Even a decade ago, Atlanta scores seemed too good to be true
Former APS school board member Jean Dodd got a lot wrong during her tenure, including using scholarships meant for poor children to pay for her two grandchildren’s school trips, including one to Europe.
But Dodd was right on one key point back in 2001 when Atlanta first reported astonishing leaps in CRCT scores in a dozen schools. For instance, a school that had 79 percent of fourth-graders fail the math portion of the state curriculum in the spring of 2000 saw 85 percent pass in 2001. The same school went from more than half of the students failing reading to 85 percent passing.
At the time, an indignant Dodd stormed out of a school board meeting after expressing skepticism about the validity of the scores. The closed-door meeting was to decide the amount of Superintendent Beverly Hall’s bonus, which was largely tied to test score results. Hall received a $47,520 bonus.
“Over a period of 30 years, I taught every grade of elementary school,” Dodd told the AJC. “I had just not ever seen scores like that before, and so I just made my concerns known.”
She was not the only skeptic a decade ago.
Gary Henry, who was then director of Georgia State University’s Applied Research Center, urged an independent validation of Atlanta’s stunning results. “There will be some folks celebrating Atlanta’s turnaround, and others shaking their heads at these results until you have a third party at arm’s length validate these results, ” said Henry.
And Ron Dietl, communications director of the Los Angeles-based Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing, told the AJC, “Anytime you have a one-year ‘miracle’ gain, it usually won’t hold up. Unless [scores] are going up for more than two or three years, then you really have to question just how accurate those gains are, especially when the gains seem almost too good to be true.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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56 comments Add your comment
Woofy One
July 6th, 2011
5:00 am
Beverly Hall has been the biggest hoax ever foisted in Georgia. Shame on the Atlanta School Board first for not catching this and second for letting her stay.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
July 6th, 2011
5:33 am
After the dust’s rising from the report’s issuance has settled, let’s remember to scrutinize when, how, and to what academic benefit the report’s findings will be utilized.
Doris M
July 6th, 2011
7:17 am
Jean Dodd did have her faults but she was right-on to question the improbable gains in test scores. Bev. Hall did a job on Ms. Dodd to quiet her.
www.honeyfern.org
July 6th, 2011
7:27 am
Any bonuses given to Hall should be returned to APS, at a minimum. Same for any principals and teachers who cheated. I am still trying to wrap my head around how people could do this and sleep at night.
Arch Dawg
July 6th, 2011
7:34 am
One interesting tidbit in all of this is that, if I’m correct, APS has the highest ratio of Administrators to Teachers in the Metro Area. So
Yankee Prof
July 6th, 2011
7:36 am
Sounds like, for many of the kids of Atlanta APS these past years, the first truly objective skills test they’ve taken is the COMPASS for college placement. And the numbers reported go a long way towards explaining why so many of them were caught off guard when that test demonstrated the level of their deficiencies.
Folks have complained (and their viewpoint won the day) that Hope Scholarship money should not be used for remedial college classes. But with, effectively, a generation of APS children lied to about their own abilities, it seems that Hope might have been their only hope.
Arch Dawg
July 6th, 2011
7:38 am
Weird I got cut off… anyway what I was trying to type was that the School System with the most ‘overhead’ appears to be the most corrupt. Is there a correlation? I think APS had something like one Administrator to every 4 Teachers. The AJC did a report on that a couple of years back and that number has always stuck with me.
ATL Teacher
July 6th, 2011
7:42 am
I think NCLB created this and Race to the Top will be worse with Pay for Performance. Someone said yesterday that you were trying to take attention from Atlanta but the spread of this testing bug is real…see http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/dc_schools_cheating_scandal_heats_up.html
Incredulous
July 6th, 2011
7:50 am
Does anyone else see a connection between the timing and focus of the investigation and Arne Duncan’s visits with RTTT?
ATL Teacher
July 6th, 2011
8:02 am
Now that you mention it…yes. Also, Principals and Teachers who made targets got bonuses too; When all the schools got together, schools that met targets were “physically” separated from those that did not. Then, as of a few years, schools that didn’t meet weren’t invited to convocation event at all.
