Limited school-cheating inquiry leaves us in the dark
It was a heart-warming story: A school where nine in 10 students were poor enough to receive a free or reduced lunch, and yet where nine in 10 students met or exceeded most state testing standards.
As recently as 2009, Atlanta’s East Lake Elementary School was honored as a “No Excuses” school and deemed not only to be making the critical Adequate Yearly Progress, but to be doing so in “distinguished” fashion.
Then came the state’s analysis of suspicious wrong-to-right erasure marks on test answer sheets, including red flags for 42 percent of East Lake Elementary’s classrooms. Tighter monitoring was on order during the 2010 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test, and the results, as reflected in the school’s test scores, were devastating.
Of 15 CRCT exams (three subjects apiece for five grades), scores fell from the 2009 levels in 13. In the third and fourth grades, they fell by double digits across all three measures — reading, math and English/language arts — including a 30-percentage point drop for third-grade reading.
What happened?
Six months after the erasure analysis was unveiled publicly, and after a subsequent investigation was completed, we still have no idea. And we still have no idea in large part because, despite this statistically glaring reversal of fortunes, those investigating possible cheating in Atlanta Public Schools didn’t deem East Lake Elementary suspicious enough to warrant their attention.
They interviewed just three of the school’s 39 employees, and none of its students or their parents. A separate analysis identified 12 other schools as even worse, so they spent little time or energy trying to find out what happened at East Lake and 45 other schools where adults appear to have cheated to make their students — and thus themselves — look good.
The steep drop-off at East Lake was also seen at many of the other 45 schools: At Cascade Elementary School, scores fell in all 15 tests from 2009 to 2010, by an average of 9 percentage points; at Fickett and D.H. Stanton, there were drops in all but two of the 15 tests; at Boyd and Dobbs and Heritage, all but four. And so on.
The 12 more-scrutinized schools truly were worse than the others. But a rigorous and statistically conservative — very conservative — analysis had already winnowed the 58 Atlanta schools from more than 1,700 public elementary and middle schools across Georgia.
These 58, and 43 in particular, were already considered the worst of the worst in terms of suspected cheating. The point of the investigation was not to find and focus on the worst of the worst of the worst.
And the process of paring the list to just 12 was inherently flawed: It indexed the 58 only in relation to one another rather than to schools with answer sheets that didn’t have loads of suspicious erasures.
The state and the analysts hired by the investigating panel are in a he said, she said situation about whether access to more sheets was ever requested. But it hardly matters — only 58 schools’ tests were examined, and that very plainly makes an inadequate basis for essentially clearing most of them right off the bat.
Yet that’s what the investigators did, and one wonders why.
One wonders if the point of the exercise became protecting the brand of Atlanta Public Schools by limiting the fallout. One wonders whose interest that really serves. But not whose interest it doesn’t serve: that of APS kids.
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79 comments Add your comment
JADEN
August 21st, 2010
8:08 pm
josef, I never thought you went that way.
JADEN
August 21st, 2010
8:11 pm
All the Bookman trolls are here because Jay went mullet licking.
Kudos to you all, I was banned there because I exposed the drag queen josef…………….
JADEN
August 21st, 2010
8:12 pm
Glad Glenn Beck called his ‘yellow’ tail out also.
Look who’s silly now.
mike
August 21st, 2010
11:16 pm
Well it did not take long for this srticle to evolve into a blame the black folk commentary. I really did not expect other thoughts from some of the morons who read and try to post something of limited intelligence here. There are a lot of kids and parents who have in the past performed quit well in the APS system. And there will continue to be those who do well in the future. Not everybody has done something wrong in the APS. Don’t conservatives get tired of all the negative stuff everyday? It must be a very sad life you get up to every morning with all the negative things that come out of those small brains everyday. However when you look at yourself as a group I guess you folks have no other choice in life. Very very sad, but better you then us.
onyx
August 21st, 2010
11:51 pm
it be all about fightin’ “the man”.
let ‘em cheat.
Richard E. Johnson
August 22nd, 2010
12:44 am
I thought we elected a School Board so all this stuff wouldn’t happen. You mean to tell me as those scores were going up that nobody asked the logical question…how do we justify such dramatic increases? My kids went to one of the schools high on the list. They got a good education because I was on my kids and their teachers. I can’t say that all the parents did the same thing, but that’s what we have a School Board so all children would have an advocate.
No More Progressives!
August 22nd, 2010
7:51 am
JADEN
August 21st, 2010
8:11 pm
I would consider being banned by Bookman a Badge of Honor. There is nothing of substance on his site.
I long for his return, so that the progressive whiners like Mike & ScamWet will have someplace to go vent.
