State report on Dougherty: “Acceptance of wrongdoing and a pattern of incompetence that is a blight on the community.”
Update: I added the statement of Georgia school superintendent John Barge at 3:30.
Sit back and get ready to read another searing report on a Georgia school system gone bad. The state report on cheating in Dougherty County schools is online, and it is not pretty. Investigators secured confessions about cheating that was blatant and systematic.
And as with APS, investigators concluded that the district superintendent, Sally Whatley, and her senior staff should have known cheating was occurring. “In that duty, they failed,” the report states.
Here is what investigators said about New Jackson Heights Elementary in the report: Cheating was a way of life at this school. On unit tests, for example, teachers would mark the correct answers, and then return the marked-up tests to the students. The teachers would do this so that the students would see which answers were wrong and make corrections.
State school chief John Barge was quick to issue a statement:
Today’s report on cheating by some educators in the Dougherty County School System is another sad case of adults putting personal interests above those of their students. I am especially disappointed in education leaders who would threaten teachers’ jobs if students did not perform well on the CRCT. While this behavior is inexcusable, it does highlight the need to look at a different, more thorough accountability system such as Georgia’s new College and Career Ready Performance Index, which we have already submitted in the form of a waiver to the U.S. Dept. of Education seeking relief from the narrowly defined designation of success found in No Child Left Behind. Relying on a single test to determine a student’s and a school’s academic success is plagued with problems.
The Georgia Department of Education will work closely with the Dougherty County School System to provide support for students who were negatively impacted by the actions of adults. We will also look into whether or not any schools and educators undeservedly received financial reward for these artificial CRCT results.”
As was the case with the Atlanta Public Schools investigation findings, the vast majority of the educators in Dougherty County and throughout the state are ethically sound and work diligently with the best interests of their students in mind. I’m committed to working with our districts to ensure our students are not robbed of a quality and meaningful education.
Here is a sample from volume 1 of the two-volume report:
The disgraceful situation we found in the Dougherty County School System (DCSS) is a tragedy, sadly illustrated by a comment made by a teacher who said that her fifth grade students could not read, yet did well on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT).
This incredible statement from a teacher in a school where the principal flatly refused to cooperate with our investigation is indicative of what we found in many of the schools we visited.
To our amazement, this top-level administrator would not even answer questions about how she mishandled her duties as the person who is most responsible, at that school, for overseeing all testing activity.
Another school principal, whose salary was over $90,000 per year, allowed her family to falsely claim that they were eligible for a federally-funded free lunch each school day, even though official guidelines required the annual income to be no more than $24,089.
Yet another principal, with regard to our interviews, told a teacher: “Don’t you tell them anything, you hear?”
Notwithstanding these examples of misconduct, there are skilled, dedicated and well-meaning educators in this school system. But their work is often overshadowed by an acceptance of wrongdoing and a pattern of incompetence that is a blight on the community that will feel its effects for generations to come. This is the Dougherty County School System.
Hundreds of school children were harmed by extensive cheating in the Dougherty County School System. In 11 schools, 18 educators admitted to cheating. We found cheating on the 2009 CRCT in all of the schools we examined. A total of 49 educators were involved in some form of misconduct or failure to perform their duty with regard to this test.
While we did not find that Superintendent Sally Whatley or her senior staff knew that crimes or other misconduct were occurring, they should have known and were ultimately responsible for accurately testing and assessing students in this system. In that duty, they failed. The 2009 erasure analysis, and other evidence, suggests that there were far more educators involved in cheating, but a fair analysis of the facts did not allow us to sufficiently establish the identity of every participant.
The statistics, and the individual student data, leave little room for any other reasonable explanation, save for cheating. For example, the percentage of flagged classrooms for DCSS is ten times higher than the state average.
Unlike our investigation of criminal misconduct in the Atlanta Public Schools, officials with Dougherty County Schools (and their agents) provided, in a timely and professional manner, access to all personnel and needed documents.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
134 comments Add your comment
ScienceTeacher671
December 20th, 2011
7:22 pm
catlady, I surely wish someone would.
