Former Fulton and Cobb school chief to state official who uncovered CRCT cheating: “You’ll pay dearly for it.”
Wow. Listen to this damning Channel 2 Action News tape of former Fulton and Cobb school chief James Wilson berating Kathleen Mathers, who, while director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, led the state probe into irregular CRCT results.
In his current role as an education consultant, Wilson was interrogating Mathers on behalf of Dougherty County Schools, which was seeking to defend itself against cheating allegations by discrediting the state audit of CRCT answer sheets.
Mathers’ agency found the highest rates of improbable wrong to right erasures in Dougherty and Atlanta schools.
An odd things about the interview: Wilson is clearly out of his political depth in threatening Mathers, who had the full support of Gov. Sonny Perdue in her efforts.
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157 comments Add your comment
ghostwriter
January 17th, 2012
9:52 pm
I see a few posters are still spreading their cheer on here, I just love it when they think they own the blog. It’s rather amusing but lord help the teachers who teach their kids. Haha, poor saps.
Aside from that, this is the reputation of the South coming out. The good ol’ boys are at it again….some things never change. Notice they hired a “consultant” so they weren’t directly responsible. tax dollars well spent!
And whoever thought that was a Brooklyn accent…it’s NOT!
paddle faster! I hear banjos….
Richard Braswell
January 17th, 2012
10:02 pm
WOW!! GETTING DOWN TO THE WIRE NOW…The Atlanta Public School System is what? Have the students, who desperately need the benefits of education, been justified. The answer, sadly is no. The state, governors office, allowed the Atlanta Journal Constitution to print, expose, the crippled, malignant APS school board, as if no one knew the board was raping the coffers and completely screwing the kids that needed help the most. The thievery has not stopped. Someone needs to compare the actual attendance with the reported and account for the money the taxpayers supplied for ghost students’ meals. Man Up Governor, finish the job….
JSC
January 17th, 2012
10:45 pm
James Wilson, you are a bully. You are evil. YOU are what is wrong with this country. YOU belong in JAIL for implied threats. I hope you “get there”, old guy.
FORMER Teacher
January 17th, 2012
10:48 pm
Wow, this is in a nutshell what is WRONG with schools around here. Some of the administrators and county officials get this feeling that they are above the law and can do whatever they want to whomever they want. I worked for two principals like this and let me tell you that they are the reason I am no longer in education. When someone’s attitude can ruin a school or a school system, it is a SAD state of affairs. Mr. Wilson is an embarrassment to our state!
My Two Cents
January 17th, 2012
10:55 pm
Time to clean the house of administrators and let the teachers teach!
Truth
January 17th, 2012
11:07 pm
@Mahopinion – really? LOL! Are you the same person (and I use that term losely) as “Good Mom”? I know that “Good Mom” is on here all the time and uses various names. I find it odd that you post just minutes after “Good Mom” on a regular basis.
Get a life.
getthosescoresup
January 17th, 2012
11:16 pm
and the federal gov will keep our $$$$ coming in (that we slide under the table) so everyone stays happy. Our children may not learn but the “old guys” get to have their pockets stuffed. How dare somebody come in and rock this good ole boy’s boat.
what a mess
January 17th, 2012
11:29 pm
@ get the scores up. Sounds like they did not want their gravy train to start to drain. And these crooks are taking care of our kids.great example. Theives with a suit and a smile that have all the slick answers.sounds like some need to do some time.
Pragmatic 1 One
January 17th, 2012
11:39 pm
Two of the schools that supposedly cheated had state auditors in the building, but there are very few questions about the credibility of the investigation and SACS. This whole campaign began as a result of erasure marks, nothing more, nothing less. The Penn University professor who was being consulted stated there was no evidence of cheating, but the erasure marls were suspicious.
Anyone who has taken a graduate admissions test prep course or SAT knows that one of the key recommendations is to select the two best answers, then come back to the question if you have time. Why is this test-taking strategy different for APS & Dougherty county? It’s the same old propaganda used during the Jim Crowe ere to minimize any achievement among Black students.
Ask mike bowers why he felt the need to offer immunity to teachers if they implicated others, making use of extreme interrogation methods without attorneys present. If you want to know more about the quasi-political organization called SACS, please see Burlington, NC BOE & their attorneys response to SACS whose reports are often characterized as full of vagueness, innuendos, and inaccuracies.
