State report on Dougherty: “Acceptance of wrongdoing and a pattern of incompetence that is a blight on the community.”

What’s the matter, they couldn’t find a Blue Ribbon Commission to “finesse it past the governor”?

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Well Well Well, here is an interesting tidbit…

“The report adds: “Sally Whatley (Former DCSS Superintendent) is ultimately responsible.”

LOL…Dekalb Country strikes again…LOL.

AHH AHHAHAAAA!!

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The governor was reportedly outraged over these additional claims of cheating but didn’t he resign his seat in Congress to avoid ethics charges?And isn’t that effectively cheating? The system has gone haywire and there are too few honorable men and women to perform the necessary functions in education. Really nobody should be shocked of these findings uncovered. I predict there will be more because in a year or so few if any school systems will be able to make ayp as written.

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Oh… the censor machine is on again.

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Another teacher, you are blaming a once a year test. The children are tested once a year and yet fifth graders cannot read. You want to blame the test for that?

You mean in FIVE YEARS you cannot teach a kid to read?

Disgraceful. Shameful. Disgusting.

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Others have picked up on this comment “…sadly illustrated by a comment made by a teacher who said that her fifth grade students could not read…”.

Most troubling though, is STUDENTS. Plural. More than one and sounds like quite a few, given the context of the statement.

What excuses can these TEACHERS and ADMINISTRATORS give for passing students from grade to grade to grade who cannot read?

A school system where eleven out of fifteen elementary schools, almost 75%, have now been implicated in a cheating scandal. If there ever was a candidate for the state to take over a school system, this is the one.

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@shaggy – You simply do not under the culture of being a mere classroom teacher in today’s Georgia education system.

Was the teacher wrong, of course. Should the teacher have done something, most likely. However, here is a reminder….

During WWII there were many Germany military folks that marched Jewish people to concentration camps that eventually became a place where they were put to death. The military individuals knew that the Jewish people were going to die. However, even if they felt strongly that it was wrong, they did it any way. They were simply following orders and doing their job. Were they wrong? Yes.

Sound familiar?

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Dr. No: Was Ms. Whatley formerly with Dekalb or Dougherty?

And, yes, it is possible to have 5th graders who can’t read. Many come from homes with no literate person present. These kids have had YEARS of extra classes, smaller classes, after school tutoring. They either have not been tested for sped (because the RTI process in our system changes daily–you can’t hit a moving target) or a few were tested but “just missed it.” So what do we do? We pass them on.

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If your kids can’t read then its your fault. Period. Why place the burden on the school system, its your fault. How in the heck does your kids go about the entire year with out you knowing something isn’t right? Don’t adults play mind games with kids anymore where you have them read everyday labels or street signs or books? What about reading things on the internet? Sad day in Georgia.

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HS Teacher, how dare you compare your situation to that of the Jews and Germans.

German citizens were threatend with THEIR LIVES if they helped the Jews.

The most you suffered was that someone IMPLIED you MIGHT lose your job.

You can hardly compare the threat of losing a job with the threat of losing your life…

BUT since you brought it up.

Although German citizens were threatened with their very lives for helping the Jews, they did it anyway.

The German citizens risked their lives to help others….and many died for helping the Jews.

Because, you see, they had something you don’t have. They had integrity. They had a consciense.

They were HONEST and YOU are not.

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…for Sally and Beverly……and their crew of naughty elves.

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@ Lee. This is one where I agreed with you.

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P.S. Yanking them for the administrators, too.

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John Barge is 100% hypocrite!

To say this after excusing and ignoring what his Hall County friends and former coworkers were doing by transfering students just days before graduation to improve graduation rates is just wrong. Both the AJC and Channel 2 news reported on.

No honor at all.

I guarantee those high schools in Hall County who raised their rates this way received award and/or money for doing so.

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In elementary school you have WAY more than 55 minutes a day with a kid. I’m sorry, but having a 5th grader that CANNOT READ is disgusting. What are teachers getting paid for????

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ABC, many elementary schools are departmentalized. Students move from classroom to classroom. Their classes are usually 45-55 minutes long. Each of my classes lasts 55 minutes. It is not my CHOICE, it is the schedule. I don’t make the schedule.

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CAN THE GOVERNOR REMOVE THE SCHOOL BOARD?

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Maureen

Were there financial incentives for performance in Dougherty like Atlanta? I can’t imagine there were, but I suppose it is possible.

What do you know about this issue?

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@ irisheyes: what are the chances that a teacher could convince the principal to retain a student, especially in the lower grades when it’s the most helpful? I teach second grade, and here’s what my administrators have told me when I’ve had students I want to retain: “The CRCT will catch them in 3rd grade.” Really?? So, we’re going to let a child struggle through another year doing work that they can’t handle and get more frustrated in the hopes that they’ll fail the CRCT in 3rd grade.

