The Atlanta Test-Cheating Scandal
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By now most of us have heard the gory details of how Atlanta’s elementary and middle school teachers (and principals) conspired to falsify the scores on state proficiency tests. The investigation not only implicated teachers and administrators, it reached all the way up the ladder to Atlanta’s celebrated district superintendent at the time, one Beverly L. Hall.
Dr. Hall was not only lionized by the media as the savior of Atlanta’s school system, she was named superintendent of the year by the American Association of School Administrators, she was invited to the White House by Secretary of Labor Arne Duncan, and she received more than $500,000 in performance bonuses. While those first three things now qualify as embarrassments, that $500,000 is being treated as a felony.
The level of cheating (not to mention the audacity and nonchalance with which it was done) was mind-boggling. Teachers raised scores a whole magnitude at a time by simply erasing wrong answers and replacing them with right ones.
Apparently, teachers got together after school in little groups (with full approval of their principals), and set about re-discovering America, believing there was no way they’d get caught. After all, who really wanted to catch them? Who wanted to ruin a good thing? As long as the test scores were top-notch, no one asked questions.
Dr. Hall was not only lionized by the media as the savior of Atlanta’s school system, she was named superintendent of the year by the American Association of School Administrators, she was invited to the White House by Secretary of Labor Arne Duncan, and she received more than $500,000 in performance bonuses. While those first three things now qualify as embarrassments, that $500,000 is being treated as a felony.
The level of cheating (not to mention the audacity and nonchalance with which it was done) was mind-boggling. Teachers raised scores a whole magnitude at a time by simply erasing wrong answers and replacing them with right ones.
Apparently, teachers got together after school in little groups (with full approval of their principals), and set about re-discovering America, believing there was no way they’d get caught. After all, who really wanted to catch them? Who wanted to ruin a good thing? As long as the test scores were top-notch, no one asked questions.
