A former Atlanta teacher said Monday that staff members at Deerwood Academy reassured her about changing students’ answers on state tests in 2008: people do this all the time, they said.
Margaret Merkerson, a retired from Atlanta Public Schools teacher, said she changed students’ answers at the time and then did it again in 2009.
A prosecution witness during the APS test-cheating trial, Merkerson offered potentially damaging testimony against former Deerwood assistant principal Tabeeka Jordan, one of 12 defendants charged in a racketeering conspiracy. But defense attorneys challenged Merkerson’s veracity during aggressive cross-examinations.
Merkerson testified that during the summer of 2008, she and former Deerwood testing coordinator Lavonia Ferrell sat in a school conference room erasing and correcting students’ answers on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.
Did Ms. Ferrell say whose idea it was? Fulton County prosecutor Brett Pinion asked.
“Yeah, Ms. Jordan,” Merkerson answered.
When Merkerson returned to Deerwood the following school year and helped with state testing, Jordan said there was pressure on Deerwood because it failed to meet test targets in 2008 and did not make Adequate Yearly Progress, a key district goal under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Merkerson testified.
During the 2009 CRCT, Jordan told her that Deerwood again needed to make Adequate Yearly Progress, Merkerson said.
What did that mean? Pinion asked.
“In other words: cheating, erasing needs to be done,” Merkerson said.
Merkerson said when she and Ferrell struggled changing answers, Jordan got a list of students who had previously tested well.
Pull their tests and make the corrections using their CRCT answers, Jordan told them, Merkerson testified. “You won’t have to sit here and solve these problems.”
Merkerson changed answers over several days on the 2009 CRCT, she said. At one point, she got gloves from the school cafeteria.
“I just didn’t like the feeling that I had,” she said.
But Jordan’s lawyer, Akil Secret, pointed out that Merkerson, in prior interviews and testimony, gave contradictory statements as to whether Jordan directed the cheating. Merkerson also did not initially tell a district investigator about changing answers, Secret noted.
Merkerson acknowledged Monday she had lied about her involvement in the cheating scandal until GBI agents appeared unannounced at her door and offered her immunity.
“I had had a lot of problems sleeping and I knew I was wrong,” she said. “I knew these were the big boys, so to speak, so I did tell the truth.”
In response to questions from defense attorney George Lawson, who represents former regional supervisor Michael Pitts, Merkerson acknowledged she feared going to jail and losing her pension if she did not cooperate and help the prosecution. “Ms. Merkerson, you told everyone else a lie,” Lawson said. How, he asked, does the jury know you’re not lying now?
“I didn’t tell that many lies,” she replied.
“From that point on,” Merkerson insisted, referring to when she came clean to the GBI, “I have told the truth, as God is my witness.”
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