Hall a cause, not victim, of cheating scandal
Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall did not sit in a locked room, eraser in hand, changing wrong answers to right answers on standardized tests. Absent a blockbuster revelation in a state report expected to be released soon, Hall also did not preside over staff meetings in which she directed or encouraged others to do so.
But let’s be blunt, because Hall will not: The responsibility is hers. The failure of moral and ethical leadership is hers. The evasion of accountability is hers. She set the tone, she created the high-stakes system of rewards and penalties driven by test scores, she chose to ignore the warning signs, and when given repeated chances to address the problems that she and her staff created, she refused the opportunity.
As a result, people may be going to jail. Others may lose their careers and professional reputations. The credibility of the school system that Hall led for a dozen years is in tatters and its operations paralyzed. Its capacity to deliver quality education to its schoolchildren has been compromised, and it will take years to recover.
Against that backdrop, Hall last week released a videotaped farewell to district personnel in which she grudgingly acknowledged a portion of the truth. The state investigation, she said, is likely to reach “some troubling, no some alarming conclusions.”
“It’s become increasingly clear over the last year that a segment of our staff chose to violate the trust that was placed in them,” Hall said. “And let me be clear: There is simply no excuse for unethical behavior and no room in this district for unethical conduct. I am confident that aggressive swift action will be taken against anyone who believes so little in our students and in our system of support that they turned to dishonesty as the only option.”
The statement is remarkable on several levels. Hall claimed there is “simply no excuse for unethical behavior and no room in this district for unethical conduct,” but the state report is likely to document the opposite conclusion: The breakdown of integrity was too large to be explained as random acts by random individuals, and instead reflected institutional failure. In fact, if the cheating was as widespread as many fear, otherwise ethical people may have felt pressured to cheat themselves as a means to keep pace with their peers.
That does not excuse those who operated unethically or criminally, but they alone should not bear the consequences of an environment that Hall and others created.
Hall also said she is confident that “aggressive swift action will be taken,” but the claim is laughable; the deadline for aggressive swift action passed long ago. This is belated action, action that in some cases will be more severe than if Hall and others, including the Atlanta School Board, had taken the problem more seriously when it first came to light.
However, the most striking element of Hall’s statement is her continued attempt to distance herself, as if she has been a passive witness to these events. She clearly implies that if others took unethical actions, if others “chose to violate the trust that was placed in them” and turned to dishonesty, then those others should be held responsible. She is not to blame for their shortcomings.
Again, if this were a few random actions by a few random individuals, Hall’s stance might be understandable. That’s not the case. Furthermore, these are people whom Hall put into positions of authority, operating in a system of her design and answerable to her. In fact, one of Hall’s more impressive achievements as superintendent was her ability to make a stubborn educational bureaucracy responsive to her priorities. She cannot now walk away as if she were somehow a victim, rather than a cause, of this scandal.
– Jay Bookman
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291 comments Add your comment
Kamchak
May 31st, 2011
10:46 am
Tick…tick…tick….
Adam
May 31st, 2011
10:50 am
Jay: My apologies. I decided I was done when I saw the projection post flurry and I’m sorry for continuing to fuel the fire. If only it didn’t make me so mad….
Brosephus
May 31st, 2011
10:50 am
Lwm
We’ll put an asterisk on Ferguson because of the upbringing, but he could technically be the first psychotic one because of that snap.
AmVet
May 31st, 2011
10:51 am
I must be losing my blogging religion.
The twists and turns of this “dialogue” make me a tad nauseous and other than this solitary observation, make me want to stay the hell away from it..
Sometimes I think it is still 1964 in the Deep South…
USMC
May 31st, 2011
10:52 am
I wish we could take up a RACISM relief fund for poor ADAM who sees the world as RACE and IDENTITY POLITICS. I am sure if Adam would open his mind up to diversity, he could cure his IGNORANCE.
Why do we even let ignorant, uneducated people like ADAM who comes from a R@CIST mother blog on the internet???? I guess that apple didn’t fall too far from the tree, did it Adam??
.
Dr. Craig Spinks/Augusta
May 31st, 2011
10:52 am
Jay,
Please retain the APS cheating scandal on your radar until the issue is honorably resolved. That our kids deserve an education preparing them for a complex, competitive future is irrefutable. Don’t let the educrats and the ATL-boosters add this scandal to others they’ve previously “swept under the rug” in efforts to maintain their public-deceiving, self-serving images.
It’s long past time to confront the truth about the third-world educational opportunities provided many kids in the APS and many more kids in under-performing schools and systems throughout the rest of our state.
Just Asking
May 31st, 2011
10:55 am
USMC how old are you? Under 20?
josef nix
May 31st, 2011
10:55 am
IMAM
True, that…but it IS within the frontiers drawn in 1850?