Dr NO
July 6th, 2011
8:07 am
The subject is not supposed past transgressions of APS and/or those leaders. The subject is Bev Hall and the current adminstration and staff.
Dragging/dredgeing up the past is so typical.
Edukator
July 6th, 2011
8:47 am
Massive ongoing fraud for years. Step One: Give The Money Back. All of it, every bonus earned fradulantly over the years, just Give It Back. And still they are denying it. The Bernie Madoffs of education, why should anyone expect, after a decade of cheating, that anyone associated with it should suddenly start telling the truth. Thing of it is, when they start threatening people with prosecution, they’ll talk. Then they can just go up the chain. Meantime, GIVE THE MONEY BACK. All of it.
3rd Grade Teacher
July 6th, 2011
9:01 am
The story has now been picked up by CNN.com. The headline reads “Cheating Rampant in Atlanta Schools.” Everyone in metro Atlanta should be furious. This impacts all local school systems and all surrounding communities. People outside of Georgia will not make a distinction between APS and other districts. It’s unbelievable that our system of checks and balances put its “head in the sand” and ignored the warnings for so long.
Dr NO
July 6th, 2011
9:09 am
The story has now been picked up by CNN.com. The headline reads “Cheating Rampant in Atlanta Schools.”
LOL…thats wonderful news. We have too many people and business here now. Hopefully some of them will leave and others will choose not to come. The City of Atlanta has shot themselves in the foot. HILARIOUS!!
IM DYING FROM LAUGHTER!!
SW
July 6th, 2011
9:09 am
My question regarding Pay for Performance…if a teacher has students who come into his/her class already performing below their grade level, will the teacher be given credit for bringing up student performance (even though it may still be below grade level, but higher than where they started) or is performance only measured based on meeting the standards for that grade level.
Given that teachers have no control over who is in their class, how is this fair?
Maureen Downey
July 6th, 2011
9:11 am
@SW, The plans I have seen would reward teachers for growth — no matter where student started. So, moving a fifth grader student to a fourth grade reading level would count, if the student arrived reading at a third grade level.
Maureen
GUNGA DIN
July 6th, 2011
9:22 am
can’t criticize the school system without being labelled a racist! hope this kill Dr. Halls’ chance of becoming a highly paid consultant in the future !!! she should be sued to return the bonuses and awards. maybe a few years in jail will wipe that smirk of her face.
thomas
July 6th, 2011
9:24 am
@ Dr No,
Don’t you understand the concern 3rd grade teacher is raising is that people outside will not make distinction between APS and other metro districts? For most people outside of Georgia, there is no distinction between schools in APS and other schools in the surrounding districts – Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, etc.
Curious One
July 6th, 2011
9:24 am
The real challenge is establishing a “baseline” or starting point for all of the abused and battered students in APS – where to begin with educating these poor children who suffered under Hall and are now academically buried by her her school leaders transgressions ?
This is a royal mess and will take years to correct ! The Atlanta Chamber, John Rice, Anne Cramer and many other business pawns bear a huge share of the blame along with the likes of mouthpiece Jeff Dickerson and others – now let’s hear their “business” and funding plan for correcting the mess that they helped create ! Seems like millions of dollars and bonus and grant money needs to be repaid and redirected to remediating the students. God help the children !
SW
July 6th, 2011
9:25 am
Thanks Maureen. So now my question is whether teachers will have more flexibility in HOW they teach or will they continue to have to adhere to the methods, programs, and timetables promoted by their districts?
If a student comes into a classroom below grade level, it is difficult to adhere to a curriculum that is meant to cover what is on the standardized test(s). I’m sure a small percentage will submit to tutoring, especially if it is outside the normal school hours. So how much leverage will the individual teacher have?
Dr NO
July 6th, 2011
9:29 am
thomas…for those who wouldnt make such a distinction they I must conclude they are very ignorant. Most major cities have “metros” and business people understand the difference. Atlanta is just a bigger mess and is appoaching max density anyway.
