Panel recommends suspensions for changing test scores

By Kristina Torres

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A former DeKalb County principal faces a two-year suspension and his former assistant principal could be barred for a year, according to recommendations made Wednesday in the wake of a statewide test cheating scandal.

Committee members for the Georgia Professional Standards Commission — the agency charged with policing state teaching credentials — also asked for formal investigations of eight other educators in Atlanta and Fulton and Glynn counties who are caught up in the same probe.

The proposed punishment for the two DeKalb administrators would represent the first formal action taken by the state against individuals it believes changed students’ answers last summer to increase their scores.

The committee’s recommendations go before the entire commission, which meets at 9 a.m. Thursday in Atlanta.

Approval is likely. With it, former Atherton Elementary School Principal James Berry and Assistant Principal Doretha Alexander would be prohibited from working in Georgia public schools during the suspensions.

Both would have 30 days to appeal the decision.

“A two-year suspension to be able to practice your chosen profession is obviously a very serious sanction,” said Kelly Henson, the commission’s executive secretary.

The committee is essentially a panel of peers, consisting of teachers, a principal and a system superintendent from across Georgia.

An explanation of why Berry received an additional year came during brief discussion about the case. Members indicated they felt a principal faced a higher standard as the person in charge of a school.

Berry declined comment. Alexander could not be reached.

Both also face a rare criminal prosecution by DeKalb authorities on a felony charge of falsifying a state document — a charge that carries a potential two- to 10-year prison term. The prosecution is separate from the commission’s actions and, according to county records, is still open for investigation.

The commission voted in July to formally investigate Berry and Alexander, the same month that the state Board of Education threw out some test results for students from four Georgia schools — DeKalb’s Atherton, Fulton County’s Parklane Elementary, Glynn County’s Burroughs-Molette Elementary and Atlanta’s Deerwood Academy.

The results were from 2008 fifth-grade math retests on the state’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests. An audit by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement 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.

The state investigation followed an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in December about improbably steep gains at some schools on tests taken first in spring and then in summer.

State officials said the higher scores helped the schools meet federal standards. They also said that students were not the ones they suspected of cheating.

Berry resigned immediately. Alexander was initially reassigned but DeKalb officials have since begun the process of firing her.

Parklane’s former principal and assistant principal both still work in the Fulton school system but at different jobs. On Wednesday, the committee recommended formally investigating them, along with the principal of Atlanta’s Deerwood Academy.

Deerwood’s assistant principal is on leave with pay for a personnel matter believed to be related to this case. She was also recommended for formal investigation, along with four individuals from Glynn County: two teachers, a clerical worker and a now-retired administrator.