I think it was designed to keep us from having enough students to make up a SWD subgroup – or at least, that’s how many schools seem to be using it.
gamom
December 20th, 2011
7:37 pm
Shameful! And according to this data sheet from the DOE, they still use Corporal Punishment too! How can anyone trust these folks to do this to the kids? Here is the data sheet from 2010 / 2011 school year….and I even wonder if these numbers are accurate.. GEESH:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aky2EFEwvLAWdGpuUWVqZGNzaDdhWUZkeVowSzdmSUE&hl=en_US#gid=0
gamom
December 20th, 2011
7:39 pm
Well I don’t know why the link didn’t post…trying again:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aky2EFEwvLAWdGpuUWVqZGNzaDdhWUZkeVowSzdmSUE&hl=en_US#gid=0
jdawg
December 20th, 2011
7:44 pm
Once again, what could possibly be the reason these kids in these failing publc schools can’t be taught? It must be the incompetent teachers. I know, we aren’t spending enough money! I know, it’s raaaaaaaaacism! It can’t possible be “The New Plantation” that we have created and nurtured for 40 years. I let a 20 something year old guy try to help me in my yard this summer. I asked if he could weed eat. He said he could, but I literally had to show him everything about operating a weed eater. An hour after starting, he still hadn’t mastered a tool that is not exactly a fighter jet. I realized that not only had he never used one, but he didn’t know anyone who had. We have created something we will not be able to escape. We are going to reap the whirlwind, for the sake of insuring political power and support.
catlady
December 20th, 2011
7:53 pm
SciTch: It has been admitted that it was designed to cut down on sped referrals. Now, it does not cut down on the number of sped kids there are, but cuts down on those who get help. Don’t see how the Justice Dept or EEOC or DOE can approve of it. If you are in fifth grade and read on a grade 2 level THERE IS SOMETHING THE MATTER! And not identifying it really isn’t helping.
Top School
December 20th, 2011
7:53 pm
The cheating runs from top to bottom …side to side…in and out. Cheating on building contracts, fraudulent records for attendance for students and teachers, corruption of misused education funds…and the list goes on and on. The corruption starts in the Business Community and spreads to all those in administrative positions.
And yes, many Principals and teachers are known for changing daily grades or test score grades to appease parents.
The discussion always focuses on the cheating in Standardized Testing…the REAL ISSUE is the illegal ONGOING RETALIATION used to silence anyone wishing to speak up…INCLUDING PAST APS HISTORY of 10+ years.
CURRENTLY,. APS has not removed all those involved in wrong doing.
brad
December 20th, 2011
8:06 pm
The answer is simple. We pay women welfare to have kids and different baby daddies. The kids grow up with no father and a dead beat mom and we expect different. President Johnson’s “great society” should be renamed “the great road to government dependency” and the destruction of this country. Liberalism won and nothing left but to watch the fall out.
High school administrator
December 20th, 2011
8:07 pm
There are kids in high school who cannot read;and they are not SPED. There is enough blame to go around but you would think that any parent worth a dime would know that their child could not read before they got to the 5th grade. Irresponsibility takes many forms. However a responsible parent would be asking questions early and often. I know that I would.
Dekalbite@ Dr. No/Mr. Sunshine
December 20th, 2011
8:08 pm
“The report adds: “Sally Whatley (Former DCSS Superintendent) is ultimately responsible.”
LOL…Dekalb Country strikes again…LOL.”
LOL indeed….
Did you comprehend what you read? Or did you just not read Maureen’s article?
DCSS in this article and every article regarding Dougherty County School System refers to Dougherty County School System (acronym is DCSS). In this article D stands for Dougherty, C stands for County, S stands for School, and S stands for System. Put them together and you get DCSS – Dougherty County School System. Not DeKalb County School System. It’s even stated in this article. Look at this sentence directly quoted from Maureen’s article:
“The disgraceful situation we found in the Dougherty County School System (DCSS) is a tragedy,”
It just seems odd to decry (that means say negative things about it) the educational system when responding to a blog article, and then make a comment that shows you have either:
1. Not read the article
2. Not comprehended the article
Henry
December 20th, 2011
8:11 pm
Judgmental comments throughout the report reflect a lack of objectivity which is itself alarming. The report should have included just the facts and reserved the righteous indignation for others. The investigators put themselves in the role of investigator, judge, and jury.