Followmoney
January 17th, 2012
11:46 pm
@justice seeker, I find your information quite interesting….it is odd that Kathleen and Gary are gone and no one seems to want to know why. Always follow the money and many questions will be answered. Bottom line, the state is happy now that they do not have to give Title I awards to the “poor little Black children.” I find it hard to believe that the governor, past or present, care about test scores. Sonny just had to find something for Kathleen to do, so she came up with this erasure analysis crap!!! Bowers and Wilson, the good ole boys, just co- signed with Sonny and now lawyers are getting paid, APS is giving away money(because they believe all of the crap in the report), but for most of the educators real evidence does not exist; and the list of Title 1 Distinguished schools is short for APS because the AYP status has been taken away for 2009 (again without solid proof for each school). Money, money, money…..By the way, no one has answered the question, where is Kathleen Mathers, Gary Walker, and we can’t forget about Heather Vogell???
William Casey
January 18th, 2012
12:26 am
@MAUREEN: I wish that the AJC would publish the names and amounts paid of “education consultants.”
FalconFreak
January 18th, 2012
2:27 am
Wilson is one sorry loser of an individual and I hope he pays dearly for his intimidation efforts. Wilson demonstrates quite clearly what is wrong with public education; it’s a top heavy bureaucracy whose primary aim is to protect the bureaucracy, school kids be dammed. If Wilson just didn’t make a strong case for a voucher system, then the public deserves what it gets. This loser should be prosecuted for attempting to impede the investigation. Thanks for the reporting. I’m beginning to have a renewed faith in the AJC!
Shame on Them
January 18th, 2012
3:32 am
How many of these educators, former educators, superintendents, etc. are getting big bucks as they are jumping from school system to school system carrying the same venomous tactics and then become associated with a consulting firm that has “say so” in the accreditation of school systems state wide? After this, there should be a moratorium on how school systems hire these phonies to come in on tax payers money and have no real intentions of serving students.
TPR
January 18th, 2012
5:20 am
Having watched that video and having glanced over the preceding comments, I agree with the general tenor of them. Wilson comes across in a pathetic way and should certainly get his comeuppance!
To Follow Money from Good Mom
January 18th, 2012
6:02 am
You said “Sonny just had to find something for Kathleen to do, so she came up with this erasure analysis crap!!! ”
coes
To Follow Money from Good Mom
January 18th, 2012
6:04 am
YOu said “Sonny just had to find something for Kathleen to do, so she came up with this erasure analysis crap!!!”
Erasing test scores is a crime. Why are you against investigating and punishing crime? The first obvious answer is that you were one of the teachers erasing test scores and therefore you are a criminal too and resent having your crime exposed but I don’t want to jump to conclusions. Please explain yourself.
To Truth from Good Mom
January 18th, 2012
6:20 am
SOrry to disappoint yoTruth but Mahopinion shares my opinion but that’s it. I know you really really need to believe only one person disagrees with you but that’s not the case. Miaybe your self-esteem is so low you can’t take it. Get over it.
Just so you know, every time you send a blog to Get Schooled, you are sending your IP address, commonly known as your “machine name.” Maureen can turn off or moderate anyone’s post by recognizing that machine name and computer forensics can be used to determine exactly which computer you are using to post from. It’s not rocket science, just regular old computer science. Your monniker and your email address are not used to determine who is posting.
If you want to broadcast your opinoins for all to hear, go for it but if you can’t stand having someone disagree with you and it hurts your itty bitty feewings, you might reconsider.
Good day,
Good mom
Note
January 18th, 2012
6:22 am
Where is James Wilson today? Which systems are paying for his “consulting?”
Billy
January 18th, 2012
6:34 am
slobofftehstreet,
Get a clue. First how are you going to prevent erasures, make the students use pens?
Second, yeah teachers have it made. They get paid for dealing with administrators who are disconnected with what goes on in the classroom and want to operate a system by the book when the conditions in the system never match the book they are working from. They also get to deal with parents who constantly want to blame them for their child not doing the work. The parents don’t want to take any responsibility and realize that the education of their child is just as much their job as it is the teachers.
Yeah, teachers get paid real well to be intimidated by everyone around them and hear the verbal abuse of parents. I think you are a bit disconnected with the real world. It’s time for parents to take responsibility for their kids and quit blaming every shortfall or negative event that happens to their kids on someone else.
Witness to the Scumbag
January 18th, 2012
6:42 am
This should not surprise anyone. Wilson was allowed to resign and sneak out the back door of Fulton County. He and the School Board members were working together to steal any and everything they could at Fulton County. When he left, he was being investigated for total irregularities in the computer contracts with the county. 5 or 6 Fulton employees were fired for blowing the whistle on that espisode. Wislon was aslo being investigated for covering up the DFACS complaint aginst a school administratore. Shorty after the inquiry ended, both the administrator and Wilson quietly exited the back door, before they could be fully investigated.
