Not so easy listening: WABE interview with Beverly Hall on CRCT cheating probe and whether warning signs ignored
WABE-FM 90.1 journalist Denis O’Hayer shares this link to an interview he did with Atlanta Superintendent Beverly Hall on the CRCT cheating probe. O’Hayer is the local host of “All Things Considered.”
O’Hayer hits several times on the issue of whether APS ignored warning signs of cheating. Hall said it did not.
This is the first of two interviews with the superintendent.
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35 comments Add your comment
Stay_Thirsty
August 4th, 2010
8:48 pm
Isn’t WABE a service of the Atlanta Public Schools? I can see how that interview might have been a bit awkward.
Burroughston Broch
August 4th, 2010
8:50 pm
Basically, Dr. Hall denies everything.
Mr. O’Hayer asked some pointed questions, but he did not ask why Dr. Hall and the APS Board did everything they could to avoid and delay this probe.
I suspect we will hear more of this issue in the coming days.
laughable
August 4th, 2010
8:54 pm
Okay, I listened to the link and B. Hall is full of BS. “I don’t know what was going on”, “Statistically, we don’t know”.
Bev, listen very carefully, 2 persons have plead guilty. When those 2 plead guilty, if you go back and read what they said; they got the test looked at them took them to their office and starting changing them. They did not think twice about changing answers. It was something they knew “THEY HAD TO DO”. Why did they have to do it?
Bev everybody knows your system does NOT work; any increase in student acheivement is completely tainted.
If you want to show how much you care; GIVE YOUR BONUS MONEY BACK.
The so called increase in test scores is a FICTION. It was statistically impossible and the only thing you did when that was presented was play the RACE CARD.
You can laugh all the way to the bank; but, persons in GA, know you for the fraud you are and the failed policies you and your bully thugs have brought to ATL.
What's best for kids?
August 4th, 2010
9:18 pm
Good Lord, Brad Bryant, do your job! The Superintendent of Schools has the job of recommending county superintendents to be removed from their positions. Step up, Mr. Bryant. If he won’t, voters need to insist on new blood in the state office who is not afraid to make the changes or clean the houses.
Carter is a Fool
August 4th, 2010
9:55 pm
Blah, Blah, Blah. She only cares if it cost her the CUSHY HIGH INCOME job.
Of course – when something is to good to be true, it usually is. Such dramatic jump in the test scores. Use common sense. Wait – Common Sense is Uncommon.
Carter is a Fool
August 4th, 2010
9:56 pm
Brad Bryant does not have to do his job. He is a short time lame duck. A stooge for Governor GoFish. They may fire a few teachers, but the responsible parties (administrators most likely) will continue to keep their jobs.
Ridiculous
August 4th, 2010
10:07 pm
Why is Beverly Hall still clinging to the explanation that APS students somehow were taught different test taking techniques than every other student in Georgia? If this is so, there must be a published guideline distributed to all teachers in APS that encourage the instruction of these techniques (of course there isn’t). Also the “independent investigation” of the limited erasure analysis in 2008 was an APS hired gun who simply declared no cheating occurred after a few interviews. If the administration had serious concerns regading the CRCT after that prior incident why weren’t more rigid test taking protocols and increased security implemented. Dr. Hall is very eloquent talking around the questions. Her bonus will be hurting this year as the number of schools making AYP will certainly plummet after the drop in scores this year.
Pathetic
August 4th, 2010
10:09 pm
I am no fan of APS, but it is really sad to see people on this blog try to act like they understand how easy it is to run an organization the size of APS. I know that this blog might be the only place where you have the control that you so desperately crave, but please stop acting like you KNOW what went on.
You are speculating, and apparently bringing a ton of pent up anger with you. Get over it, if you were professional investigators, someone might care about your opinion, but as long as you continue to vent so irrationally, no one will ever take you all seriously.
Tweets that mention Not so easy listening: WABE interview with Beverly Hall on CRCT cheating probe and whether warning signs ignored | Get Schooled -- Topsy.com
August 4th, 2010
10:20 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by stanley lines, Maureen Downey. Maureen Downey said: Not so easy listening: WABE interview with Beverly Hall on CRCT cheating probe and whether warning signs ignored http://bit.ly/aKlPMI [...]
