Cheating Teachers Implicated: 49 Dougherty County, Georgia Educators Accused Of Test Tampering

State investigators have implicated 49 principals and teachers from a Georgia school district in a four-month probe of cheating allegations against educators.

The nearly 300-page report sent to Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal Tuesday found that cheating on standardized tests occurred among teachers in Dougherty County schools over the course of several years. The report comes in the aftermath of findings from a two-year investigation released over the summer that found widespread cheating among at least 44 Atlanta schools.

Investigators at the time 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.

Both the Dougherty County and Atlanta investigations were triggered by a state erasure analysis of student answer sheets on the state mandated Criterion Referenced Competency Tests, administered to students in the 3rd through 8th grades. The analyses concluded improbable frequencies of erasures and ratios of right-to-wrong answers on the 2009 statewide exam. Dougherty County had 14 schools flagged in the investigation, second to Atlanta.

"There is nothing more important to the future of our state than ensuring that today's students receive a first-class education," Deal said in a statement Tuesday. "The findings out of Dougherty County are alarming as they paint a tragic picture of children passed through with no real or fair assessment of their abilities. To cheat a child out of his or her ability to truly excel in the classroom shames the district and the state."

The Tuesday report tells stories of teachers who indicated correct answers to students while administering exams and a principal who ordered teachers to change answers. A broader culture that threatened teachers with public humiliation for low test scores and rewarded them with fat bonuses for high ones further incentivized cheating, according to an August report by The Huffington Post.

Several educators refused to cooperate in the case, the investigators wrote in the report, noting that one teacher interviewed during the probe commented that her 5th grade students could not read, but did well on the CRCT.

"The disgraceful situation we found in the Dougherty County School System is a tragedy," the investigators wrote.

The cheating probe in Atlanta -- that sparked a flurry of similar investigations among districts across the country -- shifted to Dougherty County in July when investigators found "evidence of cheating in every school" they had visited, state investigator Richard Hyde told The Huffington Post in August.

"Notwithstanding these examples of misconduct, there are skilled, dedicated and well-meaning educators in this school system," investigators wrote in Tuesday's report. "But their work is often overshadowed by an acceptance of wrongdoing and a pattern of incompetence that is a blight on the community that will feel its effects for generations to come. This is the Dougherty County School System."

This particular case in Dougherty County also draws on questions regarding accountability in probes nested in localities. Before the latest governor-mandated investigation, the Dougherty school board had hired former Fulton County School Superintendent James Wilson to inspect the erasure analysis. Wilson didn't find evidence of cheating from the analysis, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

Thursday's report and results now go to the Professional Standards Committee and the Dougherty County district attorney's office for further review and recommendation for action. The PSC is also charged with hearing the cases of and determining sanctions for the implicated Atlanta educators. In the first sanctions imposed in Atlanta's cheating scandal, the commission decided to revoke the teaching licenses of eight teachers and three school administrators. The agency has temporarily halted investigations, however, until the district attorney completes criminal investigations.

Read the full report:
Crct Probe 2011

Comments

[shelvern]

11:43 AM on 05/02/2013

The 49 teachers in Dougherty County Georgia are they being brought up on criminal charges?

Mississippi should claim that they should not be ranked last because other states cheated.

[icandy0317]

06:40 PM on 04/02/2013

Is this in line with AA? Just wondering.

[dbrett480]

02:41 PM on 01/10/2012

We don't need to examine the motivations behind this; just fire the teachers.

[montanasian]

01:31 AM on 12/30/2011

If you think about it, the whole idea of needing to cheat in order to get ahead is based on envy and a linear thought. I know its abstract but no more than not wanting to give grades to students and everyone gets a medal. That totally alludes me. I thought it was the intellectual journery. I guess i missed the whole reasoning of why these guys need to get ahead by cheating. Oh yeah its about money! My bad.

[nypoet22]

05:30 PM on 12/29/2011

if you take a variable and make large amounts of reward and/or punishment contingent upon it, the rates of ALL behaviors that increase the reward and/or avoid the punishment will increase. since the achievement thresholds are set at levels nearly impossible for many students to reach, educators in georgia probably figured they'd likely face disciplinary action regardless of how good a job they did.

if testing honestly means near-definite punishment and cheating means a moderate chance at big rewards and not getting caught, there's an incentive structure that promotes cheating, no matter how much lip service is paid to the contrary. that's the sort of thing it takes someone of extremely high moral fiber to resist. i consider myself fortunate never to have been put in a position to have to make that choice.

