Perdue calls Atlanta's cheating investigation "woefully inadequate"

By Nancy Badertscher

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Sonny Perdue made a rare appearance before the state Board of Education over alleged

cheating in Atlanta public schools, calling it "a sad day."

"I know you share my deep disappointment with the results. To this day, we still have not gotten to the bottom of what was revealed in the 2009 CRCT results," Perdue told the board Wednesday afternoon.

Perdue said school systems were given the opportunity to determine why the state found excessive erasures on CRCT tests.

The investigation in Atlanta and Dougherty County in South Georgia were "woefully inadequate, both in scope and in depth," Perdue said.

Kathleen Mathers, the head of the Governor's Office of Student Achievement reported major problems Wednesday with Atlanta's investigation.

Mathers told the state Board of Education that staff at six of the 12 schools identified by the school system as having potential school wide  cheating problems didn't cooperate in the investigation.