Beverly Hall, Former Atlanta Schools Superintendent, 'Can't Accept' Culture Of Cheating

Former Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall says she "can't accept that there is a culture of cheating" among Atlanta schools. She made the comment in an interview published Thursday with The New York Times.

Her response draws on the findings from a two-year investigation that found widespread cheating among at least 44 Atlanta schools and implicated 178 educators involved in test tampering, including erasing students' incorrect answers on standardized tests and replacing them with correct ones. The findings shook the country and "stunned" U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Those found guilty of cheating could face criminal charges and removal from APS, though the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported today that state officials are considering easing the punishment for implicated educators who are cooperative through ongoing investigations.

The initial 800-page report criticized Hall for breeding "a culture of fear and intimidation," in which teachers feared speaking out about cheating by coworkers that they became aware of, and in which educators were pressured to meet or exceed annual goals for test results. Hall told The Times that how she's been portrayed in the media is an image "foreign" and "crazy" to her.

In July, Hall repeatedly denied being aware of widespread cheating during her tenure. She told WXIA-TV that she "absolutely knew nothing about the cheating."

Now, APS is faced with the report's aftermath. Removing and replacing implicated teachers could take the district months to years, and paying those currently on leave as a result of the scandal is costing APS $1 million a month, WSB-TV reported in July. The district is also contractually bound to foot Hall's legal fees related to the investigation, which has so far totaled $127,000, according to AJC.

The district is now considering axing its incentives program, which awards educators based on student scores on standardized tests and other factors of student performance like attendance, AJC reports.

"I will survive this," Hall told The Times. "I feel badly for myself, but I feel just as badly for all the people in this district who are working hard. Now everything they read and hear is negative. That is taking a tremendous toll on me."

Hall retired from her top spot at APS just before investigators released their report. The district is now led by interim Superintendent Erroll Davis.

In a guest column published by Education Week last month, Hall wrote that "there is no excuse for cheating, and I deeply regret that I did not do more to prevent it," and urges districts across the country to learn from the scandal.

Comments

[ApprxAm]

08:50 AM on 09/13/2011

She "can't accept". Is that a criminal defense tactic?

"I will survive this," Hall told The Times. "I feel badly for myself, but I feel just as badly for all the people in this district who are working hard. Now everything they read and hear is negative. That is taking a tremendous toll on me."

This woman is so self centric and self-important that her dreamy, hope-filled cloud of her thoughts first is all that matters.

I'll agree with her on one account. Children have different capacities and what it means to be educated isn't as easily defined as we'd like. This perspective, though, should've been used as a launching board to find the best student and give them greater opportunities to excel with a system of merit.

[windgated]

10:20 PM on 09/12/2011

I am sorry, but who could not have seen the cheating coming? As a former teacher with the New York City school system, once school rankings became so important, and teacher salary, tenure,and bonus pay for higher test grades came into play, the door was opened. Students do not learn - they are not taught - they are taught to a test. Their instruction consists of nothing but test prep from day one of school. They know nothing!

[Phong Le]

01:51 AM on 09/13/2011

Sure. The devil made them do it!

[methodman]

11:51 AM on 09/10/2011

The superintendent needs to spend time puzzling out a ciricuulum by taking various grade level curriculum and organize them into a consensus of computations for a line of thought or an expression of volume for relationships of quality. There are tangible thought process's that when they come together they act as a component. Why isn't this being discussed? This stuff is hard. I have to add vocabulary and extend degree describing words but is that creative anyways? Sorry too small of creative vocabulary = Dead end job as an adult. Testing as a combination of different layouts for sense should be encouraged but not to save time.

[kencrn419]

10:43 PM on 09/10/2011

"The superinten­dent needs to spend time puzzling out a ciricuulum by taking various grade level curriculum and organize them into a consensus of computatio­ns for a line of thought or an expression of volume for relationsh­ips of quality. There are tangible thought process's that when they come together they act as a component. Why isn't this being discussed?"
---------------------------------------------------

Because nobody can figure out what language you're trying to speak.

