Four Glynn County educators banned for a year in test cheating scandal

By Kristina Torres

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The state banned four Glynn County educators Thursday from its public schools for a year each for cheating on state tests.

The penalties are similar to those handed out two months ago by members of the Georgia Professional Standards Commission -- the agency charged with policing state teaching credentials -- in the same scandal. And they likely portend what's ahead for eight other educators under investigation.

"It really is very serious business for data to be manipulated so it doesn't reflect the abilities and performance levels of students," said Gary Walker, director of educator ethics for the commission. "It harms students because you can't make good decisions" about their instruction.

The commission's action was the second round in the penalty phase of the scandal, which started this summer after an audit by the Governor's Office of Student Achievement found evidence that four schools in four school systems turned in questionable results for state tests taken in summer 2008.

Those results were from fifth-grade math retests on the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, taken by students from DeKalb County's Atherton Elementary, Fulton County's Parklane Elementary, Glynn's Burroughs-Molette Elementary and Atlanta's Deerwood Academy.

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. 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 threw out the scores in July, the same month that the commission began to formally investigate school officials at those four schools.

In September, members issued their first round of penalties when they suspended former Atherton Principal James Berry for two years and former Atherton Assistant Principal Doretha Alexander for a year. In general discussion Thursday, members indicated they gave Berry a harsher sanction because he confessed. Sanctions by the commission can range from a reprimand to loss of license.

Members had been expected Thursday to also act on completed investigations for Parklane's former principal Lee Adams and assistant principal Vicki Bulluck, but ran out of time. Walker said the cases will now be heard in December. Both Adams and Bulluck still work in the Fulton school system but at different jobs. A spokeswoman said they both will remain in those jobs in the interim.

Investigations involving Atlanta's Deerwood Academy are ongoing and involve six educators, including that school's principal and former assistant principal.