Atlanta Schools Created Culture Of Cheating, Fear, Intimidation

This is despicable but like so many times in various fields, this Superintendent was allowed to retire as normal and get all the benefits of a retired Superintendent.  The first article deals with the Superintendent and the second article gives the details on the scandal as more facts came to light.

How can Hall look in the mirror knowing full well she could have done something about this cheating scandal -- it was her duty but she looks to be part of the cover-up and intimidation.  Words fail what I would really like to say because by cheating and giving these kids higher test scores, it gave them and their families a false sense they were doing well so they didn't get the remedial help they needed.  It was more important to Administrators like Hall that they have higher test scores rather than help children learn.  

What good are higher test scores when you have kids going to middle school that read at the first grade level. Sounds like Atlanta schools need cleaned out starting with the administration at the schools who demanded the cheating.  

Even though Hall has retired, she needs brought up on charges in this whole cheating scandal as she knew about the tampering with government records in the schools.  Guess it is too much to ask the people of Atlanta to throw the book at her after all they don't want to be called racist.  Hopefully they will ignore the color of her skin and go after her on the hard evidence that has been found during the investigation.  To retaliate against teachers who complained shows how far the administrators in Atlanta will go to get their test scores raised.  Are they saying their students are incapable of getting better test scores honestly?  If so, it is an indictment of the lack a good education from the Atlanta public schools.

Report: Atlanta superintendent knew about cheating

In a Feb. 20, 2009 file photo, Beverly Hall, Atlanta superintendent
 of public schools, holds up her award after she was named the
2009 Superintendent of the Year.

By DORIE TURNER and SHANNON McCAFFREY Associated PressStory Published: Jul 6, 2011 at 7:19 AM PDT

ATLANTA (AP) - Former Atlanta schools Superintendent Beverly Hall knew about cheating allegations on standardized tests but either ignored them or tried to hide them, according to a state investigation. 

An 800-page report released Tuesday to The Associated Press by Gov. Nathan Deal's office through an open records request shows several educators reported cheating in their schools. But the report says Hall, who won the national Superintendent of the Year award in 2009, and other administrators ignored those reports and sometimes retaliated against the whistleblowers. 

Excerpt:  Read More at KCBY

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Atlanta schools take a bow -- you have taught your students how to cheat.  For the last decade almost half of Atlanta public schools have been cheating.  When you have a teacher saying the district was run like a mob no wonder some teachers cheated to keep their jobs.  So now we are seeing the results of affirmative action not competence to get a job.  Superintendent of schools was not competent or the cheating wouldn't have happened on her watch when she knew about what was happening.

We are hearing that Philadelphia schools are next with a cheating scandal.  We already know that students in Chicago Public schools are not to be failed.  How about working with children who have problems with reading -- did they ever hear of the mentoring program where they can get additional help from members of the community?

We are not fans of No Child Left Behind because too much money has been thrown at schools which have been wasted but then we think the Department of Education has been doing a poor job since they became a separate cabinet position under Carter.  Time to make changes from the top to the bottom so that children's education become the #1 focus not what a child gets on a standardized test.  Reading has to be the #1 subject because if you cannot read, you will not be able to comprehend other subjects.  Every child deserves a first rate education and the parents need to get off the dime and make sure their voices are heard. 

Atlanta Schools Created Culture Of Cheating, Fear, Intimidation
By DORIE TURNER 07/16/11 10:20 AM ET

ATLANTA -- Teachers spent nights huddled in a back room, erasing wrong answers on students' test sheets and filling in the correct bubbles. At another school, struggling students were seated next to higher-performing classmates so they could copy answers. 

Those and other confessions are contained in a new state report that reveals how far some Atlanta public schools went to raise test scores in the nation's largest-ever cheating scandal. Investigators concluded that nearly half the city's schools allowed the cheating to go unchecked for as long as a decade, beginning in 2001. 

Administrators – pressured to maintain high scores under the federal No Child Left Behind law – punished or fired those who reported anything amiss and created a culture of "fear, intimidation and retaliation," according to the report released earlier this month, two years after officials noticed a suspicious spike in some scores. 

The report names 178 teachers and principals, and 82 of those confessed. Tens of thousands of children at the 44 schools, most in the city's poorest neighborhoods, were allowed to advance to higher grades, even though they didn't know basic concepts. 

One teacher told investigators the district was "run like the mob." 

"Everybody was in fear," another teacher said in the report. "It is not that the teachers are bad people and want to do it. It is that they are scared." 

For teachers and their bosses, the stakes were high: Schools that perform poorly and fail to meet certain benchmarks under the federal law can face sharp sanctions. They may be forced to offer extra tutoring, allow parents to transfer children to better schools, or fire teachers and administrators who don't pass muster. 

Experts say the cheating scandal – which involved more schools and teachers than any other in U.S. history – has led to soul-searching among other urban districts facing cheating investigations and those that have seen a rapid rise in test scores. 

In Georgia, teachers complained to investigators that some students arrived at middle school reading at a first-grade level. But, they said, principals insisted those students had to pass their standardized tests. Teachers were either ordered to cheat or pressured by administrators until they felt they had no choice, authorities said. 

Excerpt:  Read More about this scandal at AOL/Huffington Post