Seriously, though, you should have heard what I had to say when they brought on Ben Canada…! As I said then, I ain’t real fond of the Canada klan, and that includes the ones I’ve slept with! But, yes, he was another of just what I’m talking about…no stake in the local system and off to greener pastures at the first offer…
josef nix
May 31st, 2011
10:56 am
BROSEPHUS
@ 10:29
Po, po, pitiful me!
Jay
May 31st, 2011
10:56 am
The world is full of examples sufficient to justify any type of bigotry you might hope to nurture, whether against black males, white males, Hispanics, black females, carpetbaggers, gay people, etc.
When people choose to wallow in those examples, trying to turn every conversation toward that end, they reveal an awful lot about themselves.
Joe Cool~"PRESIDENT Obama" Tells Birthers,"Thanks For Playing BI+CHES"
May 31st, 2011
10:57 am
“I wish we could take up a RACISM relief fund for poor ADAM who sees the world as RACE and IDENTITY POLITICS.”
Haha, coming from a Birther..lol.
Adam
May 31st, 2011
10:58 am
AmVet @ 10:51a: yeah, at this point I am waiting for fresh sheets.
Josh
May 31st, 2011
11:00 am
USMC is a pitiful moron with a big mouth. Hiding behind “USMC,” while making these horribly generalized statements makes you pathetic, and i hope that you’re not a marine. My dad is a two-star general in the USMC… u think he’d take your vitriolic garbage for a second? Firstly, you just insulted the president… he’d courtmashal you just for that. Then, after laughing at you for being so cowardly as to annonymously attack people without being attacked first mind you, he’d chew you up, spit you out, and then feed you those you hate. You don’t represent the USMC at all, so since your too pathetic to print your name, at least stop sullying the USMC.
Finn McCool
May 31st, 2011
11:00 am
I blame everything on cross-eyed male albino midgets. They are my personal scapegoats. I blame my situation in life on them and them only.
Kamchak
May 31st, 2011
11:00 am
Personally — I blame Manchester United.
Brosephus
May 31st, 2011
11:02 am
When people choose to wallow in those examples, trying to turn every conversation toward that end, they reveal an awful lot about themselves.
What does it say about the person who provides the initial conversation that offers the opportunity to twist and turn?
j/k!!!!!
that friggin’ josef is rubbing off on me. I’ve gotta remember that it’s not my job to poke the Bruin.
Granny Godzilla
May 31st, 2011
11:02 am
Finn
It’s the Norwegians…..
Josh
May 31st, 2011
11:03 am
Jay – don’t respond to USMC… while i disagree with you on this piece as well, USMC isn’t worth any debate… when you wallow with pigs, you smell like crap.
Brosephus
May 31st, 2011
11:04 am
“I blame everything on cross-eyed male albino midgets. They are my personal scapegoats. I blame my situation in life on them and them only.”
josef
See that 11:02?? I gotta stop hanging around with you. You’re a bad influence on me.
USMC
May 31st, 2011
11:04 am
“When people chose to wallow in those examples, trying to turn every conversation toward that end, they reveal an awful lot about themselves.”
The same can be said for the naive, ignorance of those, like you Jay, who promote r@cially divisive programs such as Affirmative Action that perpetuate r@cism in its very nature.
And then you become hyper-sensitive and defensive when someone merely brings up the FACT that the Atlanta Public Schools HAS a policy of instituting Affirmative Action when hiring Superintendents.
Speaks volumes on your intellectual dishonesty and Identity Politics/R@cist beliefs…
josef nix
May 31st, 2011
11:05 am
ZamVet
“Sometimes I think it is still 1964 in the Deep South”
Well, we’re still calling in the missionaries….
JAY
See you got your Carpetbaggers in there…! But you’re not one. You’re a Scalawag…
But the point is made…we all have our “issues” and can make whatever that group may be responsible for all the sins of mankind since Adam took a bite…
Just Asking
May 31st, 2011
11:06 am
USMC
The same can be said for the naive, ignorance of those, like you Jay, who promote r@cially divisive programs such as Affirmative Action that perpetuate r@cism in its very nature.
And then you become hyper-sensitive and defensive when someone merely brings up the FACT that the Atlanta Public Schools HAS a policy of instituting Affirmative Action when hiring Superintendents.
Is Gwinnett County using the same type of policies?
josef nix
May 31st, 2011
11:08 am
SoCo
“What does it say about the person who provides the initial conversation that offers the opportunity to twist and turn? ”
You can say that…I can’t…need more melanin!!!
Brosephus
May 31st, 2011
11:09 am
josef
midtownguy
May 31st, 2011
11:11 am
Actually, the Jim Tressel/ Beverly Hall comparison is a good one. Both were protected from dismissal by their “success” even though that success came partially from cheating. Hall was protected by the school board and Tressel was protected by the university president. And only when the evidence of cheating became overwhelming did the resignations occur.
The fact that one is a conservative white male and the other a black female is irrelevant. They both hid behind their accolades.