I agree with Pathetic
August 4th, 2010
10:52 pm
All these people want to come on here and bash APS because a few people allegedly cheated. But look what happened when the testing protocols were put in place to make sure no one took a short cut. 3rd and 8th grade students finished in the top 169 of all school systems in Georgia on the CRCT this year, giving a true picture of the effectiveness of APS’s reform, based on researched based best practices.
You won’t hear the naysayers talk about that though, because then they’d have to admit to the effectiveness of Beverly Hall’s vision and how her implementation of researched based best practices made APS a model to emulate.
Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA
August 4th, 2010
10:56 pm
At least Bev learned the lessons of that childrens’ classic, “Alice in Wonderland.”
@ laghable
August 4th, 2010
11:14 pm
The two that plead guilty were in Dekalb County laughable. Get your facts straight.
@ laughable
August 4th, 2010
11:25 pm
I meant laughable. It was a typing error
Springdale Park Elementary Parent
August 4th, 2010
11:58 pm
@ I agree with Pathetic: you are such a tiresome troll. How many times have we all had to endure your APS party-line talking-point garbage about “researched based best practices?” You know what’s a research-based best practice? NOT CHEATING. You know what “finishing in the top 169″ of systems in one of the statistically worst state education systems in the country means to me, a parent with much higher expectations than you? Take a guess.
And 109 of any number is not “a few.” These scumbags victimized several thousand students. Would you refer to that nunmber as “a few students?”
Bev’s defense now is that the report “proves” the central office staff didn’t know about this. Well, don’t get distracted by that; it’s not the point. The point is: why didn’t you wake up to it after the first convictions, why do you continue to trot out this racist nonsense about test-taking techniques, and why can you not summon the intellectual honesty to tell parents this was a horrible crime against their children which happened on your watch and you’re deeply sorry.
A real leader wouldn’t have ducked and run. But that’s all Bev has done from day one.
Stressed Educator
August 5th, 2010
1:49 am
Springdale Park Elementary Parent is so right! When is Bev going to “Woman Up” and apologize to the parents and students of APS for letting this happen on her watch? No one should take pride in being in the top 169 in the state for scores on the CRCT when the facts still stand that test scores dropped 12% or more on the 2010 CRCT tests. Pathetic, would you your next paycheck to drop by 12% or more? So why look over the fact that 2010 CRCT scores dropped only when the state office of GOSA placed monitors in the schools during the test? Bev needs stop throwing her standard bs at the masses and just admit that she knew the score increases from year to year for some schools were astronomically impossible. No, she chooses to continue to lie out of both sides of her neck while the students and teachers suffer under her tyranny. Look how she moved Frances Thompson from Blalock (the principal of the elementary school where scores had a 1 in a billion chance of being that high) to Harper Archer Middle School where she continues to cheat students and staff on a regular basis. That’s right Bev, don’t get rid of cheating scum, just make them principals at the middle school level. (Wink, Wink). Although the reoprt from Hall’s peers (the Blue Ribbon Panel) stated that it did not find systematic cheating–Bev had enough common sense not to put her cheating directive in a memo–insteaed she sent word to the administrators via her Executive Directors (Pitts, Davis-Williams, Hall and Cotman) to pass the test or be thrown off their $100,000 plus thrones. Gov Perdue and the GOSA needs to make it right for students, parents and the hardworking teachers of APS by removing Hall and her henchmen including L. Butler Burks.
Teacher&mom
August 5th, 2010
7:21 am
A teacher in Bartow county lost her job over Facebook pictures. She was dismissed in just a few months. Please explain to me why the people involved in the cheating scandal are still working?
laughable
August 5th, 2010
7:34 am
@Pathetic and other APS central office trolls
glad you can spell as well as the Dr. that can write a 70 page book!!!!!!
A few cheated, ROFL; at least 109. All it will take is one of those 109 not falling on their sword for your sorry _______ and the whole house falls down.