The issue is big bad Atlanta. Oh the shining star of the South or so we were lead to believe…lol. Atlanta…The City too Smart for their own good.
Dekalbite@Arch Dawg
July 6th, 2011
9:31 am
“the School System with the most ‘overhead’ appears to be the most corrupt. Is there a correlation? I think APS had something like one Administrator to every 4 Teachers.”
You are right. Although DeKalb has the same numbers when it comes to Teacher/Staff Ratio. Teacher/Staff compares the personnel certified to teach in a classroom with those personnel who actually instruct students. This includes administrators, coaches, coordinators, supervisors, managers, etc.
For example, in both APS and DCSS, the Teacher/Staff Ratio is 4/1. That means for every 5 employees who are certified to teach in a classroom, only 4 teach while 1 employee “supports” those 4 teachers. Gwinnett by contrast has many less administrative and support positions.
Does anyone think the answer to APS’s problems was to add administrators? Beverly Hall must have.
APS:
Certified Staff Position Ratios
Teacher/Administrator Ratio
8:1
Teacher/Support Person Ratio
10:1
Teacher/Staff Ratio
4:1
http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=102&CountyId=761&T=1&FY=2010
DeKalb:
Certified Staff Position Ratios
Teacher/Administrator Ratio
13:1
Teacher/Support Person Ratio
7:1
Teacher/Staff Ratio
4:1
http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=102&CountyId=644&T=1&FY=2010
Gwinnett:
Certified Staff Position Ratios
Teacher/Administrator Ratio
16:1
Teacher/Support Person Ratio
15:1
Teacher/Staff Ratio
8:1
Student Enrollment/All Teachers
15:1
http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=102&CountyId=667&T=1&FY=2010
Call Me Crazy But
July 6th, 2011
9:40 am
Nobody in APS nor DeKalb understands statistics because DeKalb County University (Argosy) doesn’t teach anything beyond using mean to analyze data. 1 + 1 = 2; 2/2 = 1 Eureka!!!!
Dekalb Oldtimer
July 6th, 2011
10:23 am
@Maureen:RE: your response to SW : Does that mean that each individual child will be tested upon entering a the class and then tested AFTER instruction in the subject in order to evaluate progress?
A you must know, most teachers do now and have always advocated and have been willing to be accountable for this measurement of progress.
Maureen Downey
July 6th, 2011
10:34 am
@Dekalb. Yes. Under measures of progress testing, kids are tested twice a year — beginning and end.
Maureen
Go Panthers!
July 6th, 2011
10:35 am
I am just sick about this and, after having read the bulk of all 3 reports, have done a total about face on how it needs to be resolved. All of the board members and administrators have to be relieved of their duties and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The ones that fled to take jobs elsewhere need to be fired from those jobs for misrepresenting their credentials and accomplishments and extradited for prosecution. Their systems would be just as negligent as ours if they don’t cooperate and do so immediately.
If the board did not know, they should have and there is absolutely no excuse for them not knowing. I really need Brenda Muhammad to get off the tv and just lay low right now. I don’t care if her grandkids are APS students. She’s making herself a symbol for anger and further ridicule with each news appearance. Her comments and “deer in headlights” attitude are making it all much worse.
Just issue a statement on behalf of the Board and go hire a few attorneys. Ya’ll are gonna need them. I’m thinking a couple of class action, discrimination and civil rights specialists might be a good start. I know most in this thing are African-American, but children are a protected class and their civil rights have been grossly violated on your watch. Negligence toward employees and complicity in slander and character assasination are the least of ya’ll’s issues and governmental immunity just might not work this time. There’s just too much here that can be attacked from too many angles.
Deal & Reed need to get with the GA BOA and come up with a succession plan that includes originating an APS office devoted to nothing but ethics training and concerns. There needs to be a total overhaul of the top administration. The Ethics Office should issue reports to the public on a regular basis, be on the Board’s agenda for EVERY meeting and work session for the next few years and have an Open Door Policy in a first effort to try and regain citizen trust. The “talent” vacuum should be swift and severe over on Trinity and the replacement staff need to be heavily supported and monitored to ensure that no vestiges of the past administration are allowed to remain. In other words, clean house now! Replace these people with individuals who are actually qualified and not afraid to do the jobs at hand.
