How School Districts Facing Cheating Allegations Are Moving Forward

Three year-round elementary schools opened for classes in Atlanta today without problems, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

Two of the three schools opened with new principals, named earlier this week following state investigations of widespread cheating among Atlanta schools by teachers. Interim Superintendent Erroll Davis also replaced four district superintendents Monday.

The road to reform in Atlanta will take months, Davis told AJC last week. In addition to the administrative shuffle, Atlanta Public Schools will be offering to students additional tutoring and after-school classes.

Atlanta's cheating scandal comes amid similar allegations against school districts in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

D.C. schools released Friday results from its own standardized tests, just after a district official revealed that the U.S. Department of Education has joined the local investigation into allegations of testing dishonesty.

Pennsylvania flagged 60 schools across the state as having questionable results on standardized tests in a 2009 investigation, The Philadelphia Public School Notebook reported Friday.

Now, Pennsylvania Rep. Michael P. McGeehan has called for a statewide "Whistle-blower Hotline" that encourages teachers and other school staff to anonymously report irregular testing practices. The system would protect teachers from repercussions they currently fear for speaking out against cheating, The Inquirer reports.

"I think you would see the floodgates open on this growing scandal and we would see repercussions beyond what we can foresee," McGeehan told The Inquirer.

Comments

[Barbara Primous Jackson]

10:52 AM on 07/14/2011

There are probably many more schools cheating because it is ridiculous to base an entire school year on one test administered to select grades (3,5,7, and high school). That is a lot of pressure to put on children and their schools. Arizona has even made it's version of the test (AIMS) a requirement to get a diploma at the end of high school. Even if a child passes all of his classes for all four years if they do not pass AIMS, he will only recieve a Certificate of Attendance not a Diploma. I don't think that this is just liberal or minority schools as we know that some of the finest prep schools have undergone testing scandals in the past. This is a response to extraordinary pressure on administrators, educators, and the learners.

[GustavoRejivik]

02:14 AM on 07/14/2011

Minority and Progressive run schools are cheating!!

Liars, cheating, cheating the kids they are PAID to help.

What a disgrace, fire them.

[changing]

06:43 PM on 07/13/2011

Just wait.. More Texas miracles on the way. Get rid of NCLB and RITT and get back to educating.
We have suffered thirty years of this garbage in our schools. I only hope we have public education
when this insanity ends.

[GSch]

05:32 PM on 07/13/2011

These teachers and administrators that are cheating their students/parents/society need to be rooted out and discharged!

I hope they weren't teaching their ethics or character qualities to their students.

[Kevin Rayburn]

08:48 PM on 07/13/2011

i did read something about the atlanta case, those educators involved are probably going to have thier credentials revoke for life, and those that are not cooperating with the GBI are going to face criminal charges.

[conservo]

11:18 PM on 07/13/2011

Chances are they were. Liberal indocrination is becoming rampant in many scool districts.

[jbs902]

11:37 AM on 07/25/2011

I can tell that vocabulary indocrination is not rampant in the school that you attended.