Bob
August 22nd, 2010
8:23 am
How about giving the kids the score they actually earned. No curve. praise the ones who do well and pass. The ones that fail, well the world can always use dish washers.
Amvet
August 22nd, 2010
8:28 am
Not to worry, No Mas! There are a couple of other bigoted, ignorant and laughable dipwads like yourself there that would make you proud.
And you and your circle jerk buddies like Jaden are safe here!
But in the future I’ll check in from time to time to see what moronic conspiracy theory you’ve concocted next.
Just for the chuckles…
No More Progressives!
August 22nd, 2010
8:44 am
No substance, but quick with the name calling.
That all you got, ScamFraud?
Better get reinforcements.
catlady
August 22nd, 2010
9:00 am
Hey, Buzz, where do you live? Obviously not in Georgia. Our teacher associations have NO POWER and neither do the teachers. Parents have far more power. And few parents lobby for the teachers. They will, however, lobby for special accomodations for their children or for lower taxes.
stands for decibels
August 22nd, 2010
9:05 am
Get your facts straight people!
That sentence is much funnier with a strategically placed comma.
stands for decibels
August 22nd, 2010
9:08 am
Oh, and back to the topic–there should be no shelter for anyone who falsified these tests, I don’t think anyone disagrees with that.
However, there seems precious little discusion here, save for those two gents I referenced earlier, about the utter stupidity of placing so much weight on high-stakes standardized testing. I know that there’s plenty of bi-partisan blame to go around (hey, Cynthia McKinney voted for NCLB!) but you’d think that by now we’d have worked out a better approach.
One other thing–if we are to have high stakes standardized testing, what sense does it make to allow individual states to pick which ones they wish to use? I never got that–it ensures that any comparison between states will be more or less useless.
historydawg
August 22nd, 2010
1:56 pm
What is most troubling is that no one is even considering that the tests cheat students all over the state. The students cannot write, think critically, etc. because the tests do not measure such, and politicians have sold out to these exams (both in Ga and nationally beginning with Bush). No one is questioning what the exams measure, how they simply compare students to each other rather than a standard. Though Mr. Wingfield will never admit such, all of this is being used to eliminate one of the state government’s initial responsibilities–educate students. Where is a founding father when you need him?
Da Trufe
August 22nd, 2010
2:06 pm
It’s not a racial issue. It’s a cultural issue.
Blacks feel resentment and entitlement leading to nepotism due to former enslavement of part of the population. Additionally, the federal government has incentivised poverty and statism through it’s social engineering legislation, and the war on drugs.
These negative enablers have combined to harmfully affect black culture, making it a cancer ravaging the whole (race).
Annie Rhys-Davis
August 22nd, 2010
4:58 pm
WOW ! All of you people commenting are missing a basic point. APS schools are teaching kids to cheat. Because their teachers have been taught to cheat. Cheating is a form of lying. So you want your kids to come home to you having learned to cheat and therefore to lie– APS and GA. school systems payed for with your tax dollars are teaching your children to cheat and therefore to lie.
Think about it. You turn your children over to the public school system at an early age…what is your child being taught?
I encourage you — if you are too busy to raise your child yourself–then you better start holding individual teachers responsible for what your child is being taught. Demand information about the teacher that has your child in a classroom for one year. Think about it. You are giving to some unknown person your child for one year.
Normal
August 22nd, 2010
5:14 pm
AmVet, Stands,
JAY”S BACK!!!
tar and feathers party
August 22nd, 2010
6:14 pm
Fire J NOW! Kyle rules!
GLENN BECK
August 22nd, 2010
8:07 pm
Guess all the fools went to Bookman to eat some mullet.
Dusty
August 22nd, 2010
10:35 pm
Kyle,
The school cheating fiasco is just ….amazing. Teachers who are supposed to set a good example even if they can’t teach, can be honest at least. But evidently there are some in Atlanta who cannot even set a good example. The “world” of education seems to have sliipped totally off its axis. Theirs is not to educate, theirs is but to APPEAR first rate. But teachers are not the only ones. Take California!!
LA just spent 578 MILLION dollars to build one school house for four thousand students. It sounds like an elite hotel! And California is in debt up to their ears and begging for money from the feds.
Is there brain fever in California? Cheatin’ fever in Georgia? I hate to think of the rest of the country. My only hope is that these two states are NOT typical but they probably are.
The excuse for the expense is that students will learn better in a nice environment! Indeed!!
DawgDad
August 22nd, 2010
11:06 pm
APS is now world-renown for the massive test cheating and lying and educators grafting off kids education funds. Let’s all celebrate Ms. Hall’s great career accomplishment. Maybe the Dems will haul her off to Washington now so she can fix the nations’ schools like she did NJ, NY, and Atlanta.