[Mountaingrl]

01:30 PM on 09/12/2011

Please simplify.

[hatenomor]

10:39 AM on 09/10/2011

You know, if these teachers had spent as much teaching children how to read, instead of how to cheat, this wouldn;t have occured. Question: Do inner city teachers actually know how to teach the three "r"s? I'd have to say they don't know how to teach the three "r"s, juidging by the amount of children graduating from high school that can't read beyond an elementry school level.

[Protocolor]

11:06 AM on 09/10/2011

Why don't you go show them how to do it?

[hatenomor]

11:23 AM on 09/10/2011

I do. I spend a lot of my time tutoring children of my community, in Oakland, Ca. Why don't you contribute more than lip service to the problem. Maybe together we can fix a system that is broken.

[snipy]

10:25 AM on 09/10/2011

She knows exactly what was going on in her "Culture of Cheating" which she advocated for years. How else did she figure these kids were passing to the next grade without the capacity to read or write ! N***** please, it's time for a stay-cation in a prison cell; typical !

[kanda]

05:44 AM on 09/09/2011

This "culture of cheating" scandal is what you get when ineffective leadership is allowed to interpret and implement policy unmonitored. This ineffective leadership in education is in part o result of powerful outside interests and unionization of the education system. Education lobbyists at the state and federal level have achieved through government what they could not achieve through the local school boards.

As people woke up to the fact that our children are less educated and able to compete today vs other nations children, the attempt was made by local school boards to improved education by holding teachers and school administrators accoutable on this issue. Teachers and unions fight tooh and nail to prevent teachers and schools from being measured. Where they are measured the cheating apparently runs rampant. The result is the same for our kids. We still have poorly educated children.

The response by the educational system to this situation is apparently what was discovered in Atlanta schools, denial that the cheating exists. I suspect this is going to be found in many more school systems across this nation. The trust placed in our teachers is still warranted in many cases. Unfortunately, with teacher hands tied by school district administrators and teachers unions preventing the best teacher perfomance, it is time to decertify teachers unions where cheating is found and fire incompetent school administrators. Get back to the basics. Let the teachers teach free from the political influence within the schools they face today!

[rich8049]

11:53 PM on 09/08/2011

Oh come on now. We cannot hurt the child's self esteem. They all have to get the same grades.

[Jennifer Hagan]

02:33 AM on 09/09/2011

LMAO. Funny comment. I don't get how the culture now shies away from competition and breeds mediocrity. I don't want my children to get ok grades. I want them to get good grades. I also want them to want to be number one in what they do. If they aren't it is ok. But I sure as hell don't want to encourage them to do good enough. I want them to challenge themselves.

[Protocolor]

12:05 PM on 09/10/2011

Most every parent wants their children to get good grades, which for the most part means "the same grades". Unfortunately, many kids can't get good grades because they just are not smart enough, they are too lazy, they get no support at home, they don't have a home, they have brain damage from being kicked in the head by a mule, or any number of other reasons. Nevertheless, parents want their children to get good grades, and they think that teachers can cure their child of his fail if only those teachers tried harder. So, to get the teachers to "try harder" the geniuses came up with the idea of flogging teachers with threats of termination or withholding pay if those teachers didn't give their kids good grades. School administrators then say "Them's the rules. You's kids better get good grades or you's outa here, hear?" With a sigh, the teacher says "I hear" and gives all of her students an A. Surprise.

[Angie Sullivan]

10:44 PM on 09/08/2011

I won't cheat but this year my legislature decided 50% of evaluation will be based on my student scores. And merit pay will follow. I wonder what will happen in Nevada. Stay tuned, I will be posting about Nevada cheating soon. The writing is on the wall. It might cause a whole slew of problems too. It is not fair to teachers to use a measurement tool that doesn't effectively measure how effective we are on the classroom. The powers that be aren't smart enough to realize that test scores are a small part of the picture?

