Principal in CRCT cheating faces criminal prosecution

A DeKalb County principal who lost his job last week in the fallout over a CRCT cheating scandal is now facing a rare criminal prosecution.

DeKalb County police arrested Dr. James Berry, the former principal at Atherton Elementary School, at his home Friday on a felony charge of falsifying a state document.

DeKalb County Sheriff

James Berry

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They arrested Doretha Alexander, the school’s former assistant principal, on the same charge late Thursday. Each was released on bond, pending indictment and possible trial on the charge, which carries a potential two- to 10-year prison term.

Berry, Atherton’s prinicipal for the last four years, resigned, and Alexander was reassigned last week after a preliminary audit was released. The audit by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement showed that some scores had been altered at Atherton and three other elementary schools during last summer’s retest of the fifth-grade Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.

State officials said the higher scores helped the schools meet federal standards. They also said that students were not suspects, and that the investigation showed wrong answers on some tests were erased and replaced with the correct ones.

Don Geary, chief assistant district attorney for DeKalb County, said he was not aware of another case in Georgia, where an educator had been prosecuted on the charge of falsying a state document.

But he said prosecutors are taking the stance that educators are accountable, just like any other public employees.

“We need ot make sure we have integrity in our own house,” he said.

Dr. Gary Walker, director of educator ethics for the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, agreed that this case could be a first.

“I’m not saying there hasn’t been one, but I don’t know of it,” Walker said.

His agency, which oversees teacher certification, routinely receives complaints related to testing. “We’ll see them every month,” Walker said.

The Professional Standards Commission expects to consider disciplinary action based on the audit by the Office of Student Achievement, said Walker. The agency’s lead investigator was a consultant on the audit, he said.

The commission has the power to impose sanctions against an educator, ranging from a warning or reprimand to a three-year suspension or certification revocation, Walker said.

Berry and Alexander are the only two administrators who have been disciplined since the audit, which also found evidence of altered scores at Atlanta’s Deerwood Academy; Parklane Elementary School in Fulton County; and Burroughs-Molette Elementary in coastal Glynn County.

Officials in Glynn County have said an investigation there is focusing on four employees — including two teachers and a recently retired administrator — who were the only ones with access to the test answer sheets.

In a prepared statement, DeKalb County school officials said they were surprised by the arrests of Berry and Alexander.

“We did not receive notification prior to the arrest,” the statement said.