ScienceTeacher671
December 20th, 2011
8:43 pm
Catlady, if it were used as designed, it might cut down on SpEd referrals, as well as the need for SpEd referrals — but the research says the students have to be remediated before they begin failing and falling behind. A 5th grader (or a 9th grader) reading on a 2nd grade level really isn’t a candidate — or shouldn’t be.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
December 20th, 2011
9:46 pm
I teach third grade. I had several students come to me this year who were reading on a kindergarten level. They have failed the CRCT every year, but been passed on because (pick your favorite):
1. They are ESOL, which apparently explains away all possible learning difficulties.
2. Their parents did not want them held back and fought against it, so administration decided it was less fuss to push them along to third because…
3. The strategy is to pass them along till they fail the CRCT in third grade, since that is a benchmark year and if they fail, they are supposed to automatically be retained.
4. Previous teachers did not want to deal with the overwhelming paperwork and time consuming interventions and probe-testing that is required to move a child through the evaluation process, so now they all land in my lap.
By third grade, it is almost too late to “teach” reading. Studies have shown that if you do not establish literacy skills by age 8, your chances of reaching that child greatly diminish.
I have taught first and second grade. In those grades, I taught students “how to read.” I spend several hours a day on the nuts and bolts of “how to” make meaning from text… I met with students in small groups, and we broke text down, worked on basic sight word vocabulary, build meaning, studied word families etc.
In third grade, I do not have that kind of time to devote to the mechanics of reading. I am now busy teaching “content”. My students are expected to already HAVE the basics of reading in place in order for me to teach the content I am required to cover. I do not have hours to spend with a handful of remedial readers, teaching them letter-sound correspondence and phonemic awareness.
Thus, my low readers are not only struggling in reading, they are now struggling in ALL academic areas because they cannot read well enough to learn content! I give them the book notes already completed, but they can’t read them anyway! I provide them with content area reading which is at an easier level, but it does not always cover the GPS adequately. I give them basic sight words to learn, but the content text has moved beyond those words, so they don’t get the repetitive practice through content reading that they require.
Trying to get them evaluated to see if they qualify for help or special services requires weeks of interventions and testing for each child. That is individualized testing and intervention two or three times a week for about 5-10 minutes at a time. Multiply that by eight students. That is hours of time I am supposed to find to work “individually” with these students. And when am I supposed to do that? What are the rest of my 20+ students doing during that time? I can barely get though the content I am required to cover as it is!
It used to be I was seen as a professional, and if I said in my opinion that “John Doe” was struggling in my class and I had concerns that he might have a learning difficulty – that and a few work samples would at least get me a hearing by the gatekeepers. Now, I can spend all year putting together a three inch thick file on a child, only to have it tossed out if they child passes CRCT (even if it is read to them as a modification) or if they child is ESOL, or if the parent throws a big enough fit.
Don’t blame the teachers for the non-reading fifth graders. We KNOW what is wrong! We have complained and advocated for our children. Passing children on in hopes they will fail the third grade CRCT is stupid! It is unfair to the third grade teachers who are closely evaluated based upon CRCT scores, and it is terribly detrimental to the children, because by the time they DO fail, they are nine years old, well beyond that window of best opportunity for reading remediation, much more socially aware of the stigma of being retained and deeply entrenched in content area learning – not reading instruction! It is also unfair to parents, who may think their child is doing fine (as they have been promoted each year) and then are suddenly shocked when their child needs to be retained.
We realize the system is failing these children, but the people who seem to care have no power to change anything, and the people who do have the power, don’t really care about what is best for the students. They just want to save money, and make the system look good.
My kindergarten readers have mostly made it to first grade reading levels now…and with the help of our wonderful Title team, Para pros and parent volunteers, we might manage to get them up to second by the end of the year… but they still will have missed most of the third grade content, which will put them even further behind. They will possibly now have enough reading ability to actually PASS the CRCT which will pretty much destroy any chance I have of holding them back to really catch them up. So once again, I face a horrible Catch 22 situation. Should I work like crazy to support these low readers and advance them as much as I can, knowing that all the additional support and CRCT prep will likely advance them just far enough that they pass the CRCT and thus enter 4th grade struggling and behind? Or should I deny them the additional support in hopes they fail CRCT and give me another year to support their academic growth?