Show how much you care trolls and BHall GIVE BACK YOUR BONUSES. PUT UP OR SHUT UP.
laughable
August 5th, 2010
7:45 am
Elected supers is the way to go. Hall makes more than the Vice-pres of the US. Has a DRIVER, a DRIVER, what the crap. If persons cannot see problems with all the money going down the toliet and not toward the student in APS then all admin needs to go and the BOE.
Teacher&mom
August 5th, 2010
7:55 am
@laughable…I understand your reasons for returning to elected superintendents. However, when over 100,000 voted for Kathy Cox in the primary, my faith in the electorate was shaken.
If the APS voters are not showing up at board meetings demanding answers, nothing will change. Has there been an increase in the number of voters attending a APS BOE meeting?
Dr NO
August 5th, 2010
8:02 am
Dr Hall…LOL. Where did she get her doctorate? At the Clark University diploma mill?
Tiff
August 5th, 2010
8:03 am
There are 197 school districts in GA. Why would anyone boast about being in the top 169? That’s such an odd number. Where did APS place? 168?
Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA
August 5th, 2010
8:10 am
@Springdale: that poster is being sarcastic, to the point of cynical. And I’m there with them. If anyone -at all- thinks Hall may still have any credibility, if they can listen to that interview and not come away angry, they need to be checked for a pulse (and a brain scan).
Shar
August 5th, 2010
8:16 am
The AJC’s story today regarding the state’s skepticism on the thoroughness and the analysis of the “Blue Ribbon Panel” report (should probably have been “Bev’s Rotten Peers”) includes an admission by commission chair Gary Price that the schools that Hall claims in the interview were exonerated were, in fact, not, merely given a lower probability of school-wide cheating and thus not comprehensively investigated. For a report that had extra months to complete, this one is superficial at best.
Hall also tells Dennis O’Hayer that ‘there is no way that we could have known’ about the unlikelihood of the incredible “gains” in student test scores without the erasure analyses. However, the AJC first broke the story of the one-in-a-billion increases by simply comparing year over year scores, a tactic that APS has used extensively when claiming bonuses.
Bottom line, Beverly Hall is a liar, a cheat and, given her bonuses on made-up scores, a thief. She is enabled by a complacent, racist BOE and by her henchmen at APS, a bunch of Mini Mes who are sharing the take and guarding her back. None of them, not one, has any concern for the well being of the students of Atlanta or the fair value to taxpayers. Every one of them should be thrown out, all bonuses clawed back and new procedures put in place before APS is given any more tax dollars. A general strike in remitting property taxes, most of which flow into Hall’s filthy hands, should be organized.
An advocate for public education change & choice
August 5th, 2010
8:36 am
@ Stay Thirsty – WABE is funded by APS and as they state in their drops “a broadcast service of APS”. I’ve always found this funny since to the best of my knowledge APS doesn have a radio communications/broadcast program in any of its schools. I welcome corrections on this point.
@laughable – No the way to go is hold the already elected APS board more accountable for their actions. As is many of these individuals are voted into the office with not much more than a few hundred to a thousand votes. Once in office most pay little or no attention to much of what they do in the way of public policy descision making including setting the superentindent’s employement contract. APS board meetings are sparsely attended (as Teacher & Mom noted) and alot of decisions are made with NO DEBATE among board members. Here’s a question for ya, when was the last time the APS board did a performance review of Dr. Hall? Oh BTW, b4 someone offers up an excuse for them two the vast majority of the board has been in their seats throughout Dr. Hall’s tenture and are well aware of her management style. But if the voters put no pressure on them to hold her more accountable why not simply go along to get along.
Maureen Downey
August 5th, 2010
8:41 am
From WABE-FM website:
An advocate for public education change & choice
August 5th, 2010
8:43 am
@ Pathetic and I agree with Pathetic – True enough this concern is manifesting a high degree of scrutiny for Dr. Hall, her staff and for that matter the APS board. I say rightly so given the scale of the allegations. Setting aside the emotional rhetoric when we get right down to it the BRC reports confirms cheating involving one or more persons occurred in 58 schools. If the reports I’ve read on the matter are correct this represents roughly 70% of the entire APS elementary/middle school footprint subject to this test. I my mind it’s very difficult to see that and not immediately begin to question the cultural work environment that would spawn the attitude resulting in cheating actions so widespread.
