Budget cuts hamper state efforts to combat cheating
Only after the governor ordered an independent examination did Georgia officials catch widespread cheating by teachers, principals and administrators on standardized tests in the Atlanta Public Schools system.
The resulting scandal has sparked resignations, a criminal investigation and a wave of other state inquiries into possible test tampering.
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The sleuthing techniques used to catch testing fraud in Atlanta – monitoring test score data for dramatic spikes, analysis of testing erasures and on-the-ground interviews – used to be commonplace at the California Department of Education.
By 2004, a robust state forensic team that annually undertook an average of 150-200 testing audits was credited with investigating more than 200 California teachers for allegations of helping students on state exams, and proved cheating in at least 75 of those cases, according to an investigation by the LA Times.
But that changed in 2009, when the forensic team was hit with $105,000 in budget cuts. In response, state