109 Atlanta educators suspected of test cheating

By Kristina Torres

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An investigative panel has recommended that 109 principals, assistant principals, school-based testing coordinators and teachers face further scrutiny or sanctions after it found evidence of suspected cheating at 58 Atlanta Public Schools.

Jolted into action by an audit that suggested irregularities on state standardized tests, the panel released its final report Monday after an exhaustive five-month inquiry. Among key findings:

• 78 of those city school employees worked at just 12 schools, emblematic of "schoolwide institutional issues" that warrant wholesale changes of those campuses, according to panel chairman Gary Price.

• 25 employees at another 13 schools appear to have acted individually.

• So did six employees at the remaining 33 schools investigated by the panel.

Investigators found no evidence that Superintendent Beverly Hall or top system officials orchestrated or condoned cheating, Price said. But panel members made clear they expect Hall to take aggressive action on their recommendations. That includes cultural changes to ease some of the pressure schools face to improve, given Hall's reliance on test data and other measures such as financial incentives.

"We know that student achievement and measurable outcomes are critical," Price said. "But that has to be balanced by positive ethical behavior."

Hall was expected to comment on the findings at a press conference later Monday afternoon, when the names of the schools will also be made public.

For legal reasons, because individual investigations are active and ongoing, the panel is not publicly identifying the 109 employees it believes may have cheated.

Investigators zeroed in on the 109 employees through data and statistical evidence, as well as through "qualified allegations" -- allegations that can be acted upon and include plausible, indirect evidence. None of the employees confessed or admitted to wrongdoing in interviews.

Case files for each will now be passed on to city school officials for further investigation or, if the system chooses, it could send those files directly to the state for action.

Testing violations may result in sanctions ranging from a reprimand to loss of license.

In December 2008, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an analysis that showed improbable gains at schools -- including some in Atlanta -- on state tests taken first in the spring and then in the summer by students struggling to master core skills such as reading and math.

A subsequent state investigation named four schools statewide that turned in questionable results for tests taken in summer 2008, including Atlanta's Deerwood Academy.

The state eventually threw out those scores, which were from fifth-grade math retests on the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests. The audit found evidence of an abnormal number of erasures at those schools on those retests in which the wrong answer often was replaced by the right one. In some cases, educators involved in the probe denied wrongdoing. Others confessed to erasing students' answers to increase scores.

In October, the AJC published a second investigation that showed 19 schools statewide reporting extraordinary gains or drops in state test scores between 2008 and 2009.

A dozen of those schools were in Atlanta, including schools where students went from among the bottom performers statewide to among the best in the course of one year. According to the AJC analysis, the odds of making such a leap were less than 1 in 1 billion.

The state launched a comprehensive audit. According to its report, released in February, 191 Georgia public schools required investigation because they showed unusual patterns of erasures on the CRCT. The tests, of students in first through eighth grade, help determine whether schools meet federal benchmarks related to the No Child Left Behind Act.

Atlanta had the most schools flagged in any system -- 58 -- more than two-thirds of its public elementary and middle schools. It is the last of the 34 systems to complete its investigation, which is being overseen by a 15-member panel of city business and community leaders.

The panel hired investigators from Caveon Test Security and the auditing company KPMG. During the past five months, investigators have conducted more than 300 interviews with city school employees, parents and students. They have pored over thousands of testing documents, policies and procedures, and reviewed more than 50,000 e-mails. Price tallied their work time at approximately 3,000 hours.

Atlanta's report originally was due in late May. The panel moved its release date to mid-June, but then again delayed it, citing a need for more time. In July, the state Board of Education issued an irrevocable Aug. 2 deadline for the panel to deliver its findings or face sanctions directed at the school system.