Those of you blaming teachers, and asking “why” we can’t teach these children to read, have little idea of the realities we are facing. Sure, I could teach these children how to read…if I had two hours a day just to devote to teaching a small group of them how to read… and did not have 15 other students in my room who need to be taught 3rd grade content.
Eddie G
December 20th, 2011
9:54 pm
All of this gnashing of teeth, and pointing fingers back and forth between the parents, teachers, and administrators………..
All you have to do is look at the demographics. It will tell you all you need to know.
Thee End.
Fed up Sped
December 20th, 2011
9:59 pm
I am a Sped teacher who is living out the cheating scandal. For all of the folks who question a teacher’s integrity walk a mile in our shoes. It starts with innuendos and pressure. I worked at a Title 1 school and was informed that it is too important not to make AYP. I was responsible for the GAA which is the standardized assessment for sped kids who can’t take the CRCT. The GAA is a huge black hole when it comes to manipulation & cheating. It is considered a “gimme” in the AYP formula. In the end I resigned instead of bowing to the pressure. There are those of us who do have integrity though no one seems to be listening. It galls me to walk away from advocating for the “least of these”.
Dekalbite@ I love teaching
December 20th, 2011
10:45 pm
“…Sure, I could teach these children how to read…if I had two hours a day just to devote to teaching a small group of them how to read… and did not have 15 other students in my room who need to be taught 3rd grade content.”
Anyone who says class size does not matter has never taught a class with a substantial portion of students who are struggling in math and/or reading. Lower income Title 1 schools have more struggling students than affluent schools. Therefore, MOST federal funding should be going to lower the class sizes. Title 1 Reading and Math teachers can lower the general level classes during the time reading and math are taught. In addition, they can address struggling learners in small group settings. It’s amazing that DeKalb has so many “coaches” and “coordinators” and other non-teaching personnel. Does your system have a lot of non-teaching “support” and “administrative” personnel who are certified to teach, but do not teach?
DCSS Teacher
December 20th, 2011
11:26 pm
Here in DCSS we have had a Principal who allowed her child to get free lunch and also a School Board Member falsified documents to get her children free lunch. They set the high expectations of a standard of excellence! Yeah us!
Janet
December 20th, 2011
11:27 pm
As a parent (not involved in the education field), I completely agree with the others who say that it is ultimately the PARENT’S responsibility for making sure their kid is learning what they are supposed to in school. I can not fathom the idea of not noticing the fact that my 5TH GRADER couldn’t read. I get 2 working parents are busy, I get that the education of the parents themselves are probably lacking, but still, I really think even the most basic skilled of parents would know something isn’t right after 5 years. A parent should notice something like that… one who cares anyway. Yes, the school cheated and lied and they should be held accountable. No question about that. But the biggest (and saddest) part of all of it is that so many parents are so totally and completely absent from their elementary aged child’s life. I mean, exactly who are raising these children???? It’s certainly not their parents!
PappyHappy
December 21st, 2011
4:26 am
SHAME!
As we lament the latest unemployment numbers we need to ask ourselves the following questions:
*When are we going to fundamentally reform public education where we can produce a workforce who can compete globally?
We have got to get it is gear folks, or jobs are not going to be coming to our shores in the future!
In 1983, A Nation At Risk urgently recommended reforms in education warning “the United States is under challenge from many quarters”. Today we’re at greater risk than ever. The Government Education Monopoly continues to imperil our economy by failing miserably at preparing the workforce. Business increasingly looks for talent overseas. The world’s greatest concentration of PhD’s is in Seoul, Korea and half of Americans can’t even find Seoul on a map.
Downward sloping performance confirms John Taylor Gatto’s thesis in his book Dumbing Us Down and his speeches which charge compulsory government education with deliberately producing robots instead of adults who are the best they can be.
Note the following from a recent op ed in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/our-unprepared-graduates/2011/09/30/gIQAJGYBBL_story.html?hpid=z3
Just look at our stats in math, science, history, and now geography for 2011! They are pathetic. LEARNING IS HARD WORK! TEACHING IS HARD WORK! PARENTING IS HARD WORK. THERE IS NO COMPETITION IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS TODAY, and results show it! And Gang, what have the unions contributed to the demise of public education????
