Timeline of testing saga

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

• Dec. 14, 2008: The AJC identifies a handful of schools with improbable gains between the spring 2008 CRCT and summer retests. An expert calls them “as extraordinary as a snowstorm in July.”

• June 2009: A state investigation finds “overwhelming” evidence of cheating on tests at four schools: Atlanta’s Deerwood Academy, DeKalb County’s Atherton Elementary, Fulton County’s Parklane Elementary and a Glynn County school.

• July: Some 2008 CRCT tests results from the four schools are thrown out for cheating.

• Sept. 10: The now-former principal and assistant principal at Atherton Elementary are banned from public schools for as much as two years for cheating.

• Oct. 18: Another AJC analysis of test scores finds 19 public elementary schools statewide with suspicious gains or drops in scores between spring 2008 and 2009.

• Dec. 9: Former Atherton Principal James Berry pleads guilty to the felony falsifying a state document — test papers — and is sentenced to two years’ probation and a $1,000 fine.

• Dec. 10: The licensing agency bans seven Atlanta and Fulton County educators from public schools for 90 days to a year. A total of 13 educators were sanctioned as a result of the earlier state cheating probe.

• Feb. 10, 2010: The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement announces that an analysis of test erasures identified 191 schools with moderate to severe evidence of cheating on CRCT tests.

• Feb. 11: The state Board of Education orders investigations at the 191 schools.

• Aug. 3: A 15-member panel of Atlanta business and community leaders oversees an investigation that announces 109 educators are suspected of test cheating.

• Aug. 16: The Atlanta school board votes unanimously to accept the investigative report, but a dispute over who should lead the board is causing controversy among board members.

• Aug. 18: Gov. Sonny Perdue announces that a special investigator will look into the cheating scandal.

• Nov. 20: School Superintendent Beverly Hall announces she will retire at the end of the year.

• Jan. 18, 2011: Atlanta Public Schools is placed on probation by its accrediting agency because of continuing dissension on the school board.

• Feb. 13: An internal investigation is triggered at Atlanta Public Schools after allegations surface that a high-level school official told principals not to cooperate with the governor's criminal cheating probe.

• Feb. 17: State investigators announce that the Atlanta school district has a pattern of “intimidating, threatening and retaliating” against employees who report cheating.

• May 27: A month before retiring, Superintendent Hall acknowledges that educators cheated to help students pass state-mandated achievement tests.

• July 5: The probe ordered by the governor reports that numerous teachers and principals erased and corrected mistakes on students’ answer sheets.The report said the unethical — and potentially illegal — behavior pierced every level of the school system bureaucracy.