Former Perdue adviser: Leaders of systems implicated in CRCT scandal ought to step down
I first met researcher Ben Scafidi, then at GSU, at a conference on school resegregation where he presented a paper. Soon after, he became Gov. Perdue’s education adviser. We have philosophical differences, but I think he is true to his principles and I think he is always forthcoming on what he’s thinking.
You will likely agree once you read his piece on the CRCT cheating probe.
Now chairman of the state’s new Charter Schools Commission and a professor at Georgia College & State University, Scafidi wrote this piece for the op-ed page.
By Ben Scafidi
When Bernie Madoff and his accomplices embezzled billions from clients out of the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, it wasn’t the traders who ran the company who were sent to prison. Instead, Madoff himself earned a life sentence for the collapse of his securities firm.
So, too, should those at the top of public schools that have experienced widespread cheating during the Georgia CRCT be held accountable for what happened in their schools. For top brass to keep their jobs would be like BP’s CEO Tony Hayward keeping control of the company despite the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
But the education establishment continues to protect itself at the expense of Georgia children. Since this scandal broke last year and evidence emerged this month that cheating was indisputable in hundreds of schools, all we’ve heard is excuses including blaming kids for doodling on their exams to failure to properly erase and change their own answers.
The state identified classrooms as having “cheating problems” if the number of erasures from wrong to right answers were dramatically above the average for their grade level and subject.
An audit of the tests showed that there were, in fact, an extremely high number of answers changed on tests, and they weren’t changed by students.
What is the likelihood that a classroom of 20 students had erasures from wrong to right? If this occurred by random chance, the likelihood is one in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That number is too large to even have a name — but with 39 zeros, it is quite an impossible chance.
Yet last year, some school districts were able to beat those odds because some wanted to take an easy route to show success for their students.
Once state monitors were put in place, test scores statewide dropped significantly this year in many schools that obviously had cheating problems. That leads many of us to believe that cheating occurred on important exams in 2009 and potentially earlier.
● In Dougherty County, for example, the fifth-grade reading pass rate at Martin Luther King Elementary in Albany dropped by 45 percentage points, after the independent probe of the 2009 test results showed cheating.
● At Atlanta Public Schools’ White Elementary, 88 percent of third-graders supposedly passed the CRCT’s math exam in 2009. This year, with monitors in place, only 27 percent of third-graders passed the math exam at the same school. This disparity in results should not only be shocking to parents but taxpayers who pay high taxes to fund public schools.
● National Assessment of Educational Progress scores, by contrast, increased significantly between 2002 and 2009 — a statistic that Atlanta Superintendent Beverly Hall defends as indicative of foolproof testing in her school system. Yet the sample of students taking the exam has changed since 2002 versus 2009, leading to questions whether the NAEP sample truly reflects the population of the school district and thus the true learning outcomes of Atlanta students.
It all comes down to this: Adults are supposed to set an example for children and teach them how to be successful grown-ups. When adults cheat, they send the wrong message to pupils that shortcuts are acceptable over hard work and learning.
This scandal is particularly harmful to kids because under state policy, those who fail the CRCT often are entitled to extra tutoring. Georgia parents are being misled about the quality of their public schools and whether their child is learning.
For the next few weeks, there is a fear that we will continue to see the business community enable school leaders in Atlanta and other districts where there has been cheating. To date, no leader had demanded real accountability for a scandal that hurts young people. Until all stakeholders say enough is enough, they, too, are morally responsible for another generation of children being promoted without basic skills needed to read, write, earn college admission or even obtain a significant job.
Just as BP’s Hayward will eventually go, the stakeholders of public education will have to rise up and seek the resignation of those who make excuses for cheating and failure. Kids don’t deserve the blame. Responsibility starts at the top.
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122 comments Add your comment
Dunwoody Mom
June 30th, 2010
12:39 pm
Chris, offering money in exchange for a particular vote conjures up a whole new definition for me – and the word is not “contract”. We will just agree to disagree on this.