Chuck Allison
December 21st, 2011
5:02 am
What do the Atlanta and Albany school systems have in common? For way too long, they have been blaming their failures and corruption on standardized tests and government programs that work in other locations. These type school systems will always continue to fail until they realize that they have to stand on their own two feet and measure their own success by the standards used elsewhere. Success cannot be achieved by cheating on the standards or by clamoring to lower the standards just to look good. When you do that, you are only cheating the students in the long run,
Beverly Fraud
December 21st, 2011
5:32 am
“Those of you blaming teachers, and asking “why” we can’t teach these children to read, have little idea of the realities we are facing”
You know something I have NEVER understood. Even IF your child had the “world’s worst teacher” (ex: a teacher who would write “world’s WORSE teacher” LOL) and even IF your child had the unlikely occurrence of having the “world’s worst teacher” 5 times in a row, how could you, as a PARENT, be raising a child who didn’t (barring unusual circumstances) know how to read by 5th grade?
www.honeyfern.org
December 21st, 2011
6:31 am
There are some truths in most of these comments, and many are at fault for failing these kids.
In the end, none of that matters because now we have illiterate 5th graders who will have the nearly impossible task of catching up, not knowing how to read, in a very broken school system that does not have their best interests in mind. and the kids are the ones that have to somehow live with that.
Shameful, in the deepest sense of the word.
shaggy
December 21st, 2011
6:50 am
There is no way in he!! that I would send my 5th grade kid to school….NOT being able to read, and read WELL!
I know, I know…every under(non) performing kid is “challenged”, needs a hug, knows what Kim Kardasian wore last night, and still gets to play sports, even though they can’t freakin read “See Spot run”.
My 5th grader being an illiterate buffoon, would be a direct and irrefutable failure that would be entirely MY responsibility, because I (THE Parent) didn’t MAKE MY KID learn how to freakin read.
NO TEACHER REQUIRED! I GOT THIS ONE!
Ronin
December 21st, 2011
7:07 am
No surprise here. There are probably many more instances of cheating in state district schools, they just haven’t been caught yet. While this may be a controversial statement. Government schools are working just as they were planned. Keep the masses dumb or dumb masses, take your pick. Stupid people are easier to govern. The “process” of government/public education in the state of Georgia is a failure to it’s customer, the children. These same customers who have no power to change the political process for choice in education.
All the politicians and education “experts” talk the talk, yet fail to walk the walk. It’s all lip service to maintain control of the system until the next group of trough feeders can make their retirement date.
Ultimately, it’s the job of the parent to educate their child, not the government.
Mountain Man
December 21st, 2011
7:49 am
“What excuses can these TEACHERS and ADMINISTRATORS give for passing students from grade to grade to grade who cannot read?”
In most cases I think you would find that the TEACHER is all for assigning a failing grade and holding back the student. The ADMINISTRATOR is the one that either promotes the student regardless of the grade, changes the grade hin/herself, or orders the teacher to change the grade so the student can pass. All done at the behest of a screaming PARENT, of course. What I don’t understand is why teachers put up with it. Unfortunately, the good ones don’t – they find a job in private schools or in other fields, leaving only the ones who can’t or won’t find another job left in the public schools.
Mountain Man
December 21st, 2011
7:52 am
I saw a cartoon that said it all – in the 50’s you see the child with a “F” on a report card – the parent is screaming at the child for not making better grades. Cut to 2011, the parent is screaming at the TEACHER for her child not making better grades. It all comes down to the STUDENTS, folks, and their willingness to BE PRESENT (see truancy blog), and WORK at learning.
ScienceTeacher671
December 21st, 2011
8:11 am
Mountain Man, you’ll also find that the elementary school administrators promote students to avoid overcrowding or needing to hire new teachers – can’t have those students who can’t read staying back and filling seats, don’t you know. There are new students coming in each year who’ll need those places. Better to let the middle school deal with them.
Then the middle school administrators send them on because you can’t have kids driving to middle school, and you can’t have the 16 year olds sitting in the same class with the innocent 12 year olds…
Then they get to high school, where they flunk and/or drop out.
Mountain Man
December 21st, 2011
8:14 am
“You mean in FIVE YEARS you cannot teach a kid to read?”
