Charter school group's chief blamed for 2010 cheating scandal - latimes.com

Charter school group's chief blamed for 2010 cheating scandal - latimes.com:

Charter school group's chief blamed for 2010 cheating scandal

Educators say John Allen asked Crescendo principals to show teachers the state standardized test. L.A. Unified was going to suspend him, but the board voted to fire him and close the campuses.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-crescendo-20120818,0,5414088.story

Two separate investigations into the cheating scandal blamed Crescendo's founder and chief executive, John Allen, who was driven, as one official said, by a desire to be “better, better, better, best." (Brian van der Brug, Los Angeles Times /March 4, 2011)

 By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

August 17, 2012, 5:34 p.m.

The meeting at Crescendo Preparatory South was progressing as usual when the acting principal dropped a bombshell: She had been given copies of the upcoming standardized tests. The teachers were to study them, take notes — and make sure the kids got it.

Some of the eight instructors were troubled by what seemed to be an order to cheat. One burst into tears.

So began one of the most brazen cheating scandals in the nation. Ultimately, all of Crescendo's schools in South Los Angeles, Gardena and Hawthorne were shut down, its teachers let go and 1,400 students forced to find new schools.

Only the rough outlines of the 2010 scandal were made public,