Atlanta Gives Interim Chief a Year to Clean up Cheating Scandal
The Atlanta school board has suspended a search for its next superintendent as the city tries to figure out what to do amidst one of the largest cheating scandals in U.S. history.
School board officials decided Thursday to give interim chief Erroll Davis Jr. a one-year term to clean up a school system that suffered from widespread cheating on state standardized tests, according to a report released Tuesday by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal. More than 75 percent of the 56 schools investigated cheated on a 2009 state standardized test. More than 80 teachers confessed to changing students' answers and other misconduct.
Davis outlined his initial plan for cleaning up the school district at a special school board meeting Thursday, which was open to parents. Key action points include a plan to investigate all schools whose test scores increased by a larger-than-usual percentage. These "trigger points" haven't been set, but would set off an "automatic" investigation, Davis said. The