You might if they stayed in first grade those five years. But once they leave, first grade they are expected to know first-grade material and the teachers are teaching (the other 30 students) the on-level material. There is no time to catch that one child up. Or if it is a whole group – do you have the fourth grade teacher split the class and teach fourth grade materials to the real students, and teach first-grade materials to the rest- and have them fail their CRCT on fifth-grade materials?
Cosby
December 21st, 2011
8:14 am
Your Government Schools at work. Time for a “Change”!
Mountain Man
December 21st, 2011
8:17 am
“Then they get to high school, where they flunk and/or drop out.”
Then they go start stealing, eventually get caught, and (sometimes) do jail time. Then it is all downhill from there. That is where the thugs who rob Ga Tech students come from. Keep them in the first grade if they fail first grade. Or bring back summer school, so the kids get intensive learning over the summer to catch up or else return to first grade. Oh, I am sorry, I forgot, that might require paying more money for teachers in the summer. My bad.
bootney farnsworth
December 21st, 2011
8:34 am
time to dump public ed in Ga. and start over.
this system is beyond help
teacher&mom
December 21st, 2011
8:44 am
Those who cheated should lose their certification. Every year before testing, each educator signs a document stating they will uphold the testing protocol. Educators are fully aware that if they cheat, they will lose their certification. This must happen.
While having outside people come in to conduct the testing isn’t a bad idea, it is an expensive idea. We should not divert another penny from the classroom to prop up standardized testing. There are appropriate testing protocols that will help minimize the opportunity to cheat. For example, in my system you NEVER test your own students (CRCT/EOCT/GHSGT).
There are many students who are not on grade level in reading and math. Way too many. Catlady and others are correct that school systems spend a lot of time and money trying to get these students up to grade level. Perhaps the AJC will investigate HOW systems remediate. Which systems do a better job? Which systems rely on computerized or canned programs? What happens when these students are still unable to read on grade level?
The request to look into RTI is also a great suggestion. I was told by someone outside the state of GA, that our state has convoluted the RTI process. I’m not sure if they were correct, but it would be interesting if someone would investigate the process and compare it with other states.
btw: If you decide to investigate and at any time a BOE/DOE official uses the word “differentiate”, please smack them up the side of the head.
April
December 21st, 2011
8:59 am
I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Dougherty County. It is a long way from the suburban Atlanta school systems. First, the parents of the students in that fifth grade classroom can probably not read either. They are incapable of reading an article like the one here or drafting a response like the ones here. The goal of the parent is to have the child reach a level where he or she can go to work in the local fast food restaurant or factory. College or a professional career are not options.
Many of these parents are good, loving parents, but they have no idea how to educate their own children. It falls to the school system, and it is impossible to teach a child everything he needs to know in a few hours a day.
It is perhaps extreme to compare teachers to German soldiers, but there are other similar examples. The racism of the early 20th century comes to mind. I am sure an honest discussion with some of your parents or grandparents would reveal stories when turning a blind eye to injustice was necessary to keep a job or other benefit. It is easy to say what you would do, if you have never been in that situation.
These teachers and administrators were wrong, but it is easy to judge from afar.
Ronin
December 21st, 2011
9:36 am
@bootney: your comment: ” time to dump public ed in Ga. and start over.
this system is beyond help”…. I’m afraid you’re correct. There have to be other public/government education options. Otherwise, the system is too big to change. Yet, not too large to fail at it’s mission.
Oh, and to the Fulton County Board members that denied the Fulton Science Academy because they they want to protect the taxpayers money?, rubbish. The board had to protect their near monopoly on education.
Frankie
December 21st, 2011
9:39 am
I am willing to bet that most of the bloggers have not spent a day in public school helping the teacher seeing what the actual problems are..
YES the system needs to change, some teachers need to be fired….and PARENTS need to get involved.
It is not all on the school system, parents do not spend enough time with there children to know how well they are doing in school.