SHAME, SHAME, SHAME

[Crawfish Festival]

05:32 AM on 09/09/2011

@ Angie:

Definitely keep us posted about the CHEATING scandal in Nevada.

I think - these CHEATING scandals were incited by the UNIONS - because "teachers" all across the country - are being caught doing it.

[Angie Sullivan]

10:43 PM on 09/08/2011

If you put pressure on teachers. . . to somehow get students to score well, when they are significantly behind or unable to do it. . . you will get cheating. Because there is no possible way to meet that job expectation if all the variables are OUT of your CONTROL. You get what you reward. You will get improved scores. . . but will there be TRUE and VIABLE learning going on? Are you going to get a bunch of students who can answer A, B, C, D. . . but not problem solve? Are you going to have teachers scrambling to teach the higher students in the richer areas of town - leaving less experienced teachers to fill the harder to teach at school?

Some years, in my at-risk school, I work and they work and a years growth is what we get . . . but that is NOT enough if you are already 2 or 3 years behind the national standard and you just started first grade.

[Jasper Mcmillan]

08:32 PM on 09/08/2011

Unconscious or oblivious..............which is it?? She is very obviously "out of it". The whole system is turning to crap around her and she denies knowing anyhting about it, then retires just before the scandal goes public............................just how much did she really know???? for real...????

[Crawfish Festival]

05:34 AM on 09/09/2011

hopefully, her phone records will show what she was doing -
and cause her prosecution for lying to impede an investigation - for starters.

[navigio]

08:13 PM on 09/08/2011

""I will survive this," Hall told The Times. "I feel badly for myself, but I feel just as badly for all the people in this district who are working hard. Now everything they read and hear is negative. That is taking a tremendous toll on me.""

um... WHAT?!

what about all those parents who were mislead about their kids' performance, or who made life decisions based on tests results? What about those who put their lifeblood into improving the lot of students only to have the entire metric be exposed as a sham?

And she regrets not having done more to prevent it? Really???!!! a little late for regret lady.

(sorry for the anger, but this is crazy)

[sbmulqueen]

11:12 PM on 09/08/2011

Yes, that was my biggest takeaway too. It's always all about her.

[Chipper1]

07:35 PM on 09/08/2011

I taught for 37 years and I know that so many teachers and principals would not have changed student standardized test answers unless directed to do so from above. In my whole career, that never happened. Only once, when an administrator's child got a A- in my class for the semester grade, did my principal "suggest" I might want to change it to an A. I didn't do it and never heard anything more about it. Teachers, in my experience, are exceptionally honest, especially when it comes to grades. I know people not in education may think teachers give out grades arbitrarily but it just isn't so. A teacher has to have documentation to prove why a student got the grade he/she did. Standardized tests were considered almost holy. No one would have dreamed of altering them. So this Atlanta scandal has a lot more behind it than meets the eye.

[Crawfish Festival]

05:35 AM on 09/09/2011

Thanks for the insight, "Chipper1".

[matt spedale]

05:05 PM on 09/08/2011

Im from Atlanta. This lady is a disgrace. I would love to see her in jail.

[Ohin Gaston]

05:41 PM on 09/08/2011

This is so much broader than just this lady and school system.

We have been brought up in a society that thinks greed is good. By any means necessary.
We see cheaters everyday on the news and it becomes normal. Just completely desensitizes us.

The problem is not this school system, it's our society. We want to be the best, we just want to do it the easy way. I went to private school and public school. I saw a lot more cheating in private school and college than my public schools. It's the pressure we put on people to be the best and then we turn our backs on HOW they become the best.

[darquelourd]

04:58 PM on 09/08/2011

I'm willing to profit from that which I do not understand.

[elsquibbs]

04:31 PM on 09/08/2011

She doesn't want to acknowledge reality because she's probably tied up in it.