And all the research upon which RTI is based says that problems must be diagnosed and remediated very early, or the children will be more likely to need special education services. Doesn’t sound as if that’s working out very well.

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all the research upon which RTI is based says that problems must be diagnosed and remediated very early, or the children will be more likely to need special education services.

I’m in no way involved in the education system but that just sounds like common sense to me.

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So, what’s going to happen to all those implicated in the cheating? Will they quietly disappear into the woodwork as those in the Atlanta scandal have managed to do?

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No matter how hard the teacher lobbies, the “committee” always sends them on. We have even had parents request their child be held back, and the principal attempt to deny the request. Of course, usually the parents do not want their child held back. So we have kids who have failed the CRCT EVERY year they have been in school (pretty hard to do, given what a “generous” test it is), with EIP supplementary help in reading and math (for years), ESOL if they qualify, and tutoring every spring before the CRCT, not to mention “summer school” before the second CRCT administration. At what point do we “get it” and figure the child is not able to do the current year’s work, much less the next year? We continue to do endless 3 week plans for RTI, never getting to the bottom of what is the problem for the child.

I believe, in my system, we could decrease the failure rate on the CRCT by a quarter or so BY HOLDING STUDENTS BACK. It would not take long, and those kids who CAN do the work would start to do it. Their parents would become much more active, much more concerned. Still doesn’t help the others, made up of sped, undiagnosed sped, and level 2-3 ESOL kids, but would cut back the numbers somewhat.

I’d like to hear from other teachers, how long is the RTI process in your system? We have to have 12 weeks of unsuccessful Tier 2, then 9-12 more weeks of unsuccessful Tier 3, before any mention of sped testing. By that time, if you get through that, it is “too late” to test. And so, the process starts the next year. Same in other systems?

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While it is totally disgusting that a 5th grader can’t read, the fault belongs with the parent (as the primary and first teacher), maybe the school-house teacher, but most definitely with the school’s administration and central office policies and programs, and less we forget–our own federal government! I’ve lived in Dekalb county since the 1970’s, and have witnessed the decimation of this County’s school system. I’ve been employed by the system for the past 12 years, and I can assure you that teachers have no say when it comes to promoting or retaining a student!

Personally, I’d like to see the system (or for that matter, the entire state) adopt a well-researched and documented phonics program such as Orton-Gilligham’s based “Riggs Phonics Program”. This program is based on Dr. Samuel T. Orton’s (neuroscientist) research and findings. His first successful applications went to re-establish language-skills memory in brain-damaged World War I veterans. Other physiological organic or trauma-induced brain-damaged individuals (i.e. stroke patients) were treated similarly until his death in 1948. The program was adopted by Romalda Spalding and The Writing Road to Reading. Using Orton’s methods to teach normal primary students was designed by one of his last teacher-collaborators, Romalda Spalding, who authored The Writing Road to Reading in 1957. She believed that her method represented Dr. Orton’s final conclusions that this method should be used for primary children, both to prevent and correct learning disorders, and most importantly to establish high literacy in virtually all primary children.

No, I’m not a representative of this company, nor do I know anybody within this company; however, I’ve used this program and it most definitely works!! It also works extremely well with the ESOL population (students who currently can’t speak English). I truly believe that if a superb phonics program was introduced–adopted–and utilized (such as the one mentioned), with properly trained teachers of the program, this would go along way towards alleviating the illiteracy within our state. If you can’t read, you’re not going to be able to do much of anything!!

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I do believe The Doctor Spinks just came out of the closet. And then there is Jordan who is at the crossroads. Now how does one address elementary education failures with a correct solution. Is everyone cheating? Does anyone care?

One would think the people with skin in the game would look to a solution. It dosen’t appear that is the case. Just more ble, bla, blah.

And to think Sonny was the EDUCATION GOVERNOR?

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“And then there is Jordan who is at the crossroads.”

Sorry? I don’t understand your point here. Please explain.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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”.

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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!

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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????

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“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?

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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!

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“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.

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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.

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Your Government Schools at work. Time for a “Change”!

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time to dump public ed in Ga. and start over.
this system is beyond help

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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.

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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…

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demographics……………………………………..

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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….

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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

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Wholesale, widespread cheating is the symptom. Teachers (and their careers) trapped in the clutches of powerful, unethical, unprofessional administrators is the disease.

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Mountain Man, sheesh, what cave in Montana do you live in ?

You say “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.”

Mountain Man, get out of your cave and breathe some fresh air and sunshine. Take a walk into the 20th century at least.

Screaming solves nothing. Screaming at teachers or kids does no good. No one solves anything by screaming.

The fact that you would even suggest something like that says a lot about you as well as your other cave man like comments.

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Today’s MOST uninformed, WILLFULLY ignorant quote, from one Beverly bores…

“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.”