Original Thought not Necessary
May 31st, 2011
11:12 am
I’ve spent the last few minutes reading as some troglodyte that wants everyone to think he/she is a former Marine has hijacked this blog from a discussion about a real problem that vexes Georgians statewide and turn it into yet another tired old argument over the evils of anyone who doesn’t see the world exactly as he/she does. He/she tosses out the names of prominent Atlantans children to bolster his bona fides as if to say “see, I am friends with MLK’s kids and Maynard’s kids so I can’t possibly be racist and therefore my opinion is valid.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could once, just once, have a real discussion about something. ANYTHING, that didn’t get bogged down into a flame throwing debate about “those evil libruls”?
Yes the man/woman is an idiot, pure and simple. Ignorant and racist with an inability to see anything outside the black and white aspects (not talking about race there) of a grey filled world. Very sad, really. Especially if he/she really is a former Marine as that kind of person is the last person I’d want as the face of America in some far off land.
I’ve wasted a lot of words here which makes it incredibly ironic (at least to me) that what I really want to say here is…..can’t we all just ignore the stupid? I’m sure he/she will ignore me since I’m sure I’m stupid to him/her. And…..shock……I’m just fine with that.
Fixingit
May 31st, 2011
11:13 am
Ms Hall situation is an example of poor leadership. In a very simple way, an effective leader is one who takes all the blame for the flaws and defers to her staff the credits for the successes. It would appear as though the opposite occurred. An effective leader would step up immediately to take responsibility for what’s happened with this cheating scandal.
And what good is it to play the “we found it first” game?
In the meantime my child is a product of the APS. Her teachers were by and large top calibre. My complaints about any of them are pretty small stuff.
I left teaching in public schools some years ago. As I left I heard the first mention of how teachers would receive bonuses on their paychecks for improvement on the CRCT. What we’re seeing with Ms Hall is a predictable outcome of rewarding teachers based on student performance. Money talks, as some people say.
If APS is like school systems in very many places, the struggle against bureaucratic inertia is constant and many times futile. While Ms Hall is absolutely responsible for everything that happened with the standardized testing her achievements at getting the system to improve are still commendable. Should she get a gold parachute? You tell me.
midtownguy
May 31st, 2011
11:14 am
And I believe both Jim Tressel and Beverly Hall used the “isolated incidents” and “I didn’t know” defenses.
Luna
May 31st, 2011
11:14 am
This blog article is very informative. Prior to reading this piece, I did not even know that Beverly Hall created the No Child Left Behind debacle that prioritized testing far above teaching and actual learning. I wonder how many other school districts, nation wide, have suffered similarly because of the nefarious actions of Beverly Hall?
Finn McCool
May 31st, 2011
11:17 am
Can’t we all just ….. blame the Jews? Ain’t nobody hated on them in over 50 years.
Are they back to the top of the batting order yet?
Left wing management
May 31st, 2011
11:17 am
Luna: ” I wonder how many other school districts, nation wide, have suffered similarly because of the nefarious actions of Beverly Hall”
Yes, it’s true. See George W. Bush, who of course was Beverly Hall 1.0.
Finn McCool
May 31st, 2011
11:19 am
W didn’t act alone – Ted Kennedy pushed it too. The error was in not fully funding the program which fell on Congress.
Jimmy62
May 31st, 2011
11:20 am
Why is it that 3 years ago when gas prices were high all we heard from the left was how it was Bush’s fault. And now that gas is high again, you don’t see those same people blaming Obama. Could it be that Bush-hatred was completely partisan?
You bet!
a reader
May 31st, 2011
11:21 am
once again, thank you APS for adding value to the high cost of private school education.
Peadawg
May 31st, 2011
11:22 am
“W didn’t act alone – Ted Kennedy pushed it too. The error was in not fully funding the program which fell on Congress.” – No, the error was implementing NCLB in the first place.
Bosch
May 31st, 2011
11:24 am
“Ted Kennedy pushed it too. ”
And John McCain……
Mighy Righty
May 31st, 2011
11:28 am
Jay, I have nothing to do with any school system. I don’t live in Atlanta, I havn’t paid any attention to this problem. Looks to me like you nailed the problem. My personal opinion on education in general is that this problem is not unique to the Atlanta school system. This is a nation wide problem. Our schools are more interested in the students feelings than in educating them. As an employer, I can’t tell you how many applicants I have interviewed with so called High School diplomas and even a few college degrees that cannot write a simple paragraph on why they would like to work. Personaly, I would have a problem punishing Ms. Hall when she is a product of a system that can’t and doesn’t want to educate our children. Worse, it’s taken twelve years to figure out there is a problem with the Atlanta schools. Somebody above her should be punished. In twelve years the school board didn’t notice their system was turning out failures?
harvey
May 31st, 2011
11:31 am
Typical of all government/bureaucratic regulators–they get the job with all its pretty perks and then sit on their butts–while the housing industry goes into the can; while the oil company doesn’t maintain its equipment properly, and while cheating goes on. Why are our bureaucrats so lazy and irresponsible–probably because they are given those jobs on something other than merit.
josef nix
May 31st, 2011
11:31 am
ZamVet
Why limit it to the Deep South? Why not include the Upper South, the Midwest or any other part of the empire…this is exactly that prejudice I keep harping on…and, hey, aren’t you from the land of Brown v Board of Education…
josef nix
May 31st, 2011
11:33 am
BOSCH
Let’s not forget Roy Barnes….