EducationCEO
June 30th, 2010
12:46 pm
@ChrisMurphy You are right: Rhee and Hall can’t be placed in the same sentence. Rhee slept her way to the top, covered up her current fiancé’s sexual harassment debacle, falsely accused teachers of abusing students, ‘misplaced’ Special Education students (she did not know where they were), and only has 3 years teaching experience. Hall, on the other hand, earned her doctorate and sits on one of Harvard’s boards for urban education. She has more than 3 years classroom experience. Whether she is right or wrong, guilty or innocent, she cannot and should not be compared to Rhee. She earned her stripes the old-fashioned way: Hard work and education. Rhee was handed that position because our country still buys into the ‘White Savior’ mentality, in this case Asian, and that anyone, other than a Black or Latino, is qualified to educate little Black and Brown kids (http://www.race-talk.org/?p=4930).
The bonus incentives may have (more than likely) created an environment where people were eager to cheat, but it did happen on Hall’s watch. The sign of a true leader is knowing when it’s time to move on to something else. By the way, this money for scores should prove that merit pay is not a good move for Georgia. At all.
Teacher&mom
June 30th, 2010
1:07 pm
@Chris Murphy-read this article about Michelle Rhee.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/dc-schools/jay-mathews-and-rhee-you-a.html
Here’s an excerpt from the article that I stood out to me:
“But Fairfax and Montgomery counties don’t rest their academic reputations on their standardized testing regimes. Fine teachers and administrators and committed parents probably have something to do with it.”
Beverly Hall made a decision to rest her academic reputation on standardized tests. That was her choice. She has enjoyed quite a few years in the spotlight. Just like a business that starts to see a profit margin, she began a feeding frenzy to propel the test scores even higher. If I were a betting woman, I suspect she was no longer content to see a gradual increase in scores. No, she wanted higher scores sooner rather than later. Just like BP…it wasn’t enough to make billions every year… cut corners, cheat on the safety measures, do whatever it takes…the bottom line (profits or higher test scores) is ALL THAT MATTERS. If parents only knew how this current obsession has reduced their children to nothing more that a test score. Teachers deeply resent this devaluing of students. In a healthy school culture, you have teachers and administrators who refuse to allow test scores to define their mission and purpose. Unfortunately it is getting harder and harder to swim against the standardized testing flood.
Tweets that mention Former Perdue adviser: Leaders of systems implicated in CRCT scandal ought to step down | Get Schooled -- Topsy.com
June 30th, 2010
1:54 pm
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What a bunch of jerks!
June 30th, 2010
2:27 pm
The fact that this piece is running on the our superintendent’s last day reminds me how thankful I am to work where I do. Thank you, John Decotis, for your outstanding leadership of the Fayette County School System. You will be missed!
APS Parent
June 30th, 2010
2:27 pm
I’d take Rhee over the scam that Beverly Hall is any day of the week. Just watch, Hall will circle her wagons, proclaim that any cheating allegation is the fault of teachers and continue to collect her cushy bonuses for fictitious gains in CRCT testing. We’ve seen her playbook one too many times to have confidence in any other outcome!
Larry
June 30th, 2010
2:40 pm
Next time you see Mr. Scafidi, tell him to read O.C.G.A. § 20-2-2068.1 so he knows how to correctly fund charter schools. That way, taxpayers wouldn’t be forced to litigate to prevent him taking more money away from our kids.
Incidentally, the counterpart to BP CEO Tony Hayward in Scafidi’s analogy would be Governor Purdue (the one person at the top). The meaning of “self-evident” must have changed.
Readers do your job
June 30th, 2010
2:59 pm
How do readers on this blog applaud the reporting that the AJC has done, applaud the GUEST editorial the AJC printed yet have nothing to say about the TOTAL silence of the AJC editorial board since it’s been proven beyond all doubt that cheating was so widespread that there is no way those at the top weren’t aware of it?
Do readers not see how Andre Jackson, Ken Foskett, Julia Wallace and the rest of the board with their silence on the issue, and their complete unwillingness to hold those at the top accountable are basically saying we value EduPAC and the Chamber of Commerce more than we value you the reader who buys the paper?
Yet if readers don’t use forums like this to call them into account, aren’t you doing your small part to allow the AJC editorial board, EduPAC and the Chamber of Commerce to prop up somebody whose actions clearly show they don’t deserve to be propped up?
EnoughAlready
June 30th, 2010
3:24 pm
APS Parent
June 30th, 2010
2:27 pm
Your anger at Beverly Hall is very apparent. However, I think it is misplaced due to the fact that she doesn’t administer the test or have ready access to them in order to cheat.
Teacher&mom
June 30th, 2010
3:36 pm
caught in the filter.