[poeticjustice4all]

12:52 AM on 12/28/2011

Just the tip of the iceberg.

[lobstur]

08:41 PM on 12/23/2011

They're motivated to cheat for some reason, yes? Let's find out what that reason is, and wonder if they're cheating for some greater good. Protecting the school? The students? Will funds be cut? Will funds be given?

Are these teachers aligning themselves with the Chaotic Good? They might be heroes.

[icandy0317]

06:41 PM on 04/02/2013

Money - that is the motivation. She got a 500,000 bonus for her schools doing so well.

[sigmetsue]

02:41 PM on 12/23/2011

The NCLB is has perverted public education from emphasis on preparing students for adulthood to preparing kids for tests on knowledge that is often insufficient and/or irrelevant to what they need to be successful as adults.

Until legislators stop "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" and calling it "reform," schools will fail to sufficiently educate way too many kids.

The key is to get help to kids who fall behind IMMEDIATELY. Spend the money on that, not on administrative tail chasing. I've been in the biz long enough to see about 30-40 year cycles in reforms. Right now the big buzz items are the same (with variations thanks to computers) as in the 1960's-1970's.

[JTWallace]

12:08 PM on 12/23/2011

Today too many students are a desciplinary nightmare. There is blame to go around everywhere as regard to the educational system. Kids reflect the lack of parental discipline and involvement as their behavior shows in classes. Teachers could care less about those kids and are hanging in for their retirment. Both union and non-union are also guilty of giving in to falsely promoting kids who do not pass testing which could be due to political pressure to get funding for higher wages as well as more electronics and less books for study. With more kid's parents on welfare without jobs, there is even more pressure on kids to block out the fear and uncertainty by using drugs causing even more problems for schools. Not to mention the junior and high school girls whose illigetimate children are also subsidized in nurseries at these same schools. The system is loaded with nightmarish tentacles from every funding resource that it's a wonder schools are even able to open their doors.

[tosc]

12:02 PM on 12/23/2011

this is what happens when you put financial incentives in the educational mix!

[cqtestk4xs]

09:45 AM on 12/23/2011

Oh yeah, it's the unions' faults this stuff happens. As a teacher of 30 years I can tell you the problem. Politicians try to run the schools. Back in the 50s and 60s the schools ran just fine without much interference from the politicians...and the unions were actually stronger and had a higher percent of membership, and there was tenure. Politicians get involved who don't know squat about education (other than they were in a class in school) and come up with these mandates to "improve the system". Would you want politicians, whose qualification was they had an operation once, running your local operating room for your operation. Most superintendents and local school boards aren't fond of the "mandates" from the "experts". You want quality education, let educational professionals run the schools, not politiicans. Back in 50's and 60's it worked just fine.

[Vgman]

04:45 AM on 12/23/2011

Teachers, stop cheating! You are not setting up a good example for your students, it does not help us in the public's eye, and it is just plain wrong. If the students fail the test, they fail the test, and let the chips fall where they may. It is bad enough the public thinks we are "bad." You are not helping our case. I would rather have them abolish the education system under falsehoods than to have us commit social/political suicide by doing stupid things like cheating.

[klitfin]

07:46 PM on 12/22/2011

They need to check on scores in the Augusta magnate school system

[SharonMcEachern]

05:28 PM on 12/22/2011

Maybe teachers are just being role models for students when they cheat on the tests. Afterall, when kids get to college, not only do students cheat but so do their professors:

http://www.ethicsoup.com/2008/11/everyone-is-cheating-college-students-and-their-professors.html

And then, when they become professionals, researchers say, it is the liars who will be most sucessful:

http://www.ethicsoup.com/2010/06/hey-kids-lie-early-lie-often-researchers-say-its-how-to-succeed.html

[Consequence]

10:10 AM on 12/22/2011

So much for the illusion that all teachers are concerned solely with ensuring that students learn and are prepared to meet the challenges ahead of them.

Fire them.
Make them repay their salary.

Use that money to hire people who actually care about the students.

[francisco cortes]

01:04 AM on 12/23/2011

How you will find workers who work not for profit but because of a noble cause out of a capitalist society like the United States?

[TFT]

08:18 PM on 12/27/2011

Let's make your job contingent on some homeless stranger's test score, then we can talk about your idea.