All this is orchestratec by Fulton and Cobb Counties attorney – - Glenn Brock. The biggest scumbag of them all. In cooperation with SACS.
milles
January 18th, 2012
6:44 am
Billy, you are spot on!
Logic 05
January 18th, 2012
7:14 am
This guy needs to be in prison.
I hope it at least ends his career as a consultant!
@bloodbike
January 18th, 2012
7:18 am
In Cobb County teachers are not allowed to record any conversations between themselves and admistrators. They also are not allowed to have another person in the room “on their side”. Administration can have as many people as they like in a meeting but the teacher is on their own. Also, if a teacher has a complaint about an administrator it must be filed through the principal who is often the administrator in question. The principal then decides if it is a valid complaint.
LOLBigTime
January 18th, 2012
7:20 am
Wilson is absolutely correct. He has nothing to lose as he is already the BIGGEST LOSER. What a JERK!
SpaceyG
January 18th, 2012
7:23 am
He actually whispers! Priceless.
LOLBigTime
January 18th, 2012
7:29 am
Packing my bags. I have had enough of Georgia politics. You crackers deserve everyone you place in public office, you all should be ashamed. Enjoy languishing in the bottom of education ramkings in the country. Of particular worry is you trail West Virginia. OUCH!
barneyfife
January 18th, 2012
7:39 am
With punks like that running the show, it’s no wonder the U.S. ranks as one of the last industiralized nations in education. Stupid is as stupid does.
Steady
January 18th, 2012
7:40 am
That’s one good ole boy that needs to be taken behind the wood shed.
Mountain Man
January 18th, 2012
7:42 am
“So, it’s ok to engage in unethical behavior as long as you were “bullied” by someone higher up?”
No, it is NOT OK, but…
You live in Nazi Germany. THe SS stops by, puts a gun to your head and orders you to fake a accusation against the Jew who lives next door. So by your question, you would refuse to do their bidding and take the bullet in the head? Hmmm, didn’t think so.
slobofftehstreet
January 18th, 2012
7:43 am
Oh Billy,
You ask, “Get a clue. First how are you going to prevent erasures, make the students use pens?”
No silly, you don’t give them erasers. Perhaps you didn’t get the memo? I hope you know to be sure your students use # 2’s? I know my teachers did back in the day and ah, NO. We were not allowed to change any answers on our standardized tests. One answer per question per customer. Now could anything me any simpler than that? Oh yeah, they also made it very clear that if two circles were marked for the same question then that question would be marked “WRONG.”
As for teachers? In any workplace there must be a leader. A boss if you will. Now if all teachers see themselves as brilliant and smarter than the boss as most who post here seem to be of that kind, then sooner or later you will find yourselves falling from grace with the administration. When you quit because of the oppression from the man/woman being to great for one to bear, you will perhaps be luck enough to find employment in the public sector. Just be certain that the poop also slides downhill in the public sector, but at a higher rate of acceleration and there are no hearings to see if you have been treated fairly. Nope, you are what they refer to as “OUT OF HERE.” This I gotta see.
Nobody wants to hear you whine about your job! I’ll bet even your Mommies are tired of it by now! If it is so bad quit. If it isn’t, zip it and get to work. If you see a problem, use your skills you teach children and put them to work for your own good to effect a positive change. Thanks for being so understanding! You see, together we can do anything!
elliemae
January 18th, 2012
7:44 am
Good point, @bloodbike:
I know that Cobb prohibits recording of conversations. That may be their policy, but any Cobb employee CAN tape anything- Cobb cannot prohibit any employee’s constitutional rights. It’s not considered eavesdropping if one of the people in the conversation is a party to that conversation (which of course, they would be). So tape away, and when they try and discipline you, find yourself a good civil attorney.
It’s time for this political nonsense to stop and get these arrogant butt monkeys out of education. Go back to the basics, let the teachers teach, and stop all the newfangled crap.
Mountain Man
January 18th, 2012
7:44 am
Did we prosecute every German soldier after World War II for helping Hitler with his “Final Solution”? Or did we give 99% of them a break, knowing they were under duress? Teachers whose jobs and livelihood are threatened by administrators are under duress, also.
Mountain Man
January 18th, 2012
7:46 am
“You ask, “Get a clue. First how are you going to prevent erasures, make the students use pens?””