Fixingit
May 31st, 2011
11:34 am
NCLB is a product of the education industry. These programs tend to change with every president. Before one gets thoroughly tested and demonstrated it gets put into place. Their names will pass in front of you in acronyms that make your eyes glaze over. In the meantime layers of administration grow with the implementation of each one. Before you know it your school system is embattled, entrenched and stagnant.
midtownguy
May 31st, 2011
11:37 am
One problem with the discussion here is that the Atlanta Public School System is being discussed as a whole. There are some very fine schools in Atlanta. There were specific schools in very specific neighborhoods where the cheating occurred. And it is not about race, it is about the socioeconomic status of the neighborhoods where these schools are located.
Administrators were pushed to show gains in these traditionally under-performing neighborhoods and given financial incentives if they accomplished those goals. Is anyone surprised that cheating occurred.
Responsibility rests at the top.
Doggone/GA
May 31st, 2011
11:38 am
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could once, just once, have a real discussion about something. ANYTHING, that didn’t get bogged down into a flame throwing debate about “those evil libruls”?”
Certainly we can, but the solution does not lie in stopping bigots like USMC from expressing their bigotry. It lies in the REST OF US not responding AT ALL to his inanities, and HAVING that conversation you desire IN SPITE of his spite.
josef nix
May 31st, 2011
11:39 am
midtownguy
@ 11:37
Exactly…
Fixingit
May 31st, 2011
11:42 am
These particular APS problems were not an epidemic. Something we can all be thankful for is that it’s been uncovered and that it was uncovered as early as it was discovered, not later.
a reader
May 31st, 2011
11:48 am
right on, doggone
just cuz the host keeps feeding him
don’t mean we have to keep reading him
don’t feed the trolls
Adam
May 31st, 2011
11:50 am
Doggone: Oh trust me, from now on….
Jack
May 31st, 2011
11:56 am
There’s probably not a recent high school graduate that can diagram a sentence. I don’t think that’s Hall’s fault.
Billybob
May 31st, 2011
11:57 am
Hall should be held accountable and I am glad you point out how she always tries to detach herself so as not to take the blame……in fairness, when are you going to stop letting hussein do the same thing and call him on all his policy failures, which are numerous? I’ll hold my breath…….
sadly in ATL
May 31st, 2011
12:02 pm
so what do we do to get the train back on the right track? arguing about who is to blame is a waste of time. they system is broken… break the system and start over. punish the guilty but partisanship and race aren’t the real issues we need to start with. the fix we need is to address the structure of public education or do you want to just give up and send your kids to private schools?
Original Thought not Necessary
May 31st, 2011
12:03 pm
Kamchak “Personally — I blame Manchester United.
God i wish I’d thought of that. Now I have to go clean coffee off my keyboard.
Original Thought not Necessary
May 31st, 2011
12:04 pm
Doggone/GA
Yep. Therein lies the ironic nature of my post. I guess I should feel a little guilty.
Dan
May 31st, 2011
12:10 pm
Actually Congress proposes bills like NCLB ergo it was Teds bill and Bush supported it. Additionally, the rules and measurements are all locally determined, NCLB just demands consistency. These are realities not opinions, for an opinion, federal education funding is a waste of money, but it allows the pols to point to it and say they “help children”
Dusty
May 31st, 2011
12:17 pm
Well, folks, what you need is a nice trip to Burger King for a whopper with onion rings. They don’t care if you are white, black or purple. They don’t care if you can’t read the receipt. They con’t care if you are from NYC or ReynoldsTown. They don’t care if you are the biggest bigot and prevaricator in town. They just want everybody to get along and pay their check. That’’s it. GET ALONG AND PAY YOUR OWN CHECK.
Bookman is right. Hall made a mess. Some teachers made a mess. The schoolboard made a mess Some parents made a mess. So that’s enough. Let’s not make a mess here. We have enough prejudice without promoting it. These are free fall OPINONS, folks. Relax. Cut the namecalling. Have an onion ring!!
Earvin
May 31st, 2011
12:31 pm
Jay I can almost always find something in your blogs with which to take exception, but not this one. You nailed it, you gave voice to what most of us are thinking about the APS situation right now.
I only hope this cheating woman doesn’t escape punishment for what she’s done.