Nikole
June 30th, 2010
3:59 pm
Zepora Roberts has 2 people running against her.
http://web.co.dekalb.ga.us/Voter/pdf/nonpartisan.pdf
Nikole
June 30th, 2010
4:05 pm
@ I agree with Joey and Enough Already
The fact of the matter is that Dr. Hall has created an environment that encourages cheating. I have seen schools fudge discipline data in an effort to please her. So instead of disciplining students, setting a standard for what is acceptable behavior, schools pretend there are no issues and learning is negatively impacted. She has also pushed inferior reading reform models in schools that teach children to decode, but not to comprehend, think critically, or analyze. And what teachers all over the metro area have known for years is that students that transfer in from APS have overwhelmingly been high achievers in test scores, but their classroom performance says something altogether different. Did Hall change scores herself? No. But she is still ultimately responsible for failing the African-American students she claims to care so much about.
MB
June 30th, 2010
4:08 pm
According to NOAA, the odds of being struck by lightning in any given year (reported deaths & injuries)is 1 in 750,000. The odds of being struck in your lifetime (est. 80 years) are 1 in 6250. Not even close…(COUNT the zeros…)
HS Teacher
June 30th, 2010
4:15 pm
@Conservative – U r an idiot. This is not a conservative or liberal thing. Why must you find a way to twist this sad situation to suit your political agenda? It seems to me that it has been the CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS that have been in charge during testing corruption.
I guess this means that YOU want all of your conservative republican GA politicians to step down, right? Oh, that’s right, I also forget the rule that conservatives by definition are also hypocrites and never subscribe to their own diagnosis.
Educator
June 30th, 2010
4:16 pm
Clearly, this is message that APS School Board Members must take accountability for. They have become objects of the Superintendent rather than accountable to the public. The call for the APS School Board to be investigated by SACS and to take appropriate action is at hand. Join me in challenging the school board members to remove the appropriate personnel! They must listen to the public. All confidence is lost. The word on the street is that the Board is controlled by the Chamber of Commerce. Do they have children in APS, or are they concerned about the false representation of data being sustained (to attract commerce). I’m just speaking the truth. It’s time out for playing with this serious matter. The Board must step up and the Central Administration must go! Blog this as a poll.
Maureen Downey
June 30th, 2010
4:44 pm
@EducationCEO, They have to submit it. I have made the offer at least five time on the blog for people to send in op-eds. A lot of people say they want to write, but they don’t ever submit.
Maureen
Just a teacher
June 30th, 2010
4:58 pm
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool, shun him…
HStchr
June 30th, 2010
5:12 pm
Simple answer: YEP, they should step down. Of course they won’t, but they should. Even if they are not directly implicatable in the cheating, they created an environment that encouraged it. The competition, the pressure, the absolute all-consuming need to get those scores at all costs, is a top-down initiative. In fairness, those who actually changed the answers, be they teachers or administrators, should also be let go and their certificates revoked. It’s an insane environment we are in that encourages such blatant abuse of our commitment as educators to do such a thing. But if we do, it should result in firing if not outright criminal prosecution- and that includes the all powerful, corporate bigwigs…I mean, superintendents.
Educator
June 30th, 2010
5:32 pm
Again, when leadership is questioned and challenged through the failed confidence by the followers, one must listen! Clearly, this is message that APS School Board Members must take accountability for. They have become objects of the Superintendent rather than accountable to the public. The call for the APS School Board to be investigated by SACS and to take appropriate action is at hand. Join me in challenging the school board members to remove the appropriate personnel! They must listen to the public. All confidence is lost. The word on the street is that the Board is controlled by the Chamber of Commerce. Do they have children in APS, or are they concerned about the false representation of data being sustained (to attract commerce).
Readers do your job
June 30th, 2010
5:45 pm
When you call for the BOE and Superintendent to be held accountable on a blog, it doesn’t carry nearly the weight as the AJC editorial board doing it in print.
But if you don’t use this forum and other forums to call on the AJC editorial board to do so, you’re allowing the AJC editorial board to prop up the superintendent and the board. The AJC editorial board is putting the interests of EduPAC above yours as reader, and making a mockery of their self proclaimed “watchdog” status, and you’re letting them get away with it with zero comment.
Readers do your job.