Now I’m hearing serious rumblings about the GHSGT scores being suspect and that a lot of the contracts not extended this year to HS teachers were to those who are willing to tell. It all makes sense now as I could not figure out why the Board’s infighting became so severe that accreditation was compromised. I suspect that behind closed doors and in veiled language that allowed none of them to admit what they knew, they couldn’t agree on how to either deal with or gloss over such widespread corruption. The 5 wanted to do one thing; the 4 the other. But, the 9 were all wrong ’cause they should have been able to bring this to light at the onset of their collective term and vow to the public together to fix it. Instead, they decided to fight amongst themselves about how to keep up appearances and not have Hall and her henchmen make all of us look like fools. One of the reports actually said something like appearances became more important than reality. Great job with that one, peeps.
This is beyond criminal and it was all generated by fear, cowardice and greed. I believe the bulk of the content of the reports and can actually see how this went down, which makes it even worse when racisim is alleged. A whole generation, from K-12, was lied to about their abilities and denied the services needed to improve them. This was black-on-black white collar crime committed against children and their futures. Does it get any worse?
It’s worse than the travesty that was “separate but equal” for so long in this state as it occurred during the onset of the internet age when it became so much easier to use technology to reach formerly unreachable students. It is epic in its scale and will have such far-reaching and untold, decades-long consequences across the entire Metro.
We are in this one together, folks. Keep thinking that your suburban systems and neighborhoods aren’t already or won’t eventually suffer because of this. Ya’ll better start doing your own digging in your own backyards before you hurl your next racial, classist or conservative epithet at Atlanta. Based on the grammar and syntax in some of these posts, ya’ll have been cheated, too.
I’m just sick about all of this and so disappointed. Just sad. Sad!
Symptom of the Disease: Atlanta public school educators cheat to improve student test scores | Radio Vice Online
July 6th, 2011
10:41 am
[...] Even a decade ago, Atlanta scores seemed too good to be true [...]
David Sims
July 6th, 2011
10:44 am
I hear that a lot of those Atlanta principals were overpaid, too. They were on the Gravy Train.
Wasted Tax Dollars
July 6th, 2011
10:54 am
APS has the highest per capita funding rate of students in the State (and our taxes show it). Yet, CRCT scores and this investigation show the overabundant resourcing doesn’t solve the problem of educating children. Dr. Hall put on a show and the bystanders bought it that throwing money at APS helps–now we know better. look at EFFICIENT systems and see how they can accomplish significfantly better scores w/ significantly less resourcing. Taxpayers need a break; Fulton taxpayers are taxed too high already in comparison w/ the rest of the State. Analyze the dollars spent and how effective they are and pass savings back to the truly overburdened–the taxpayer.
Go Panthers!
July 6th, 2011
10:56 am
@Maureen: Other than Step Up or Step Down and groups like CINS, are you familiar with any community-based groups that are mobilizing to deal with this issue? Any groups planning to field Board candidates for the next election that aren’t backed and funded by the business community?
Just sayin'
July 6th, 2011
11:11 am
David Sims – they still are!
Shar
July 6th, 2011
11:20 am
Lest we all forget that this criminal activity was encouraged and rewarded by certain segments of Atlanta’s business community, I’d like to be sure that the three county district attorneys include the most egregious apologist/enablers from the Atlanta Education Fund and the Atlanta Metro Chamber: Sam Williams,President of the Atlanta Metro Chamber, who wrote the infamous email specifying which friendly folk should be appointed to the “independent” Blue Ribbon Commission and what their findings should be; Renay Bumenthal, Atlanta Education Fund, who tried mightily to “finesse” the whitewashed BRC report through Sonny Perdue’s office; John Rice, Chair of the AEF and Vice-Chair of GE (you know, the company that doesn’t pay any taxes), who did his best to discredit and marginalize critics of that flawed BRC report, writing in this space on September 1, “questioning the integrity of the BRC goes beyond the bounds of reason and good judgment, and is just plain wrong. The BRC, and APS and its leadership, deserve better treatment. ”
These people and their fellow travellers must be investigated and their participation in the fraud perpetrated against Atlanta’s children and taxpayers be exposed. RICO statues were intended to discourage percisely this kind of multi-tentacled criminal conspiracy, and I devoutly hope the DA’s in the three counties affected will expand their inquiries to include the pernicious effect these self-interested co-conspirators have had on Atlanta’s children and taxpayers.