John Birch
May 31st, 2011
12:36 pm
Unfortunately, people of integrity are not drawn to these jobs, APS superintendent or US President, because they are difficult and often thankless or worse, subjected to public criticism. So we mostly get the egomaniacal on some type of power trip, where the best ethical position seems to be the ends justify the means.
Besides it’s impossible to make chicken salad out of chicken $hit. You cannot educate the shallow end of the gene pool to get good test scores and Hope scholarships, so they resort to cheating on the tests and ‘giving away’ A’s and B’s to students who would flunk in an academically legitimate environment.
Larry
May 31st, 2011
12:46 pm
I agree w/what Jay said (not the 1st time, but it’s rare). The real issue was evident when Hall was receiving her accolades and everyone put their heads in the sand like a bunch of ostriches and ignored state graduation test rates, the number of students needing remedial courses when they got into college, the retention rate of her students in college. The signs were there but everyone was high fiving over her “success”.
Paulo977
May 31st, 2011
12:48 pm
Jay
“she created the high-stakes system of rewards and penalties driven by test scores……”I am sorry that I have to disagree with you ….this sorry mess was really initiated by Reagan who ushered in the era of Standardized testing as an indicator of good EDUCATION !! It took off from there reaching great excitement with the crappy NCLB and now state departments , state and local administrators , teachers , teacher education colleges and teachers have all been impacted by its ridiculous demands and the threat that they risk losing their livelihoods if they don’t comply !!!
Larry
May 31st, 2011
12:50 pm
I knew someone would figurwe out a way to blame republicans for this……
Fly-On-The-Wall
May 31st, 2011
12:54 pm
I see this from the side of where we want to treat everything as a business. So people institute business processes in situations where there is no place for a business process. You can’t run schools like a business. The metric was passing test scores, the spreadsheets were worked up showing those schools who didn’t meet the metric numbers. So they were told in a regular business fashion – make the numbers anyway you can.
That is not the way to run an educational system.
bob
May 31st, 2011
12:54 pm
What has happened to people taking responsibility for their illegal activities?
Didnt she get a huge bonus for meeting certain test scores? They should go after all that money.
sadly in ATL
May 31st, 2011
12:58 pm
the best money i ever spent was private education for my kids. there can’t even be an intelligent conversation about the real issue here- how to move forward. good luck. i am afraid you are sentencing your kids to a life of poor reasoning and unfulfilled potential.
GT
May 31st, 2011
1:20 pm
Rowland W. Barnes is probably dead because of this same kind of management process. Eight Fulton County deputies are fired due to their actions during the courthouse shootings. You read the report and you soon figure out that they are scapegoats to a much larger problem. Understaffed was one of the answers to the chaos that day but also in the report people on the clock were not doing their jobs. They were running to the store to buy their boss breakfast, or out socializing in the early morning hallways. The escape was going on in front of security cameras that were working fine. What was not working fine were the humans in charge of the machines. Breakfast was more important to the “boss” than the security of another Ms. Hall, Cynthia Hall. Nobody was in front of the monitor they were in line at some greasy fast food place getting bags of breakfast for the brass. Our tax dollars at work. If the city of Atlanta ever gets their problems straighten out it would be a good time to go short on McDonald’s, the place may go broke. Deputy Dilcie Thomas urged Ms. Hall to get help that morning but I guess Ms. Thomas didn’t know how hard getting help at the courthouse could be at breakfast time.
Our problems in about everything that happen in this town starts with the attitude and that starts in the Atlanta School System. Watch very bright people in our society and you will see many times very nervous type people. Probably too nervous to even eat breakfast on someone else’s time while a fellow worker is almost beat to death. Far worse is happening in our schools. No report will ever tell the whole story, no real change will be made until something tragic takes place.
Grob Hahn
May 31st, 2011
1:36 pm
Nobody speaks to what a hellish environment this must have created for the children. For a while they must have been forced by rote to learn the barest minimum for passing the standard. Such training can’t last without the child rebelling either inwardly or outwardly. It’s still VERY puzzling that the parents have not been vocal at all in this. Or is the press simply avoiding them. After all, when kids do poorly in school, the natural blame is the parents these days. Beverly Hall belongs in jail.
Grobbbbbbbb
John Birch
May 31st, 2011
1:36 pm
Confiscate her personal property to be sold at public auction with the proceeds going to the school system. Then tar and feather her and run her out of town on a rail! Then maybe, just maybe, we can get some accountability in the APS system.
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 31st, 2011
2:29 pm
Jim Tressel only lasted this long because of affirmative action!!
We know that Jay wrote that in jest but we also know that the reason Tressel lasted as long as he did, is that he was making money for Ohio State, hand over fist. He’d be there indefinitely, if he hadn’t gotten sloppy and got caught.
I know very little about the APS but it seems to me that a system that large is bound to have people who can be promoted from within the ranks, that are perfectly capable of running things. Who knows, it might even be somebody with a lifelong tie to the community, who is interested in making things better. Too many administrators in all departments of local governments, nationwide, are mainly interested in padding the resume and heading off to the next rung on the career ladder.
