A former Atlanta Public Schools principal is waiting to learn whether the district will proceed with its plan to fire her for allegedly encouraging or covering up cheating on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.
Tonya Saunders, who led Toomer Elementary School for four years, denied wrongdoing Thursday, the second and final day of her APS tribunal hearing.
The hearing adjourned Thursday evening without a recommendation from tribunal members on whether Saunders should be dismissed.
Saunders is alleged to have told teachers, before testing was under way, to have their students “recheck” their incorrect answers on the CRCT.
Saunders is also alleged to have not reported a teacher who admitted doing just that.
“She had a duty to report that violation, and she blatantly failed to report it,” APS attorney Brandon Moulard said.
The district wanted tribunal members to know that test results from some Toomer classrooms showed an unusually high number of wrong-to-right erasures. But Saunders’ attorneys succeeded in blocking that data from evidence.
Information about wrong-to-right erasures, which has been used in all other APS cheating tribunals, first appeared in a widely read 2010 state investigative report on cheating.
Defense attorneys wanted McGraw-Hill, which scores the CRCT, to provide raw statistical test-result data, including the rate of right-to-wrong changes. After the company refused, attorneys argued it would be unfair for the district to use partial data against Saunders.
The tribunal’s hearing officer agreed and excluded the data.
Saunders’ attorneys also pointed out that she was absent from Toomer Elementary during the 2009 exam.
“Dr. Saunders was not at school during the entire 2009 CRCT testing,” attorney Michael Kramer said. “She was on a medical leave of absence for a surgery that went horribly bad.”
Saunders appeared before the tribunal Thursday and denied instructing teachers to cheat.
“The only thing I ever told teachers was to tell students to go back and check their work,” Saunders said.
She also rejected the accusation that she failed to report cheating, saying no teacher ever clearly admitted wrongdoing to her.
APS countered that the defense was trying to distract the tribunal.
“Cut through the smoke screen,” Moulard told the tribunal. “Resist being lulled into a sense of uncertainty.”
If the tribunal rules in Saunders’ favor and the school board affirms that decision, Saunders would still not return as an APS principal but as a teacher.
“I love working with children,” she told the tribunal. “As long as I could work with them in any capacity, I’d be happy.”