Dr. John Trotter
July 6th, 2011
11:28 am
Yes, Jean Dodd was right. I have known Jean Dodd for years as she served on the Atlanta School Board. I have respected her, and I knew at the time that she was being mistreated because she was speaking out. She might have been the “only” skeptic on the school board, but not the only “skeptic” per se. I have been saying from the beginning that these inflated scores are not valid. They simply violate the Law of the Large Numbers. These jumps in scores all over the country are false. Look at what happened in Houston under Rod Paige whom President George W. Bush made U. S. Secretary of Education. ALL SUDDEN AND DRAMATIC RISES IN STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES AMONG A LARGE GROUP OF SUBJECTS ARE FALSE. Now, is this emphatic enough?
Look what we have said for years and years about the false gods of standardized testing… >>>
http://www.theteachersadvocate.com
Dr. John Trotter
July 6th, 2011
11:33 am
We know about TRS…Teacher Retirement System.
Now the public knows about TSR…Test Score Racket. It’s about time that the public and the media learned about TSR. It’s about time. But, I do indeed want to tip my hat to the AJC for pressing on with this story, despite the fact that the Big Mules in Atlanta’s Business Community wanted it swept under the rug. A Pulitzer? I am serious.
Maureen Downey
July 6th, 2011
11:36 am
@Go panthers, Not yet, but I think some will form.
Maureen
MLK Returrens
July 6th, 2011
11:45 am
This is a Race story plain and simple. People who say it isn’t just want to perpetuate a lie: “Nothing to see here, move along, just an isolated incident, don’t jump to conclusions.”
We gave them emancipation from the horrors of Afrique, emancipation form work, then citizenship, the vote, our schools, our civil rights, our jobs, our neighborhoods, our technology, our government, our money, etc, endless giving to the blacks trying to improve them.
And what do we get? Corruption and breakdown of everything they touch.
This headline says it all:
School epitomizes APS problems
Parks Middle principal Christopher Waller heralded as beacon of change while district ignored evidence of cheating.
When blacks benefit from “change,” somebody must agree to not look too closely at the details.
Whites are sick and tired of being played for chumps while being kept quiet with threats of “raciss!”
We’ve come too far too fast in race benefits for blacks. Time to take huge strides backward and let them catch up on their own, with their own efforts, with their own money!
What did Kwanza Hall know?
July 6th, 2011
11:50 am
I want to know what did Kwanza Hall know and when did he know it? He’s running around trying to CHA on this issue.
Back in 2002-2003 my wife compared Cascade Elementary (her old school) and my son’s school in Fulton County on a number of standardized tests. She discovered incredible scores coming out of Cascade Elementary. Their scores were improbable given every school around them was failing miserably. After two years she clearly exclaimed they were cheating on standardized tests at Cascade Elementary in 2004!!!
Why wasn’t Ms. Dodd’s suspicions checked out? Kwanza Hall knew and the entire board was aware but failed to do anything. Kateem El was right to take charge of the board.
I am a Grady Baby and product of the Atlanta System as is my wife. I’m sick to my stomach because what is really going on is this system is taxing the hell out of property owners in the city and taking that money to create jobs in a system that really doesn’t have 35k students (take out the kids from surrounding jurisdictions).