No, if these tests are that important, you use an independent, outside testing firm to proctor all tests. Problem solved (except the cost of course).
barneyfife
January 18th, 2012
7:47 am
@Witness to the Scumbag- you speak the truth! The computer mess in Fulton is something I know about personally. It’s astounding how many of these cretins are lining their pockets at the expense of the teachers, parents, and students. Laughing all the way to the bank.
LOLBigTime
January 18th, 2012
8:03 am
If I were Wison, I would be looking behind my shoulder all of the time waiting for some Grand Jury to exact the justice that he truly deserves.
More of the same
January 18th, 2012
8:25 am
Lots of incompetent and undeserving people working in and for government at all levels. Who is really surprised that this is going on? It’s wrong, but who is surprosed about it?
Maureen Downey
January 18th, 2012
8:26 am
@Follow, I understand that Mathers left to have a baby. I can assure that she left of her own accord,whatever the reason. And Heather is right here at the AJC, working on another major piece.
Maureen
world welive in
January 18th, 2012
8:27 am
welcome to the world of classroom teachers…the environment of threats and bullying is what most of us live with daily ~especially if you challenge the higher ups, try to stand up for your beliefs or threaten the status quo. The good old boy network is still alive and well and used to bring down even the lowest on the totem pole.
@ LOL
January 18th, 2012
8:27 am
See ya. My guess is that you haven’t been too succesful here. Otherwise, you’d stay, like the rest of us who ARE succesful. Must be tough being such a bitter loser.
Debdoes
January 18th, 2012
8:45 am
The ‘old guy’ threatening the ‘young women’ who was actually threatening his career with her findings! He is a bully! I believe in Karma and what goes around comes around! I have a couple of executive managers in the Atlanta Software Industry that I am waiting on Karma to strike them! I also was bullied and release from my duties after being ‘threatened’…I should have sued them and perhaps I wouldn’t care that I am unemployed today!
Down in Albany
January 18th, 2012
8:46 am
Unfortunately, the corruption exposed in APS and Dougherty County is simply the tip of the iceberg. The administration in public schools is a cesspool everywhere. Baker County (just to the south of us) is under investigation because the Superintendent hired his wife (under suspicious circumstances) and there is a mountain of expenditures unaccounted for. The grand jury said the record keeping was so bad they could not determine culpability. There is a charter school in Mitchell County that is 99% run by one family…sisters are principal and secretary. Lee County (just to the north of us and held to be the gold standard in Sowega) is as corrupt as any. There is a school board member whose wife makes $100k+ in charge of curriculum that couldn’t pour water out of a boot with the directions on the sole. Employees are forced to work overtime without pay (in violation of labor laws). Bad teachers are transferred from one school to the next. Administrators and central office employees stand in the way of what is right. Corruption is rampant!
Debdoes
January 18th, 2012
8:48 am
for your HR’lites, it is called ‘Hostile Work Environment’!
carlosgvv
January 18th, 2012
8:57 am
If Wilson gets the full backing of the NAACP, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, just to name a few of the professional victims, you will find he is anything but “clearly out of his political depth”.
GregKennesaw
January 18th, 2012
8:58 am
Here is a link to Mr Wilson’s company and and an e-mail address, so you can tell him what you think of him directly. Also you might want to as a taxpayer see if your school system is imploying this individual
http://www.edplanners.com/about_us/jwilson.html
cricket
January 18th, 2012
9:11 am
To many of us, this tape is anything but shocking. Every county is filled with several “James Wilsons”. Guys like him are the rule rather than the exception. Their overbearing presence is felt day in and day out. This is nothing new.
GregKennesaw
January 18th, 2012
9:17 am
I meant employing, not imploying
cricket
January 18th, 2012
9:20 am
GregKennesaw
http://www.edplanners.com/about_us/jwilson.html
It’s not like this is the only consulting firm out there sucking up the money “for the children”.
There is always PLENTY of money to pay these people yet schools are so poor we have to pack 35 kids into one classroom.
Right.
There is plenty of education money out there. It is just being pissed away.
cricket
January 18th, 2012
9:27 am
“@MAUREEN: I wish that the AJC would publish the names and amounts paid of “education consultants.””
Amen! That information is impossible to find for some reason. Hmmmm?
RAMZAD
January 18th, 2012
9:39 am
It is these geriatric dog droppings that keep Georgia at the bottom of everything. Now this woman is talking about science to prove or disprove something and the barf heap is threatening her.
Freedom From Insanity
January 18th, 2012
9:49 am
I like his comment about “fixing the car before you look under the hood”. Absolute insanity abounds!