I am more surprised that the people on this BLOG BLAME the Teacher vs. BLAMING THE PARENT…
Eddie G
December 21st, 2011
9:45 am
April…………cry me a river. Many of those good, loving parents “graduated” from Monroe or Dougherty without being able to read or write on a 5th grade level. Which should be all the more reason that they desire more for their own children. The problem is that a report several weeks ago declared Albany & Dougherty County the 4th poorest area in the nation, and no amount of smoke, mirrors, or pretty signs welcoming folks to Albany can mask the reality that the locals are just lazy, sorry, and inept. Why work to better yourself when the “gubmint” continues to pay you each month to be a sorry POS? Between “gubmint” housing, EBT cards, and welfare checks, they have a pretty good gig going.
Oh yeah…………don’t forget that probably 80% or more of the faculty and staff in the DCSS comes from Albany State. That sums it up quite nicely.
skipper
December 21st, 2011
9:45 am
demographics……………………………………..
Beverly Fraud
December 21st, 2011
9:48 am
Just to piggyback on what Frankie says, what do AOL/Huffington Post headlines scream about Dougherty?
TEACHERS cheated!
Not “educators cheated”
TEACHERS cheated
That speaks VOLUMES about our collective “blame teachers first mentality”
Of course among the early posts were screeds about “the union”…in Georgia. Right. As if GAE and PAGE could strike enough fear in warm butter to allow it to be cut by a chainsaw, let alone a knife.
Frankie
December 21st, 2011
9:56 am
WOW….you people are really condescending in your comments. I am sure I can find a bunch of illiterate adults/children right here in good ole ATLANTA, cummings, forsyth, cherokee, cobb, fanin, pickens, WHITFIELD.
Mountain Man
December 21st, 2011
10:10 am
“Sorry @Bloodbike, this is one you can’t hang on the parents. The teacher provides instruction, conducts assessments, and signs the dotted line saying this student has performed in a satisfactory manner and should be promoted to the next grade. There are occasions where a teacher recommends to retain a student and a administrator overrides them.”
It is more than just “occasionally” that administrators override teachers. One reason is those screaming PARENTS that accost the administrators because their little JohnnY is being held back (even those these parents kept them out of school or allowed them to miss a quarter of the time). Another reason is that ADMINISTRATORS don’t want the cost of sending a kid AGAIN through the first grade to try to teach him what he should have learned the first time.
We need to hold the ADMINISTRATORS responsible and allow teachers to give accurate grading (or we could have outside testing every year with an absolute retain policy if the student does not score in passing range). But the PARENTS have to be responsible and not yell at teachers when little Johnny fails during the year, even though he misses days all the time and he never does his homework. Yell at YOUR OWN KID for not learning the material.
oldtimer
December 21st, 2011
10:16 am
Ronin..So glad to see a comment about Fulton Co. They do not care about the children. They want these high preforming students back in the lousy general education. Parents need to take back the education of their children.
Public schools in many cases are unsafe government indoctrination centers. I know there are good schools and wonderful teachers. We hold teachers accountable, but will not let them do what they know to be best. Every administrator wants to pass the buck on to the next level. It makes them look good. What need to understand these tests are very easy to pass. They are just looking for low level skills. So what are we teaching our kids…hard work does not matter, things will be fixed, everyone is a winner….Sorry it is time to start over.
sst/rti/anykindof helpplease
December 21st, 2011
10:17 am
@catlady – rti takes a whole year out of a child’s life in our system / elementary level – and that is if everything falls into place the first time….and if the teacher has put them on rti for the CORRECT issue (since the requests have to be so specific)
oldtimer
December 21st, 2011
10:18 am
And keep in mind NCLB was begun to end social promotion and ensure everyone was educated. We just never set high goals and made the children accountable for doing their work. Education is HARD.
SOS From Albany
December 21st, 2011
10:21 am
Yes there is a huge demographic problem, but an enterprizing reporter could make a career by looking into DCSS. A few years ago over $2-million was unaccounted for in the lunch program, sexual offenders and drug dealers are working in the system, the milage rate is maxed out, and the dollars spent on a per child basis is near tops in the state.
The board and administration have proven they can not be trusted with money. The citizens of Dougherty County need assistance from the Governor now. Please remove the entire board for the sake of the county. Replace them with hand picked indvidual business people who can cull the administration, then hold elections in two years. Do it and Dougherty County can thrive. Do it not, and these actions will continue.