Shout
June 30th, 2010
5:58 pm
Mareen, I am curious to hear what you have to say about @Reader do you job comment. Please respond the public (tax payers) is crying out for help. All this blog is doing is allowing us to vent. So the question is who are we being used by APS or AJC?
Readers do your job
June 30th, 2010
6:05 pm
Now if 20-40 more people would follow Shout’s lead, maybe we’d get some real accountability from Julia Wallace, Ken Foskett, and Andre Jackson to the people who pay their salaries.
Maureen Downey
June 30th, 2010
6:07 pm
@Shout, I haven’t sat down with EduPAC for years. Andre Jackson has never met with anyone from EduPAC. (Andre is relatively new and was not at the paper when EduPAC was pushing candidates.)
I can assure you EduPAC is not being protected. (The only place I ever hear about EduPAC is on this blog.) Andre’s Sunday pieces are part of an ongoing series called Atlanta Forward, which is a metro-wide look at issues affecting the region. I know that the APS story has great interest for many people on the blog, but I think Andre looks for Sunday editorials that have a regional component.
There is nothing sinister or conspiratorial to the issue. I know it is more interesting to think there is. But there isn’t.
Maureen
funny
June 30th, 2010
6:12 pm
all this DATA driven talking points crap has got to go; when students went to Socrates for instruction i dont think there were number crunchers saying “looks good”
People like B. Hall keep using these terms to justify her heavy handed, bring the scores up anyway you can: wink…. wink.
Real life, no BS, B Hall you should resign. Your procedures/data driven adminstration did not work. All the scores from test in APS are a fraud, you have NOT earned the bonuses or even the regular pay that a super in APS should be making.
Readers do your job
June 30th, 2010
6:18 pm
Maureen please. Seriously Maureen stop it. This isn’t Rodney Ho’s American Idol blog, some people here have a REAL clue.
You might try this with the average citizen, but please don’t insult the readers of this blog with some nonsense about Andre Jackson focusing on a “regional component” when the cheating scandal has made the front page of the New York Times!
The NEW YORK TIMES Maureen. Perhaps you’ve heard of them?
You have THE largest cheating scandal in Georgia’s educational history, and now you have the test scores to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt and we are supposed to find it acceptable that the AJC editorial board has been TOTALLY silent on it? Please.
And you claim EduPAC isn’t being “protected” but are they being held accountable? They pushed the candidates that make up the BOE that refuses to call Hall into account; why won’t the AJC ask them for comment?
Readers do your job
June 30th, 2010
6:20 pm
@Shout if you’re out there, are you happy with the answer put forth at 6:07pm? Or are you as insulted as I am?
Springdale Park Elementary Parent
June 30th, 2010
6:25 pm
Bev Hall was pushy enough to force her testing agenda down the throats of an intransigent APS bureaucracy, but not skillful enough to get them to comply without cheating.
Perhaps nobody could make these crooks in our schools behave honestly (that’s my opinion; anyone cynical enough to cheat children in return for a paycheck is likely to be unreachable by any manager).
Nevertheless, it’s still possible for someone to clean up the system, or purge it of its wrongdoers. But Bev Hall has shown us already that she isn’t the one to do it. She has said she doesn’t think cheating is a widespread problem, and she instructed her PR lackey to invent a race-card-based defense that’s even more cynical than the cheating itself (not to mention utterly moronic).
If Atlanta REALLY wants to drive away commerce, by all means, keep a superintendent implicated in what the New York Times calls the biggest cheating scandal in the history of standardized testing.
But I think our business leaders (who apparently control the process) are smarter than that, and will understand that it’s time to bring in someone who will do Phase Two of the great APS reform: The Housecleaning.
This scandal gives them both opportunity and leverage. Seize it!
Readers do your job
June 30th, 2010
6:41 pm
Is there not a Creative Loafing staffer reading this, who can compel Creative Loafing to do what it has had to do to the AJC so many times in the past, which is to embarrass the AJC to the point where they have no choice but to hold the business community accountable?
Shout
June 30th, 2010
6:47 pm
@Readers do your job
As I stated earlier we are being used by both parties APS & AjC. One is cheating us with false info. and the other one is just allowing us vent information. Either way they both are getting paid to do so. Just as everyone is tired to the MAFIA style operation that APS runs(Chambers, DA, BOA, Business, and now AJC). @Readers just think about the Blog Maureen shared with us in regards to E-rate,bidding and mis-use of public funds by B Hall. B. Hall violated a direct policy of BOE writing checks without the consent of BOE and nothing happen. Now!!! let a teacher or staff member violate such policy their job would be on the line.. All I am saying is enough is enough something must be done…
Maureen & AJC are cheating us such APS cheating the children.