@Beverly bores, please point to a SINGLE statement I have made that said there were “no dishonest or incompetent teachers”

On the contrary, I have made the point numerous times, that once you build TRUST among teachers that evaluation instruments won’t be used in a RETALIATORY manner, and once you improve teaching CONDITIONS, you’ll (hopefully) start to see teachers take a more vocal role in removing the DEADWEIGHT because it will be done in a fair and equitable manner.

Again, point to a SINGLE instance where I have said there are no incompetent or dishonest teachers.

Just as I thought…therefore, you are summarily DISMISSED.

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Already Sheared lies and says to us “Teachers (and their careers) trapped in the clutches of powerful, unethical, unprofessional administrators is the disease.”

AS, your lies are transparent. Teachers are not trapped. No one held a gun to their head and made them cheat, lie and steal.

Dishonety is not a disease. It’s a crime.

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gov nathan dean’s third cousin was a school teacher for two years. therefore, nathan dean is the education governor

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I’m curious Good Mother, would you just, at the drop of a hat, walk away from the job you spent years invested in, (say for example the year before you became vested) the very job that gives you the FINANCIAL FOUNDATION to be a “Good Mother”?

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The more POSITIVE, SOLUTION ORIENTED response Good Mother, would be to advocate for policies that would curb administrative RETALIATION, not blithely dismiss their concerns.

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Good mother is in need of attention that she does not get at home. Poor us!

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the machine will destroy honest people in the way you wish they’d teach
vigorously, energetically, and without hesitation

But your wrong Bootney. Maureen has stated words to the effect that she has seen few if any instances of retaliation, and that it is by no means a widespread problem, as you claim it is.

If I’m wrong, perhaps someone will show me a quote that proves otherwise

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Have said before and will say again: The most pervasive and insidious cheating in Georgia comes from the very top with the scoring of these state tests by the GaDOE.

When an 8th grade student who has the reading and math skills of a 4th grader can be pronounced “proficient” by the state, and when a high school student can pass his/her final exam (EOCT) by getting fewer than half of the questions correct, is that not cheating?

It gives students, parents, and in some cases, teachers, a totally inappropriate picture of the skills and abilities of those students.

Is it any wonder that the students need remedial coursework in college?

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Maureen – Can you do a story about the process involved for the Governor to remove an entire board?

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I feel for the special education teachers. It really is a lack of support for I.E.P and special accomodations and what do you do once you know that cheating is actually taking place? The other special education teacher resigned. Very few of us, except me, would take that drastic action in this bad economy. You ever heard of Santa Claus?

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I pass to @ Beverly Fraud …since some think @Beverly Fraud , @Dr. Trotter and @Top School are ALL the same person…

@Beverly…I think you get it…and since Maureen is not censoring your posts…keep on posting.
@ Dr. Trotter posts his connections with MACE and ongoing stories of ” I told you so” …And as Top School … I said so…told you so…documented it…said it for the last 10+ years and think the whining is a waste of time.

@ Beverly bores me …

Beverly was seen in a disco in HAWAII dancing the blues away …trying to forget the past year…

see Beverly DANCING at:

http://xmas.coke.com/v/en_EN/#86873661c2660c8d4ccc703a32954b1e62c7a096

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The fact is, this culture of cheating was created of the wreck that is NCLB. It is was anyone with a decent IQ would call unintended consequences. I have worked in a metro Atlanta school system HR department and I can tell you that many have attempted to come forward and were silenced by these school systems. Make an example out of a few and the message will be loud and clear for the masses.

In addition, even if these teachers stood up in masse, would the public have believed them when the scores were great? Would they have really wanted to listen? There is no union here, and the retaliatory nature of the education field is astounding. Unless they had concrete evidence (and some of them have)would anyone have really paid attention? I don’t know…

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@ Beverley Fraud

when Maureen becomes a career educator, then she can comment with authority on the intimadation and abuse of non political/do the right
thing employees. in well over 20 years in education, I’ve lost count of the amount of people I’ve seen railroaded and destroyed.

she has the right to be wrong, and in this case, is.

the reasons I can’t give any specific examples are:
1) a large amount are tied up in the system and so can’t be publically commented on
2) I don’t have the right to out somebody’s professional issues they are trying to resolve via channels
3) I already have people where I work determined to figure out who I am so I can be dealt with. I’m not gonna help them

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Bev Fraud, you crack me up.

I loved your post. Thanks for the laugh.

“On the contrary Good Mother, I’m VERY proud of the work I have done with Enron, Fannie Mae, and Bernie Madoff.”

…and don’t forget your outstanding work at Halliburton

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Great work, Don’t Feed. We all know gm is multiple personality. Way to document.

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[...] As we discussed here six days ago, state investigators issued a scathing report on cheating in Dougherty County schools, writing that there was “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. [...]

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