Who did Perdue call out on the CRCT cheating scandal?
Gov. Sonny Perdue accused Atlanta schools superintendent Beverly Hall of ignoring evidence that one of the district’s elementary schools cheated on last summer’s CRCT retest.
Perdue made his comments after the state Board of Education threw out fifth-grade math retest scores from four elementary school accused of cheating.
The schools are: Atlanta’s Deerwood Academy, DeKalb County’s Atherton Elementary, Fulton County’s Parklane Elementary and Glynn County’s Burroughs-Molette Elementary.
The state education board learned about the cheating from the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. The office conducted an investigation after the schools posted unusually large gains on the retests.
Since the report’s release last month, the principal of Atherton resigned and an assistant principal was reassigned. Both were arrested and face felony charges.
Glynn County has asked the state education ethics commission to consider disciplining four individuals. Investigations are going on in Fulton County as well.
But Atlanta school leaders are the only ones refusing to admit that the results are tainted, Kathleen Mathers, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, said Wednesday.
Perdue commended school officials in DeKalb and Glynn for their “strong reactions” and showing “they will not condone this behavior.”
He didn’t have nice things to say about Atlanta:
“However, it is outrageous that Atlanta Public Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall has simply ignored all of the evidence that Superintendent Cox, the State Board, the other systems, and I found so compelling. While Superintendent Hall attributes the gains to a ‘rigorous program’, there were flat gains from students of the 4 other schools that attended the same summer school as the students who had their tests altered.”
What do you think of Perdue’s comments?
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
68 comments Add your comment
More lost posts
July 12th, 2009
10:25 pm
This is getting really old.
Viva Brasil!
July 12th, 2009
10:28 pm
To “Seen It All” – I’m surprised Dr. Trotter hasn’t said anything, but your correction is actually incorrect – he has been peppering in Portuguese terms lately since his trip to Brazil. Desculpe is the proper way to ask for forgiveness in Portuguese. He’s not practicing his espangnol – ele fala portugues
Tchau (not ciao, which is Italian)!
As to the topic at hand? Are we really surprised? Anyone who has read Steven Levitt’s “Freakonomics” knows about the Chicago testing and cheating incidents – as the stakes were raised, the number of cheating incidents increased.
Viva Brasil!
July 12th, 2009
10:30 pm
Desculpe – espanhol
Seen it all
July 12th, 2009
11:39 pm
Lo siento. Soy el hablante español aquí.
Portuguese is a language I never picked up, but I hear that Brazil is a gorgeous country.
Dr. John Trotter
July 12th, 2009
11:54 pm
To Viva Brasil: You are so right…it is “desculpe” in Portuguese. The languages of Spanish and Portuguese are indeed very similar, with many words exactly the same. Some words like “Obrigado” and “Gracias” (for “Thank you”) are totally different. It seems to me that Portuguese seems to have a blend of “French” influence in it, but “Viva Brasil,” I know that you are a vertiable expert on languages, and you can correctl me on this, if you will. Portuguese is a very pretty language, and I have studied it for years, and I joking tell the people of Brazil that “Eu sou um pai grande de portugues” (I am the great father of “portugles”…a blend of ingles and portugues). I do travel to Brazil a lot (three times since January), and the sweet Brasileiros and Brasileiras seem to apprreciate anyone’s efforts to speak their language. I like to say this, but it is an exaggeration: “Eu falo portugues muito bem!” Portuguese or English, Viva Brasil, you are right! The cheating is not just confined to the Atlanta Public Schools or to the DeKalb County School System (the systems where it is so prevalent) but in counties like Cobb too! The mean-spirited administrators are in abundance, especially in the Metro Atlanta school systems. Hey, did you see where school board attorney Glenn Brock has led the Cobb County School Board down the illegal path…illegal school board meetings? I can’t believe that Brock & Clay (the firm) is so ignorant of the school law as to accidently allow the school board to meet illegally. I think it was done with full knowledge. Otherwise, why is Brock & Clay touting itself as such experts on school law? Any dumb-ass attorney knows that these meetings are illegal. But, Glenn Brock was one of the people (along with SACS’s Mark Elgart and I think State Board member James Bostic and perhaps fellow board member Brad Bryant) who were illegally meeting behind closed doors with the Clayton County Board of Education about a year ago. These guys have to know better, but they apparently only want to cite the law when the law suits their purposes. Tchau. Viva Brasil, voce e gente boa. (This is considered a high compliment in Brazil.)
Dr. John Trotter
July 12th, 2009
11:56 pm
Jokingly tell, nao “joking tell.” Desculpe.
Dr. Craig Spinks /Evans
July 12th, 2009
11:57 pm
Where are PAGE and GAE? At the bank with GSBA counting their monies.
Dr. Craig Spinks /Evans
July 12th, 2009
11:58 pm
Dr. John Trotter, my e-mail address is: craigspinks@aol.com.