Maureen Downey
June 30th, 2010
6:53 pm
@Readers, This conversation is getting ludicrous. Now, you are accusing the AJC of ignoring the cheating scandal that we first uncovered. The only reason the NYT or any other media are reporting on this is because the AJC has had two investigative reporters on this story for two years. Had it not been for the AJC, the “THE largest cheating scandal in Georgia’s educational history,” as you put it, would never have been discovered. Our front-page investigations led the state to finally look into the CRCT score disparities. John Perry and Heather Vogell deserve a medal for the work they did — months of work, by the way, supported by AJC management, including Julia Wallace — to bring this to light. Yet, you think Julia is now trying to cover this up? She allowed a team of reporters to devote two years to this issue. She made it a priority. And yet you say she is unwilling to take a stand?
You have to be kidding me.
Andre has written two editorials on this. All of the AJC political columnists have written on it. We have run at least a dozen op-ed pieces. Along with all the initial reporting that first revealed the CRCT score swings, we have had dozens of other news stories. We are updating the work of the investigatory panel almost daily.
This is our story. We aren’t ignoring it. We aren’t downplaying it. Again, it was the AJC that broke this story and it took a massive commitment on the part of management to allow the reporters the time and resources to delve into all the data.
You have got to let go of this illusion that the AJC is ignoring the APS story when it is only a story because of the AJC. You have jumped the shark officially with this bizarre distortion of the facts.
Maureen
Maureen Downey
June 30th, 2010
6:56 pm
@Shout, I have no idea what you are saying.
Springdale Park Elementary Parent
June 30th, 2010
7:14 pm
Maureen, I really appreciate what the AJC and you, in particular, have done. I think parents and teachers are frustrated and looking for a big mean watchdog with sharp fangs. But of course your job is just to bark; if we want to bite back, we have to do it for ourselves.
I think people are starting to understand that having a powerful, strong local newspaper is an important–and sometimes the only–bastion against rampant corruption and wrongdoing. The AJC has brought some of its financial problems on itself, but just try to imagine life here without ANY sort of strong watchdog….it’s too horrible to contemplate.
I am hopeful people will eventually come to understand that if you want a strong paper, you have to pay something to read it.
People are venting here because we’re all really upset, but I happen to agree that hurling insults at you and the AJC is silly, and I don’t blame you one bit for snapping back! Keep up the fantastic blog, and stay on those IT guys to support you better re: filtering. We need Get Schooled now more than ever; it is arguably the most important item in the whole paper right now.
Readers do your job
June 30th, 2010
7:14 pm
@Readers, This conversation is getting ludicrous. Now, you are accusing the AJC of ignoring the cheating scandal that we first uncovered
STOP lying Maureen. NOBODY accused the AJC of ignoring the scandal. We are talking SPECIFICALLY about the editorial board.
True or false Maureen: did Andre Jackson, or did he not, give “credit” to Beverly Hall for her handling of the crisis even after the ridiculous charade of hiring Penn Payne?
True or false Maureen, Has Andre Jackson, and the ENTIRE editorial board been SILENT, since the CRCT test results have come out that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that massive cheating occurred and when not allowed to cheat, APS has some of THE lowest scores in the entire state?
True or false Maureen: the editorial board has or hasn’t called for Hall’s resignation?
Readers do your job
June 30th, 2010
7:31 pm
Maureen there’s a difference, and you KNOW there is a difference between the AJC reporters going after cheating in the schools and the editorial board NOT going after the person at the helm to be accountable for the largest cheating scandal in Georgia’s educational history.
This editorial board would NEVER go after Lynndie England for her role at Abu Ghraib WITHOUT going after the higher ups in Washington, thousands of miles away, who obviously tolerated it.
Yet you have the person at the helm of the largest cheating scandal in Georgia RIGHT HERE, with incontrovertible evidence that she either she knew, or has suffered a COMPLETE loss of institutional control, and yet the AJC editorial board says NOTHING about whether or not she should resign?
