The state of Georgia is caught in a huge cheating scandal. It allegedly involves over 178 educators accused of lying and falsifying student test results during the past 10 years. The Atlanta Public School district superintendent at the time of the scandal, Beverly Hall, denied knowledge of this widespread scandal.
Beverly Hall was outraged when charges surfaced that she “either knew or should have known cheating and other misconduct were occurring in the APS system.” Her attorney released a statement backing her claims, saying “We reaffirm Dr. Hall’s position that she most definitely did not know of any widespread cheating on the Criterion Referenced Competency Tests in 2009 or any other year.”
Gov. Nathan Deal unveiled the results of a state investigation confirming widespread cheating in the Atlanta city schools dating back to 2001. What’s amazing is that none of the teachers involved reported the misconduct, and worked in unison to falsify the information.
It is alleged the teachers cheated and lied to receive bonuses and/or maintain required testing standards for their school district. This is an outrage to many parents and other teachers who abide by the rules. Dozens of teachers involved in the scandal are said to be on the chopping block and could be terminated within the coming weeks. Some may even be in danger of criminal charges according to Nathan Deal.
Deal went on to say during a press conference; “I think the overall conclusion was that testing and results and targets being reached became more important than actual learning for children. And when reaching targets became the goal, it was a goal that was pursued with no excuses.”
The investigators report suggests that 178 teachers and Principals working at 44 of 56 Atlanta schools were involved in the cheating scandal. According to Nathan Deal, the teachers along with at least 38 Principals, were either directly involved in erasing wrong answers on the tests, or they knew what was going on and did not come forward.
Looks like Georgia will have a huge need for new “honest” teachers, for the upcoming school year. It is unfortunate that the many incredible school teachers may now be lumped into this mess.
This is an outrage, what do we teach children…to tell the truth and not to cheat!
READ FULL DETAILS AND BE AMAZED!
Brittaj17's Blog 
Barbara Blount
July 7, 2011 at 9:23 pm
all states encouraged that behavior, because of the money the schools received. Because the states are broke now, all of that is brought out. This has been going on mostly in the poorer neighborhoods for much longer than 10 years.