Anyone else a little worried about the leftist liberals running our health care?
Intown
August 23rd, 2010
9:22 am
You all have to understand, Atlanta (City of) institutions are under constant attack on all fronts by our state goverment, suburban metro Atlanta (including Mr. Wingfield’s columns who spent five columns on tearing down MARTA), and the rest of Georgia outside metro Atlanta. So, when the State finds a fatal flaw the reaction is defensive. Doesn’t make it right but, perhaps one can understand. If you treat Atlanta like crap well, except crap in return.
Intown
August 23rd, 2010
9:23 am
“expect” crap in return is what I meant. And no, I am not a product of APS schools.
Horrible Horrace
August 23rd, 2010
9:41 am
Atlanta city govt and APS employees are crap so why would anyone expect less?
J.B. STONER
August 23rd, 2010
9:58 am
I have been preaching to you for YEARS about corruption, theft, lying, cheating govt. in Atlanta.
Now, the cancer has spread to Washington DC.
Can we connect the dots here????????
Peter
August 23rd, 2010
10:05 am
Kyle what is your problem ? Republican’s run the state and the education system……
They don’t come clean about stuff……How is Sonny Perdue treating himself as the last buck ?
Phoenix
August 23rd, 2010
10:51 am
One big problem: Too much black administration in APS, with too much cronyism going on. It’s been that way for years.
And, yes, I’m both black, and a product of APS, though not by choice. I was fortunate enough to go to one of the best elementary schools (45 minute one-way trip to Buckhead), where parents (including my guardian — yes, I said guardian, I’m a product of deadbeat parents (another problem blighting the black race in America, but that’s another post) were INVOLVED and INVESTED in their children’s educations… and the leadership and administration of the school was white, which didn’t hurt, either.
By the end of middle school, I could tell that I’d learned more and was exposed to more enrichment educationally and otherwise than my peers who went to neighbourhood schools in SW Atlanta.
High school was decent — good, knowledgeable teachers. My family begged me to choose one of the schools on our side of town, but I knew there was no way on God’s green earth I was going to a predominantly black school. I’m not racist — 75% of me is black, and I’m not ashamed of that, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that post-Civil Rights movement black leadership hasn’t exactly turned out the best. Look at the City of Atlanta, look at APS, the SCLC debacle, etc. etc.
Anyway, I was fortunate. Sure, I had access to some of the best teachers in APS (and there are some good teachers in APS, although some fled during the 90s while they still could)… although there were a few idiots in the bunch as well. Whether I had an idiot or not as a teacher, though, I never entrusted my education solely in their hands. I read books on top of books and historical documentaries. I begged my guardian to let me participate in summer programs (journalism, photography, swimming), and earned a scholarship for music lessons after school. Not everyone is into self-motivation, but I knew that I didn’t want to be another welfare mom like my mother, or a drug dealer like dad.
It’s true –you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. There are some good and even just fairly decent teachers at APS schools. But they can’t be expected to, pardon the expression, polish turds. If kids show up unprepared, and haven’t been taught — or can’t motivate themselves — to respect education, what can a teacher do? Cheating isn’t the answer, but maybe attempting to measure teachers’ effectiveness by standardized testing isn’t the way, either.
I’m just grateful that I managed to escape. I’m married now and live in Europe. My kids will be trilingual and part of an educational system that will truly meet their needs. I was really fortunate, but there are a bunch of kids all over Atlanta that grow up with deadbeat parents, along with a corrupt school environment that puts them at an even greater disadvantage.
Charles
August 23rd, 2010
1:53 pm
Now that we’ve all trashed APS – and rightfully so – it would be great if someone – anyone – on the editorial board would report in a meaningful way on the recent ACT and SAT scores in Georgia. The news is good – just hasn’t been reported.
Other than the simple sound bite “Ga schools rank at the bottom” here is ‘the rest of the story’.
Black student scores above the national average when compared to black students nationwide.
Hispanic student scores above the national average when compared to Hispanic students nationwide.
And finally, White student scores above the national average when compared to white students nationwide.
You would also be surprised when you look at the top 10% of students in private schools compared to the top 10% of students in public schools.
This type of news would take a little more digging than the bad news – but it would speak volumes about why Georgia is a great place for a business to locate…
Retired administrator for public schools
DEWSTARPATH
August 23rd, 2010
2:17 pm
No More Progressives! – August 21st, 2010 – 3:53 pm
Labor unions in the United States
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_unions_in_the_United_States)
12.4% of total workforce.
– That same Wiki entry placed the trade union membership
at 16.1 million. 16.1 Million. Whether or not you like
unions, that’s a significant portion of the American workforce.