What is the editorial board waiting for Maureen. A second EraserMan standing on the grassy knoll to come out of the shadows and testify? What more evidence could the editorial board POSSIBLY need, after Penn Payne and all the other obfuscations that have taken place, to take a stand?
Shout
June 30th, 2010
7:37 pm
@Readers do your job
You are on points, Keep speaking! someone will here us and listen.
Readers do your job
June 30th, 2010
7:47 pm
“You have got to let go of this illusion that the AJC is ignoring the APS story when it is only a story because of the AJC”
Maureen when this ENTIRE dialogue has been about the editorial’s board silence since the devastating 2010 test scores have come out and NOT what the reporters have done to bring this to light, you are being COMPLETELY disingenuous.
But if you can point out where the editorial board has addressed Dr. Hall’s culpability since the devastating test scores came out with THEIR voice and not a GUEST editorial, I’ll be the first to acknowledge it.
Readers, do you recall reading an editorial from an AJC editorial board member that specifically addresses should Dr. Hall remain at the helm since the devastating test scores came out this year?
Readers do your job
June 30th, 2010
7:53 pm
Maureen we would be remiss in not giving you credit for ALWAYS letting the most vociferous of criticisms be posted, even when they are squarely aimed at the AJC. Or even you!
Please consider writing a tell all book when you finally leave the AJC. We WILL purchase it. Promise.
Forsyth County mom
June 30th, 2010
7:54 pm
All those who live in the districts where the cheating happened…. why are you NOT organizing a real, live protest against the superintendants and boards of education? All of us will join you to get the message out in person that WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THESE LEADERS REMAINING IN POWER ANOTHER MINUTE OVER OUT CHILDREN!!!!!!! Let’s get together and show them with our numbers that we are done with them! Let’s show them that we ALL STAND TOGETHER against the cheaters and with our children! If you organize it, WE WILL COME!!!!!
Maureen Downey
June 30th, 2010
7:54 pm
Reader do your job, Believe me, if it is worth telling, I’ve said it. I am not one to hold back.
Maureen
Maureen Downey
June 30th, 2010
8:01 pm
@Springdale, Thanks. My concern is that people miss the big picture. Whether Andre Jackson writes a Sunday piece or not, the AJC has not sidestepped the issue of APS. To me, the most important thing is the ongoing reporting on this issue, and I have to credit management for allowing all the time necessary to do that. And I can assure everyone that the paper has no plans to step back from the issue in any way.
And you are right about the issue that watchdog reporting is not cheap. This paper – and almost all others — have not devised a way yet to make money from all their millions of online viewers. If they don’t, I am not sure of the future of watchdog journalism as very few citizen journalists — the avocational journalists who some folks believe will fill the gap — are going to attend all the DeKalb school closing meetings that an AJC reporter did. And no one is going to study APS contracts for months as Heather and John did. These investigations literally takes months of full-time reporting, and I just don’t think a volunteer corps of citizen journalists can do it.
Maureen
justbrowsing
June 30th, 2010
8:04 pm
Maureen- thank you for moderating this forum. I feel that you have addressed appropriately a myriad of issues within our community. You more than do your job.
@Readers do your job- this is blog- not the GBI or FBI. Why not file follow up in another fashion to investigate your allegations. Your discussion is a bit over the top. No one can make anyone do anything. Education is a highly political issue as are other topics in other forums. Again- this is just a blog.
Maureen Downey
June 30th, 2010
8:04 pm
@Readers, And I share those vociferous criticisms with my desk mates — Kyle Wingfield, Ken Foskett and Andre — who have come to expect my daily recitations of your latest critiques. Believe me, even though I don’t agree with many of your complaints, they are being heard.
Maureen
justbrowsing
June 30th, 2010
8:06 pm
corrected-
@Readers do your job- this is a blog- not the GBI or FBI. Why not follow up in another fashion to investigate your allegations. Your discussion is a bit over the top. No one can make anyone do anything. Education is a highly political issue as are other topics in other forums. Again- this is just a blog.
All the facts
June 30th, 2010
8:19 pm
@Readers and @ shout
You are the ones off base. How about we wait for the results of the APS report before calling for the head of Dr. Hall on a silver platter? Logical minds usually wait for all the evidence to be presented before they make a decision. Perhaps the AJC editorial board would like to write an informed editorial rather than a being bullied into a public lynching. We’re all chomping at the bit for people to be held accountable, but let’s allow for it to be done decently and in order.