While there was an attempt to steer more focus on the “worst offenders” (i.e. the dirty dozen schools where apparently teachers and school administrators seemed to work together on the cheating effort), it doesn’t erase what occurred in the remaining 46 institutions !! For Dr. Hall to so stridently insist that she was oblivious to the culture within her organization that breed these actions is extremely insulting to most who follow APS closely. It suggests to me that either she is lying about what she was aware of or that she has become way out of touch with her organization to the point where her effectiveness in the job needs to come into the question. At the very least even a token gesture to return some of the bonus she received on the basis of what now has been determined to be some false test results would go far. Dr. Hall and the APS board (who to-date has been utterly silent on the issue), seem more intent on damage control through spinning the details in the report which VERY CLEARLY denote APS should be taking very action to remedy the cheating that the BRC confirmed did in fact take place. So what there is no quid pro quo, smoking gun found at the door of Dr. Hall office.
Again people 58 schools, 70% of the elementary/middle school footprint subject to the test, in some cases virtually entire elementary/middle school feeder systems!! Let’s take our head out of the sand here and accept what’s been presented to us.
Need Answer
August 5th, 2010
10:08 am
This is so typical of APS. The administration puts it head in the sand when there are questions. Take the Mays High transformation for instance. Parents were dead set against moving their kids to the old Archer building while they rebuilt the interior of Mays High. The plans for the rebuild are being held close to the vest. You actually have to have a login and password to see the plans on the general contractors website. They created FAQs and other tools to quiet the parents. They even started a group of parents that were supportive and only dealt with them. On the otherside – Therrell High transformation is public knowledge and the kids remained in the building while it takes place.
Also it’s interesting that APS has not gotten any permits from the city for the Mays rebuild. While they did for the Jean Childs Young rebuild. Check the city’s website. Could they be breaking the law again? Someone ask the Tough Questions!!!
bootney farnsworth
August 5th, 2010
2:23 pm
Hall has the classic get out of jail pass in Atlanta.
her race.
no media or organization will run the risk of being
called racist for having the temerity to press certain
black officials like they would anyone else.
bootney farnsworth
August 5th, 2010
2:24 pm
if WABE gave Hall a pass, its got more to do with being fellow
left of center political travlers than APS connections.
bootney farnsworth
August 5th, 2010
2:34 pm
Hall seems a perfect choice for Ed Sec for Obama.
both
are thin skinned
obsfuscate to the point of lying
outright lie
race bait
are arrogant beyond belief
An advocate for public education change & choice
August 5th, 2010
2:45 pm
The last time I used the word “obsfuscate” in a sentence, people looked at me cross eyed
come on now
August 5th, 2010
2:47 pm
Looks like some posters here must have hit a nerve at APS central office;
Whats really PATHETIC: is if these crooks get to keep the bonuses.
The bonus money for all involved from the top down should all be returned.
Moron Downey
August 5th, 2010
11:26 pm
Hey Maureen, WABE stands for “Atlanta Board of Education”. You failed to highlight the following from WABE’s website. Is this because you are in bed with Beverly?
“As a broadcast service of Atlanta Public Schools in partnership with the Atlanta Educational Telecommunications Collaborative (AETC), PBA has never lost sight of its original mission. Education remains at the core of our operation at every level, from preschoolers to our elders.
By understanding that education is the foundation of our existence and the cornerstone for equality and opportunity, we must promise to continue to assist our licensee, the Atlanta Public School system, in providing innovative programs that help prepare our children to become valuable contributors to the social fabric of our communities.”
Just so you know the definition Maureen … from Webster’s: “Licensee (noun) a person, company, etc., to whom a license is granted or issued.”
APS, DeKalb scandals point to need for school choice | Kyle Wingfield
August 6th, 2010
7:07 pm
[...] past week on suspected test cheating in Atlanta Public Schools, and Superintendent Beverly Hall’s stubborn denial of even its modest implications. There also came word that an accrediting agency was looking into [...]
Ralph Long
August 18th, 2010
7:39 am
Dr. Hall and The Impressions, “You’ve Been Cheatin’”
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uajchd0FEA
Ralph Long
Producer
Biscuits N Gravy Productions
(770) 616-2130