed due to union attack dogs who refused (and continue to refuse) to allow any dues-paying tenured member to fall off the rolls no matter how stupid they are. Witnesses to her teaching style have reported heinous behavior.

See nine more reasons why public schools are failing at:  Newsreel Blog and then ask yourself what good are teacher's unions except to keep bad teachers on the payroll.

For years the policy in Chicago schools has been not to fail students, just pass them on to the next grade and by high school you would have a whole group of illiterate students ready to hit the streets looking for jobs who cannot read.  Probably the best thing that happened to Chicago schools was Obama hiring Chicago Superintendent Duncan as Education Secretary which equates to the wrong person for leadership of America's public schools.  It shows with failing a whole class in a Chicago school that his policy is no longer in place.

How many other districts across the Country are going to be part of this cheating scandal on standardized testing?  Cannot believe that the retired Atlanta Superintendent thought that when the test scores raised so much in failing schools, someone wouldn't take notice since the same teachers were in place.  Any school that cheats on standardized tests cheats the student as well because they don't get the remedial help they require.  Time to clean up public education across the Country starting with the NEA and their state affiliates who stand in the way of ousting bad teachers.

Time for parents to get up in arms and speak out about failing schools.  Go after school board members who have been there for years in failing school districts.  Demand vouchers so you can get your children in better schools.  Money talks even in schools and enough parents complain and remove their children from that school, something will be done.