Dr. John Trotter
December 21st, 2011
10:37 am
Atlanta and Dougherty school systems here in Georgia are, I am afraid, just two tips of the Systematic Cheating Iceberg. I won’t belabor the fact that at MACE we have been pointedly talking about “systematic cheating” for a while now, even before it hit the popular news. In fact, my speaking out on systematic cheating got me temporarily “banned” from one large school systems. (Of course “bans” don’t work with me. Another large system tried to “ban” me in 1997. Both superintendents in these school systems were later forced to step down and fired, with one even being federally indicted.)
A Nation at Risk (1983) has been a nearly 30 year disaster. You cannot mandate school reform nationwide, statewide, or systemwide. No far-reaching school reform has ever worked. Never. Dr. John Goodlad’s mega-study of the studies clearly revealed this even in the early 1980s. (Dr. Goodlad’s findings were published under the title, A Place Called School.) Dr. Goodlad was associated with UCLA. All the hype of school reform is just that….hype. Improvements can indeed occur at the individual school level, with a secure and confident leader who does not suffocate the teachers but frees them up to teach…and supports them in disciplinary matters with the students. © GTSO, December 21, 2011.
Beverly bores me
December 21st, 2011
10:40 am
@Beverly Fraud;Your teachers-are-sainted-victims-and-all-brilliant rants get soooooo boring. Out of the 178 educators named in APS as cheaters, three-fourth were teachers. Get over it. Pretending there are no dishonest or incompetent teachers may play on this blog where so many teachers come to whine, but anyone with a child in public schools knows the truth.
Frankie
December 21st, 2011
10:44 am
Yes there are bad teachers that need to be FIRED, there are bad parents that need to have there chid taken away…but the system as a whole needs to be changed.
I do know that no one looks at the developmental appitude of these kids, Boys at age 7-9 are behind girls of the same age, which plays into their learning ability, but the school system just lumps everyone together as if they are on the same plain….
skipper
December 21st, 2011
10:44 am
Dr. Trotter,
You should be in charge of all public education in Georgia…..and I truly mean this!! My mom was an educator for 35 years and now the teachers have to mess with everything from “sensitivity-training” to being in fear of rowdy students. Give control back to the teachers….it actually would be EASIER to root out the bad ones! And (elephant in the room) look at some of the school-board members that are elected. Many of them could not poor p*ss out of a boot and everbody knows it! Accountability of students, parents and teachers is a must. And quit with the politically-correct time-wasting feel-good remedy of the day. Teachers spend so much time on b.s. stuff that their actual teaching time is limited.
I love the report by Good Mother
December 21st, 2011
11:29 am
I just loved the official report for a lot of reasons. It had great details. I felt like a jury member listening to a witness testify on the stand.
Please read this gem found in the report. The investigators interviewed the teacher, Beverly Knighton-Harris about her students’ performance. Her testimoy and the investigator’s comments had me on the floor laughing. This is better than Court TV.
1. Beverly Knighton-Harris (Teacher)
Knighton-Harris taught first grade in 2009 and was flagged in two subject
areas. She acknowledged that she used facial expressions and voice inflection
when administering the CRCT. She observed that students would change their
answers whenever her facial expression indicated whether the answer was right or
wrong. She claimed that she tried to minimize her tendency to use facial
expressions and voice inflection and that her actions were unintentional –
and the investigators wrote about her response “We find this explanation ABSURD.”
Mwa ha ha.
I loved that part.
Caught red handed, Beverly Knighton-Harris and your lies were quickly seen as transparent as a piece of Saran Wrap.
I love that the report names names and uses quotes.
For this type of crime a public shaming is appropriate. This so-called teacher cheated and lied and lied.
I hope she gets jail time and her teaching certificate goes up in flames.
I hope this is a lesson to all you cheating teachers on this blog. You WILL be discovered. Your crimes will be found out. You will receive the book — the law — and I hope it gets thrown at you. I will personally pay for your orange prison jump suits.
For all honest teachers — I appreciate you. I thank you. You can count on me as a parent to give you my full support, time and energy.
Good Mother
begging for help in Dougherty County
December 21st, 2011
12:51 pm
Send the calvary!
AlreadySheared
December 21st, 2011
1:18 pm
Wholesale, widespread cheating is the symptom. Teachers (and their careers) trapped in the clutches of powerful, unethical, unprofessional administrators is the disease.