Arrest them all for failing the children they were responsible for educating.
echo
July 6th, 2011
11:53 am
Read the part of the Parks story where the principal stated he wouldn’t have cheated because it would risk his job and salary of $107,000! Why is a middle school principal making that much money? Wayyyyy too much. Oh yeah, he also claimed he was a minister! What a POS.
LMAO
July 6th, 2011
11:53 am
Bill Gates please come get your money back!!! Your Foundation is a laughing stock for believing in Hall and the shell game she was running.
I hope my friend’s daughter returns the Beverly Hall Award she received at graduation. LMAO
Dr NO
July 6th, 2011
11:56 am
“Lest we all forget that this criminal activity was encouraged and rewarded by certain segments of Atlanta’s business community, I’d like to be sure that the three county district attorneys include the most egregious apologist/enablers”
Business community? Fat chance. The buck stops at Cupcakes desk my friend. Public vs Private entitys. You may see some traction and no doubt these “city leaders” might infact want to sway that direction but dont see it happening. And while you think about that, think about this…
Beverly Hall, ATL school superintendent: $400,298
October 19, 2009 —
Lean times have forced unpaid furloughs and reduced bonuses on some educators, but they haven’t hit Beverly Hall’s pocketbook. She will earn more than $400,000 this year in salary, bonuses and other benefits, including a car.
The Atlanta Board of Education voted last month to award Hall a bonus of $78,115 on top of her $279,985 base salary.
Dr NO
July 6th, 2011
11:59 am
PS…Thats a lot of cupcake money for Bev.
Skiles
July 6th, 2011
12:00 pm
“Even a decade ago, Atlanta scores seemed too good to be true”
And you and the AJC swallowed it hook, line and sinker. I’ll never forget the headline story several years ago that that proclaimed Georgia public schools’ underachievement was because of rural schools and specifically NOT the APS system. Did you honestly think anyone believed that? Yes, AJC finally got religion about Hall and APS but it took years, during which incalculable damage was done to our children.
catlady
July 6th, 2011
12:34 pm
The job of a good newspaper is to INVESTIGATE claims made by putative “saviors.” For nearly a decade the AJC, which should be the premier newspaper in the state, sat by and passively promulgated whatever it was told. ONLY in the last couple of years has the AJC done any research that it had been encouraged to do, and began to chisel away at the lies and distortions. And some members of the company have been even slower, even more resistant to looking the truth straight in the face.
Perhaps the AJC will take the lead, now, and investigate each and every claim made by each of these whiz kid saviors that come along–locally, state-wide, and even nationally, instead of accepting as truth what is put out there.
It can only benefit the public to carefully scrutinize what is being touted. Kudos to the AJC for coming around, and hopefully they will expand their inquiries instead of being the lead sheep. If some of the AJC had not finally started asking questions, I doubt the state would EVER have done the erasure analysis (they aren’t too bright there, either, willing to believe what the “saviors” proclaim.) Perhaps the AJC ought to employ a professional skeptic and bona fide educational researcher to advise them. There is more out there!
thomas
July 6th, 2011
12:47 pm
@ Maureen,
Testing students twice is such a waste of time. Other than those students who transfer, I don’t see anything wrong with using the end-of-year test from one year as a proxy for the “beginning” of the next grade. We already spend too many days testing students. Students will not learn by taking tests.
DrBobBullard
July 6th, 2011
12:52 pm
This cheating scandal is criminal. It’s mostly black children who are being cheated. Our children deserve the best–not less from those of us who choose to be teachers, principals and superintendents. Any Atlanta educator or administrator, including those at the top, found cheating should be punished for their crime. Yes, crime. Even so-called “Blue Ribbon” commissions, packed with white power elites and black political elites–have winked and nodded at APS over the years, while schoolchildren got shortchanged. Unfortunately, “allowing Atlanta public schools to fail, is my #8 on the “20-Point Plan to Depopulate Black Atlanta” found at http://www.drrobertbullard.com/blog/item/26-20-point-plan-to-depopulate-black-atlanta.html. Check out the trends. The same level of scrutiny given to this school scandal in Atlanta should also be given to dismantling of public housing, privatization of Grady Hospital, defunding of MARTA, squandering Empowerment Zone funds, diverting public funds to private ventures, displacement and gentrifying black neighborhoods, predatory mortgage lending, and related trends that make Atlanta less favorable for Blacks–as demonstrated by the decline in the city’s black population between 2000-2010. This recent negative publicity surrounding APS will only add fuel to depopulation trend. So much for the “Black Mecca.”
exaps teacher
July 6th, 2011
12:57 pm
Does anyone know if Christopher Waller still gets a paycheck from APS?