Springdale Park Elementary Parent
June 30th, 2010
8:24 pm
@Readers Do Your Job: Your criticism of Andre and certain members of the editorial board is right on. Their unwillingness to confront Hall (and their own history as her champion) is gutless. Perhaps they feel it’s best to let their investigative reporters provide the rope with which Hall can hang herself; that way they don’t have to call for her to resign. But that is a cowardly way to go.
What would a great newspaper do in this situation? It would take a stand.
Still, Maureen is your ally, not your enemy here, in terms of getting information out. Imagine the paper 17 years ago, before the modern web: would we be able to have this dialogue? Read this many postings? Not a chance.
Dr. John Trotter
June 30th, 2010
8:24 pm
Again: Beverly Hall & Cheating, Crawford Lewis & Corruption, and Mark Elgart & Hypocrisy.
By John R. Alston Trotter, EdD, JD
Maureen: I haven’t been tuned in to the blog in a few days. I have to agree with others that it is about time the AJC finally shines a little light on the egregious and shameless culture of cheating that the Beverly Hall Administration established years ago (when she arrived in the Summer of 1999). Hall has been atrocious but has had her Atlanta Chamber of Commerce folk and EduPac folk (more or less the same folk) to have her back, so to speak, all these years. I have been speaking out for years now (on this blog and in http://www.theteachersadvocate.com and teachers.net and elsewhere) about how completely corrupt the Hall Administration is. This administration makes previous APS administrations look like they were hatched and nurtured in convents. The effrontery of the Hall Administration is indeed shameless. Many a good educator/person has had his or her rights trampled upon and many good people have lost their jobs unjustly because of their willingness to speak out or because of their unwillingness to “go along just to get along.”
In the 2008-2009 schoolyear, we at MACE had occasion to visit at Atlanta’s White Elementary (the school mentioned in the gentleman’s article which had apparently engaged in unconscionable cheating). When we walked in and signed in after school just to meet with a particular teacher, you would have thought that Darth Vader showed up. When I asked to attend the restroom and was escorted as if I were a criminal, a lady from the Atlanta Central Office called my cell phone and asked what was going on “at White Elementary” (this is not unusual but this time the anxiety of the administration appeared to me to be more acute). I explained that I simply had to go to the restroom. Now, looking back on the situation, perhaps they were afraid that my colleagues and I were there to look for erasures!
I have said many times and continue to say this: The three most hypocritical people associated with public education in Georgia are Beverly Hall, Crawford Lewis, and Mark Elgart. It appears that Lewis has turned in his cleats for good. I hope that someone on the Atlanta Board of Education will have enough sense to tell Hall to turn in her cleats. Then, we have only the self-righteous and hypocritical Mark Elgart of SACS remaining in the arena. He, in my opinion, is an educational fake, and SACS is a money-grubbing outfit which uses its powers to carry out personal vendettas for its personnel or for its friends placed in high places. Mark Elgart is the Elmer Gantry of Georgia Public Education. I would love to debate Mark Elgart about the uneven-handedness of SACS. Are you listening Mark? Hey, Maureen, do you reckon that you can arrange for an open, public debate between Mark Elgart and me? I think that he is not only an educational fake but also a moral chicken. His unconscionable actions are also shameless.
I agree with a previous poster. Dr. John DeCotis will be sorely missed in Fayette County and in the State of Georgia. He is a kind, good, and caring person who shows that you do not have to be an _ss to be an effective leader and superintendent. A few months back, I wrote to him and wished him a happy, fruitful, and relaxing retirement. Perhaps he could be used throughout the State to teach some of our superintendents how to treat people. But, the real jerks (who need to practice his prescient ways would not show up — they are already jackanapes and think that they need no one to teach them!). (c) MACE, June 30, 2010.
Former CCPS teacher
June 30th, 2010
8:48 pm
Mark Elgart is a villian in Dr. Trotter’s eyes because he finally exposed what so many already knew- a Clatyon County BOE heavily influenced by crazy board members put in place and told what to do by MACE were exposed for who they were and the entire school system suffered for it. If he were the villain you wish to portray him to be, SACS would have held the BOE’s feet to the fire and made them actually complete all the requirements for accredidation before giving it back. I worked in the county and saw it all unfold. I left, along with most of my very esteemed colleagues of merit, for better jobs in counties away from the heavy influence of MACE.