Ga Values
May 31st, 2011
2:38 pm
The next APS school super will be a black woman, is that raceism?
WOW
May 31st, 2011
2:41 pm
This entire episode with the APS cheating scandal should serve as motivation for all you ignorant hillbillies to keep your ugly ginger-faced dullards at home. Call it home-schooling or whatever, and by all means teach ‘em how to post in ALL CAPS and to take quotes and statistics out of context.
Teach ‘em how to make arguments that no one outside of Forsyth County would ever take seriously. Take ‘em to church so they can find a nice ugly ginger-faced girl to get pregnant. Teach ‘em how to be spiteful and jealous and lazy all at the same time. Teach ‘em how to co-sign on ATV’s and ruin their credit. Teach ‘em to get their vocabulary words from phony politicos on the radio and bumper stickers.
Show ‘em how to follow Sarah Palin on Twitter.
But DO NOT enroll them in public schools. Do us all a favor, please, and keep ‘em at home.
DeYolpMenu
May 31st, 2011
2:42 pm
Funny today is a Beverly Hall -vs- Hall County School system; definition of cheating. Both aspect of cheating is harmful to students, but only one HALL will be held accountable by the standards of Georgia Justice. Sad to say it won’t be Hall County School systems.
Adam
May 31st, 2011
2:51 pm
Paulo977: this sorry mess was really initiated by Reagan who ushered in the era of Standardized testing as an indicator of good EDUCATION !!
And I can’t believe that politicians still buy this crap as a true test of educational quality.
G Cancryn
May 31st, 2011
3:23 pm
What’s this I hear about HALL COUNTY doing last minute transfers of failing students to boost their numbers ? This is cheating ? or no?
Fixingit
May 31st, 2011
3:41 pm
As a parent who’s child just completed high school, my first responsibility toward education has been to see that my child consistently had an excellent teacher. At the same time was the hope that this mediocre school system in the middle of the rankings of a state system that’s at the bottom of nationwide rankings, that the experience would be satisfactory. And it has! One question to ask ourselves is- is APS a better system than when Ms Hall took it over? By and large the answer I’d give is yes. However my child is due a lesson in civic accountability and for that Ms Hall deserves a full hearing.
Standardized testing is a flop. This isn’t to say competition isn’t a necessary part of education. But it is not the be all and end all of what a child needs to know to survive in this world. What we see with Ms Hall and the staff she refers to is a predictable result. There is healthy competition and there is unhealthy. Maybe now we can say we’ve learned what’s unhealthy for our children.
stives
May 31st, 2011
3:42 pm
Public schools have gotten a bad name; somewhere along the way it should be where education has a place in all students lives. I am ashameed at how public schools has become; its not the schools but the people put into position to run them. No wonder children have no interest in school, they are almost met by those in charge of the schools with negative opinions and get negative results. Where do public schools go from here, or here is where they go!
BADA BING
May 31st, 2011
4:09 pm
You people can call USMC a racist alll day long, but what has Hall and the APS done to the future of THOUSANDS of Black children? Who is the bad guy here?
Joe Mama
May 31st, 2011
4:16 pm
BADA BING — “You people can call USMC a racist alll day long”
Thanks!
Born Yesterday
May 31st, 2011
5:37 pm
Isn’t it funny that the state of Georgia has the temerity to accuse anybody of educational cheating? Isn’t this the same Georgia that cheated its African American citizens out of an equal education for centuries? Who cheated first? Who cheated longest? And since when is the AJC all aghast over cheating? Is this the same AJC that cheated black schoolchildren when McGill opined against integration at APS? Were y’all bloggers born yesterday?
The Leg Lamp is a "major award"......
May 31st, 2011
5:45 pm
Born Yesterday
May 31st, 2011
5:37 pm
Wow, so many race baiting questions. I’m surprised you didn’t tout the vitrues of reparations.
Here’s a question for you – what do the following Memorial Day “celebrations” have in common (besides occurring on Memorial Day Weekend)?
UPDATE: MIAMI ‘WAR ZONE’ DURING URBAN WEEKEND…
Poet ‘Da Real One’ Gunned Down In Front Of Miami Poetry Cafe…
Violent crime explodes in Myrtle during Black Bike Week; 8-hour hell…
Rib Fest At Rochester beach turns rowdy…
Riot On Long Island…
Urban Melee In Charlotte…
Chaos causes DNC concern for convention…
Unruly urban crowd shuts down Nashville water park…
REPORT: ‘Dozens of gang bangers’…
TEEN GANGS UNLEASHED ON BOSTON BEACH
mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack the Liar Obama - BEND OVER, Here comes the CHANGE!
May 31st, 2011
5:50 pm
Amen! Where is the REAL Jay, I know a vast right winger wrote this.
The Leg Lamp is a "major award"......