Dr. John Trotter
July 13th, 2009
12:03 am
I should proof-read my stuff. “Eu sou pai grande de portugles.” A play on words — portugles would be a combination of ingles (English) and portugues (Portuguese). In other words, I just mix the two languages together when I am talking. It happens when you come to a word that you simply do not know how to translate. But, in English for all to understand, Beverly Hall needs to acknowledge the obvious cheating taking place in the Atlanta Public Schools. You don’t need to know Latin, Portuguese, Swahili, or Mandarin to understand this! Senhora Hall, voce falando palavres falso.
Dr. John Trotter
July 13th, 2009
12:13 am
“Veritable” expert, nao “vertiable” expert. Desculpe outre vez. Eu nao preciso escribir quando Eu tenho consado. I am trying to post late at night with “Moses” (starring Ben Kingsley) on in the background. Moses and Aaron were kicking some major league a_s in Ancient Egypt. Pharoah (Ramses) reminds me of some of Georgia’s superintendents and principals. “Let my people go!” The teachers are forced to make bricks with no straw! Am I stretching the metaphors too far? I don’t think so. Let me go ahead and apologize in advance for any typos!
Dr. John Trotter
July 13th, 2009
12:19 am
Thank you Craig for your email address. My personal email address is drjohntrotter@yahoo.com. I welcome any suggestions as well as information about cheating in the Georgia schools. Hate mail is also welcomed (especially from administrators). For those who know me, I have tough skin and take hardly a thing personally. Our email address at the MACE Office is teachersadvocate@bellsouth.net. We will keep your identity in confidence.
Dr. John Trotter
July 13th, 2009
12:24 am
The last post did not take. Craig, thanks for your email address. My email address is drjohntrotter@yahoo.com, and I welcome anyone’s information on cheating in the Georgia schools. Our email address at the Office is teachersadvocate@bellsouth.net. We welcome even hate mail from admimistrators. We take hardley a thing personally. We have tough skin!
Responses and non-responses
July 13th, 2009
1:08 am
I’m so glad MACE is showing some real leadership here, and speaking to this cheating scandal, and the denial that surrounds it. I wonder what would happen if someone wrote GAE or PAGE asking them to comment on it?
Reporter
July 13th, 2009
1:16 am
Dr. Trotter,
Did you know there were 30 other schools with similar info from the summer re-testing? Many were in counties that are very much so not urban. Many had information that even surpassed the APS school on blast. Why haven’t they been exposed? This is very much so political. Do your homework people!!!!!
Standard deviation
July 13th, 2009
1:37 am
No statistician here, but I think the report was the standard deviation of the 4 schools in question was 3, but that even 2’s were highly suspicious, and that over 50 other schools had a standard deviation of at least 2.
While the others deserve investigation, the APS situation deserves full blast from the governor, Kathy Cox and all concerned citizens because they’ve been caught, and are still denying it, which shows an institutional lack of control.
Cobb is corrupt too, Dr. Trotter
July 13th, 2009
9:29 am
GAE and PAGE simply collect dues from teachers. No help there, and that probably accounts for their “selective silence.” Teachers should be told that the union cannot help you until you attain tenure rather than take their money each and every month, and when a situation arises, they say “oops, we can’t help you because you are not tenured and have no ground to stand on.
The second teacher referenced above was a GAE member and was due to get tenured in April with new contract. A GAE rep sat in the final PDP exit meeting with the principal and the COBB system rep and witnessed the discrepancies during this meeting and gave no input or help to the teacher. After the meeting, the teacher was informed that since she didn’t have tenure, there was nothing they could do. How sick is it that the union will take the money and then inform a teacher what they can’t do. They are just money grabbers with no real intent to help. This teacher desperately sought help with a GAE rep throughout the year on the abuse from the principal. What did they do? NOTHING!!! By the time she learned about MACE, she was out of a job and financially unable to join. I am sure that if she gets another job in another system, (if Cobb doesn’t blackball her with other systems), SHE WILL JOIN MACE because it is clear that MACE is the ONLY union that a teacher can count on. MACE, make yourself known in these so called great school systems so that these teachers will also know about you. Much mess goes on in these systems but it is much more covert.
Seen it all
July 13th, 2009
11:20 am
I understand that “tenured” teachers in Cobb got DESTROYED AND THEY HAD GAE and PAGE membership. The reps did NOTHING although the teachers had done nothing wrong. In fact I have heard of teachers who simply lost their jobs because of harassment by principals. Well maybe they “resigned” in the end, but the result was the same. If you are told that did not receive a contract during contract issuing in April, then really you are fired.
But my question is- where was PAGE and GAE all along while these teachers were getting harassed and DESTROYED? I guess they are as weak as Dr. Trotter says they are. I have been to the MACE website and I like the dogs analogy.
Vince
July 13th, 2009
1:08 pm
Some thoughts…
Crawford Lewis did the right thing by cooperating with the state’s investigation all along. He was only insulted by the AJC’s article last year that insinuated that poor minority children couldn’t excel. THAT is what he was protesting. I see nothing wrong with Lewis asking principals to show support of the two individuals…not asking to support their actions, but to support THEM. If one of my family members did something worng I would still visit them and show them that I care for them.