Talk to people who know his story, and you’ll find this his opinion of Mr. Elgart is laughable since it was his sole mission to destroy the school system that would not give him the administrative job he thought he deserved and everyone knew he wasn’t qualified for. That was years ago, but the mission to create trouble goes on…
Dr. John Trotter
June 30th, 2010
9:04 pm
Maureen: By the way, my rather oblique criticism of the AJC was not directed at you. I think that you are doing a great job. My only concern is that your lack of experience trying to teach hellions who call you a “B_tch” or anything else (even daily threaten and/or accost you) with near impunity. Coming from a parochial school background and having children attend suburban schools (and good for them), I truly don’t think that you can understand the nexus between deplorable teaching conditions and abject academic performance (not grades and test scores inflated because of systematic cheating). Again, at MACE, we have always boldly asserted the following without ANY fear of it being successfully challenged: You cannot have good learning conditions until you first have good teaching conditions. (c) MACE, June 30, 2010.
Dr. John Trotter
June 30th, 2010
9:17 pm
Hey “Former Teacher,” Mark Elgart is a complete fake. Where is he in Atlanta and DeKalb? He did not expose anything about me. In fact, after I was asked (and was most willing) to testify before his trumped-up investigation committee which already had its “intructions” apparently in place because they did not seem to want to be bothered by facts (and copious documentation), I was later informed that I was not “needed” to testify. But, he claimed that his SACS Committee did extensive investigation and interviews from “Commnunity” people. I was a resident of the “Community” and by some accounts was a real “problem,” but apparently Mark Elgart (1) did not want to hear the truth about his “favorite” board member Ericka Davis egregiously micro-managing the school system (oh we had much documentation here by way of emails), signing for the infamous “Land Deal” when the superintendent apparently refused to sign it, and signing two contracts for a lawyer (the latter contract apparently devised by just Ericka Davis herself and the lawyer) or (2) did not truly think that I was any factor in Clayton County (which is fine with me), or (3) did not have the guts to mention me nor MACE by name. By the way, I see that you apparently don’t like using your name either. My name is John Trotter, and I am not ashamed it.
Dr. John Trotter
June 30th, 2010
9:46 pm
Oh, by the way, “Former Teacher” (or Mark Elgart himself or one of his acolytes), if “John Trotter” controlled school board members and had so much influence in Clayton County (and I even read on the blogs that I still “control” current school board members — and even Bivins and Garrett whom I have never met nor communicated with by phone, computer, or pigeon), then why didn’t Mark Elgart mention me or MACE by name? Was he afraid? I guess that I should just get on with my “bad self” (to borrow James Brown’s phrase). No, you are apparently small-minded, paranoid, and believe in every conspiracy theory which comes down the pike. As far me wanting an administrative job in Clayton County, if you only knew…I do indeed have the best job in the world right now. If you only knew. I was an assistant principal of a large high school here in Georgia at 27 years of age. Could have played the game and been a superintendent easily by 35. One problem, however: I don’t eat “poo poo” even in capsule form. Never even tried to acquire the taste. Oh, by the way, I was the only (yes, ONLY) person in the history of the Clayton County School System who had to go through an extensive community screening committee (composed of teachers, parents, students, and community people). For some strange reason, I kept coming out number one in the voting. I first met Valencia Seay at this committee. She also pushed for me, and I later encouraged her to run for the school board. She ran and won and was the first African American elected to the Clayton County Board of Education.
Valencia is now a State Senator. One older school board member apparently stated (and a person was going to testify in Federal Court on the first day of trial, but Senior Judge Schoob ordered us back to mediation and a settlement was reached) that he “liked Trotter O. K. but he got mixed up with those n_ggers in North Clayton.” But, this “gentleman” did not redact the word at all. I don’t know, but perhaps you too are still upset with me because I helped many African Americans to get elected in the racist Clayton County. (In fact, another State Representative — whom I recruited and managed his campaign — just called me a few minutes ago. Again, he handedly defeated a “favorite” white legislator and shocked the political establishment in old Clayton County. I was blamed for this too.)
Gotta run. Having way too much fun here. I like having fun and doing what I want to do without giving a rat’s _ss what anyone else thinks, including you. By the way, I continued to help many whites to get elected and re-elected but when someone is racist, he or she can’t see beyond race.