May 31st, 2011
6:02 pm
Born Yesterday
May 31st, 2011
5:37 pm
By the way, let me help you out with your questions.
Q: Isn’t it funny that the state of Georgia has the temerity to accuse anybody of educational cheating?
A: Um, no it’s not funny….unless I missed the punch line.
Q: Isn’t this the same Georgia that cheated its African American citizens out of an equal education for centuries?
A: I don’t know, I wasn’t alive. Do you have a link?
Q: Who cheated first?
A: I believe Prince Charles cheated first, then Diana cheated.
Q: Who cheated longest?
A: Johnny “the wad” Holmes, but he’s dead.
Q: And since when is the AJC all aghast over cheating?
A: I don’t know if the AJC IS all aghast over cheating. But Jay is, apparently, and rightfully so.
Q: Is this the same AJC that cheated black schoolchildren when McGill opined against integration at APS?
A: No. Back then it was the Atlanta Constitution and the Atlanta Journal. Separate newspapers. AJC came much later.
Q: Were y’all bloggers born yesterday?
A: No. It’s impossible for a one day old infant to have the motor skills and thought process to post on a blog.
I hope that helped.
Sasha F.
May 31st, 2011
6:45 pm
Dr. Truth, I concur with your sentiments regarding some of APS Corrupted Family Members which include Beverly Hall, Kathy Agustine, Dr. Davis (Area Supt.)Al Jessie, Eunice Robinson, Lorraine Reich just to name a small few. Beverly Hall and her unsupervised entourage have terminated Excellent Teachers based on what principals alleged about them.
A great leader would at least meet with an individual who had longevity, excellent evaluations, and a stella career to hear both sides and as a result learn the truth.Dr. Hall has allowed APS admin. to run their schools as though they are the President of the U. S. All of the individuals named need to be closely investigated (as quiet as teachers and others have been concerning them). When APS admin. go after a teacher is pretty much a done deal. This is due to principlas that have been working for the system for 40+ years. I pray that the day will come when they will only allow a pricipal to serve 4 years (only) at a given school and then made to transfer to another school.
The president of the U. S. can’t serve anymore than a total of 8 years; and they they have to seek office again. Principals have entirely to much POWER! At least they think so until GOD show them differently; and trust me he WILL.
oldguy
May 31st, 2011
8:42 pm
Jay,
So you don’t think race plays a significant role in hiring/promotion in government (both state and federal, especially in areas such as Atlanta where the majority of the urban population is “minority”)?
Before retirement I was a manager with the federal government. When we had a promotional position available we wrote a position description with a group of ranked skills necessary to do the job. Personnel sent us a list of ranked qualifiers (ranked by how well they met the qualifications [with seniority an a weighted factor]). Usually 10-15 names. We were required to interview the top 5 for the job.
The catch was: If there was a “minority” (female, asian, black, indian) on the list anywhere, even #15 and they were not hired you had to write a presonnel justification as to why they were not hired and someone else was; believe me better qualifications (as all on the list were considered qualified) was not an acceptable answer. Personnel would reject the hire and send the position back for reconsideration.
If a minority was selected for the promotion no justification was necessary, even if the first 10 higher qualifiers were passed over; as long as none were minority. After being bounced back 3 or 4 times you would give up and hire the “minority”. The proven ability to work as part of a team (one of the more important things we did) carried little or no weight. One “Lady” was promoted who was a demonstrated terrible team worker (she always insisted on doing things her way, even when directed otherwise by the team leader; he begged me not to hire her!). Why:: see above.
BTW our workforce was well integrated; both race and sex.
So Jay, if you think “race” “minority” ect plays no part in Government hiring/promotion I’ll be happy to sell you a part-interest in a certain bridge in Brooklyn!!!
downtowner
May 31st, 2011
9:36 pm
Is there any connection between the Sunday AJC story that it was about 10 years ago that such high percentages of Georgia high school graduates began needing remedial college classes, and the beginning of Beverly Hall’s tenure as APS superintendent? 10 out the 19 high schools needing the highest percentage of remedial work (50% of the students and more) listed this year are in Atlanta.
bob
June 1st, 2011
6:34 am
Cnn’t we blame this on the racist Tea Party ? We all know Atlanta’s school children would have everything they need for success if it were not for those meddling bogots.
lukagsfd
June 1st, 2011
8:17 am
wrong jay, hall is a victim – a victim of the democrat mind set that keeps people locked into a “not my fault” mentality.
Fletch
June 1st, 2011
9:25 am
You are correct sir. I don’t care what side of the fence you (collective) sit on, this is just totally unacceptable. The kids are the victims of the ambitions of some adults and it makes me sick. Happens way too often in this metro.
lynn everitt
June 1st, 2011
10:42 pm
Mayor Reed hired all of his top posts with people from out of town (except Police Chief).
Maybe he knew how bad the education was in Atlanta and decided to seek better trained people.