The APS directory lists him as “Principal in Residence” …what is that supposed to mean?
The whistle blowers lose there jobs at APS with lightning speed..while the criminals at APS like Waller and others get discreetly moved the ivory tower offices when the heat gets too hot!
What a classic tragedy!
JustMyOpinion
July 6th, 2011
1:11 pm
Im sorry everyone. I have read some of this report and if you are not careful it will elude you all of this being factual. A lot of it appears to be someone pointing fingers at others. There’s a lot of things that could be said about that. Then I looked at some schools and how they flagged 60% of the classes or more in some schools, yet you only find 4 or 5 teachers with wrong doing? COME ON PEOPLE! It appeared that they went after teachers they thought were doing the “MOST” cheating and didn’t bother to get the ones who were “NOT DOING A LOT” of cheating. It’s it really fair to punish the teachers for being intimidated, bullied (in some cases), and all sorts of things. At first, I was smh at the educators, however, I thought about what pressure these teachers were under, how some thought about their livelihoods and all. I refuse to believe that there are only that number of teachers who did that and the others were innocent. No matter if you gave the children 1 answer or all of the answers, all should be treated the same. Here in this case, it appears they are taking the teachers who had the most WTR answers and those are about to be made an example of, while others get away with it. Now think about it, is that right. After reading some of this, I strongly feel that this was an INCOMPLETE Investigation. Someone should look into this thoroughly. I’m just not buying this. Ok, so you found misconduct with a couple of hundred of educators……ARE YOU SERIOUS…..IS THAT ALL………Did anyone read that list of all the classes that were flagged and that’s all you came up with? I don’t even believe that this is the only district…..I believe that you have them heavily in all districts. This is why I stay on my children and teach my children at home before I send them to school. I am not one to believe everything I see in the media so therefor, I will conclude that their is much more than meets the eye and the latest investigation was no better than the others, it just added a few names and now they are going to put it all of those people. SAD!
Go Panthers!
July 6th, 2011
1:28 pm
@ Maureen
Please make sure to cover any mobilization/recovery efforts started and steered by general citizens to help APS. My baby graduated a few weeks ago, so my PTA days are over. I am not a big fan of the political structure in this city, so appealing to and thru them seems futile to me. Although I appreciate their efforts, I didn’t officially join the Step Up or Step Down bandwagon due to some key philosophical differences in their approach and demands. But, I can no longer stand by and watch this happen. I’d love to get involved on the ground level and quietly, behind the scenes, help get this ship on course. I’m certain that I’m not the only one who feels this way, but all I’ve heard is outrage and rhetoric so far. No word on who in the community actually plans to do something and how.
Ole Guy
July 6th, 2011
2:19 pm
All the stink of past now starts to emit the odors of on-going failures. You people have been kidding yourselves for far far too long. I could see it many years ago when, as a second careerist, I saw so many “Teachers of the Year” who, in my humble opinion, were really not of teacher material. Students who, in the grade books, were “A” quality/AP rated, could not pass my tests which were straight out of the book. Upon questioning the “Teacher of the Year”, under whose wing I was to have been learning how to be a teacher, she matter-of-factly smiled and said, “I give them points for trying”. Enough points to go from failing to “A”? It was then, 15 years ago, when I realized that the educational system was on a slippery slope to hell.
I’ll say it again…
Ole Guy
July 6th, 2011
2:22 pm
STANDDOWN THE ENTIRE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM…GET RID OF THE SCUM…ESTABLISH STANDARDS FOR ALL…ENFORCE EM…TAKE NO SHUX!