Now the world knows.
Beverly Hall will receive millions from us the taxpayers for the rest of her life and she left us the gift that will keep on giving. Our Education and our people suck.
Patrick Crabtree
June 2nd, 2011
2:34 pm
Thank you, Jay. as former President of the Atlanta Association of Educators, I have voiced my concerns over Dr. Hall over the years. She has NEVER taken ownership of any failures she created. I wrote in our newsletter over seven years ago, “…when there is high stakes testing, big money bonuses, overt job threats, and unreasonable expectations, inequities will occur.” Don’t say she and the Board was not told. AAE has REPEATEDLY told them what would happen. Let’s face it, morals and ethics fly out the window when livelihoods are threatened, especially when a eacher has many mouths to feed. Don’t play G-d, for biblical heroes did unethical, immoral things. Can we say King David? Hall created the systemic problem with the backing of money from GE, Bill Gates, Broad Foundation, Panasonic, amd Project Grad. Some monies are just not worth it. Look what it got APS. Has anyone ever found the missing E-rate monies in APS or go back further monies missing in New Jersey????? Red flags were everywhere, but ‘St. Beverly’ cold do no wrong. It is all about the dollar bill.
Patrick Crabtree
June 2nd, 2011
2:48 pm
All this is a reflection on leadership, not the honest, hardworking students, teachers and employees. Htere are many good schools who do the right thing. The biggest problem in APS is discipline, because Dr. Hall refused to deal with the EAL problems, but rather blamed it on ‘classroom management.’ She has allowed students and parents to lie on employees and she gave them carte blanche and had OIR to fire the employees. The employees sued (Gwen Mayfield) and won millions and the parent got NO, NONE, ZIP, ZILCH accountability, yet we (taxpayers) has paid Ms.Mayfield. Students got together to lie on a teacher recently and when the teacher asked what is going to happen to the girls if they are lying ( there are enough wtnesses to prove it) and OIR said “Nothing, we are only about checking out the adults.” Students have rights, but the admin to allow employees reputations to be ruined???? What about those rights of those who WANT to learn? Lets get to the real issues and stop covering up (cheating) to make APS look good. Real progress will begin when adults are in control of their schools, not children.
Anthony
June 4th, 2011
8:41 am
Enter your comments here
Anthony
June 4th, 2011
8:47 am
Hall is a disgrace–she was so busy courting the chamber and collecting awards that she didn’t do her job..she allowed thugs like Kathy Augustine and Davis-Williams make life hell for APS employees by using student test scores as a basis to fire.
The 4 board members share the blame with Hall for this mess and cover-up
Nice job Jay on this editorial also kudos to Vogel and Judd for good work
Perplexed
June 6th, 2011
7:28 pm
To all of you (particularly USMC)…as a sixteen year veteran educator in the public school systems, I sit back in my chair to listen to my own breathing. I’m reminded of how many counteless times I sat back in my chair in the classroom, office, copy room, media center, cafeteria, gym, nurses office, social worker’s office, special education office and classrooms and thought about all of the millions of people like yourself who are not being subjected to arguments from both students, parents, and administrators who are so caught up in monalogues about EVERYTHING but the RIGHT THING (which is obviously SOMETHING) who haven’t a clue about.
WHO CARES ABOUT THE COLOR OR GENDER OF A PERSON, WHEN A MULTITUDE OF CHILDREN OF ALL RACES ARE BEING LIED TO, SETUP FOR FAILURE, AND CHEATED OUT OF THEIR OPPORTUNITY FOR SUCCESS!
So, for those of you who need to be informed…lying and cheating is not determined by race or ethnicity…it’s determined by character and values. Read this snippet about a former caucasian male superintendent from Tennessee…
”
States Lie about Scores
Let’s start with the smoking gun of testing lies, former governor of Tennessee, Phil Bredesen,
“”…former governor of Tennessee, Phil Bredesen, who admitted that he “lied” about test scores on statewide education tests, deliberately inflating them to get Race To The Top funding. As further revealed by CNN, almost all of those states that submitted statewide test scores had “lied” about the results to look better in competing for Race To The Top funds.” (Link)
Yet, the White House keeps touting Race to the Top.
When interviewed by Soledad O’Brien on CNN, Governor Bredesen admitted to the lie,
L O’BRIEN (voice-over): Maybe not a misperception. After this revelation from Tennessee’s former Governor Phil Bredesen.
(On camera): Were you lying to parents about –
PHIL BREDESEN, FORMER TENNESSEE GOVERNOR: Oh, absolutely. I mean –
O’BRIEN: Out and outlying to parents about how well their kids were doing?
BREDESEN: In one case in eighth grade math we were telling 83 or 84 percent of the kids that they were proficient when they took the national test.
O’BRIEN: What was the real number?
BREDESEN: 22 percent.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1105/21/cp.01.html
Whew! Thanks…now I really feel like a teacher….!