DeKalb vs. Atlanta: How the cheating cases differ
In late March, a Fulton County grand jury indicted 35 Atlanta educators on charges they conspired to cheat on federally mandated standardized tests. Included were former Superintendent Beverly Hall and several top aides, who were charged with racketeering, theft, making false statements and false swearing. Hall has denied the charges, as have several top officials.
Unlike the Atlanta case, no conspiracy is alleged in DeKalb County, where Tuesday three educators were indicted on charges including public record fraud and forgery and in two cases, making false statements and/or writings. A 2010 DeKalb investigation uncovered numerous testing irregularities and resulted in the referral of 24 educators and five former employees to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, which monitors the ethics of educators. At the time, DeKalb earned praise for its proactive handling of cheating concerns.
Educators charged
Agnes Flanagan, the former principal of Cedar Grove Middle School, is accused of telling teachings to change students’ answers on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests. Flanagan worked for the DeKalb school district from 1988 until 2012.
Angela Jennings, the former principal of Rock Chapel Elementary, allegedly changed students’ records to make it appear that they weren’t enrolled so that their 2010 test results wouldn’t weigh down school averages. Jennings was employed by DeKalb from 1992 through 2010.
Derrick Wooten, the former assistant principal at Stoneview Elementary, allegedly ordered teachers to record truant students as being present in 2010 and 2011 so the school might meet federal attendance guidelines. He was employed from 2007 to 2012.
Three former DeKalb administrators indicted Tuesday on charges they manipulated tests or attendance records harmed an untold number of students in an effort to meet academic goals, said DeKalb District Attorney Robert James.
But unlike cheating allegations against former Atlanta educators, no conspiracy is said to have occurred in DeKalb. James said each of the three acted alone in an attempt to help their schools meet state testing mandates and preserve their careers.
The DeKalb grand jury accused former DeKalb County School District employees Angela Jennings, Agnes Flanagan and Derrick Wooten of altering tests or records. The charges come two weeks after a Fulton County grand jury indicted 35 former Atlanta Public Schools teachers and administrators.
James praised the DeKalb school system for reacting swiftly, but lamented a lack of evidence to prove more cheating.
“I believe that what happened was perhaps more widespread than these indictments reflect,” James said. He said his office will continue investigating cheating suspicions in DeKalb schools and in the portion of the Atlanta school system that is in DeKalb.
The grand jury approved three counts each of forgery, fraud and false writing against Flanagan, the former principal of Cedar Grove Middle School. She allegedly ordered her teachers to change students’ answers on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, the high-stakes tests that largely determined whether schools were labeled as failing.
The other two defendants allegedly took a more roundabout approach to manipulating performance.
The grand jury brought eight counts of public record fraud and another eight counts of computer forgery against Jennings, former principal at Rock Chapel Elementary. She allegedly removed students temporarily from enrollment records so their 2010 CRCT tests wouldn’t count against the school’s average scores. The grand jury also indicted Wooten, a former Stoneview Elementary assistant principal, on 13 counts of actual or attempted fraud, forgery and false statements and writings.
Wooten was indicted a couple of years ago on similar counts when cheating allegations in the district were first investigated. The new charges in the superseding indictment against him reflect new evidence in the case, but are not significantly different, James said. Wooten is accused of ordering teachers to mark truants during the 2010-11 school year as having attended school. Attendance is a secondary measure under the benchmarks for a federal measure known as Adequate Yearly Progress.
Attorneys for Wooten and Flanagan didn’t return messages seeking comment Tuesday, and an attorney for Jennings couldn’t be located. Phone numbers for the three defendants were either unlisted or disconnected.
The three defendants wanted to improve their schools’ AYP standing, James said. The defendants didn’t stand to receive bonus money if they met AYP, but they may have feared losing their positions if their students fell short, he said.
“The reason we test is to make sure these children are getting what they need from a state-funded education system,” he said. “We’ll never know how many children were affected.”
The school system estimated that cheating touched about 1,100 students, which is more than 1 percent of the 99,000 children enrolled in the state’s third-largest school district. Affected students received extra classroom help.
James said his case resulted from an investigation his office conducted after the school district turned over evidence from its own cheating probe.
The school system probe was prompted by a statewide investigation into erasure marks on the CRCT. The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement began looking into test erasures after the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2008 analyzed test score gains and reported unlikely improvements in DeKalb, Atlanta and elsewhere.
The three indicted administrators are among 29 DeKalb employees suspected of cheating, James said. He brought charges against these three because he had the most evidence against them, but he said he would continue investigating. Their cases were turned over to prosecutors in 2011 and also referred to the Public Standards Commission, the agency that licenses Georgia educators.
All of those implicated were removed from their jobs, said DeKalb schools spokesman Jeff Dickerson.
David Schutten, president of the Organization of DeKalb Educators, noted that the indictments represent a tiny fraction of DeKalb’s roughly 7,000 certified educators.
“We knew that it wasn’t anywhere as extensive as it was in Atlanta,” he said. “In the big picture, it’s only three people.”
The governor’s erasure analysis flagged a half dozen DeKalb schools, James said, and the indicted administrators worked at three of them.
These aren’t the first charges.
In December 2009, James Berry, then the principal at Atherton Elementary, pleaded guilty to falsifying a state document, a felony, in connection with changing scores on his school’s CRCT. He was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $1,000 fine.
Marcia Coward, president of the DeKalb County Council of Parent/Teacher Associations, praised the district for moving “very rapidly in investigating” cheating suspicions and removing suspected educators. She said she hopes the example being made in Atlanta and DeKalb will deter any would-be cheaters tempted to meet tough federal educational mandates with fraud.
These new charges are all felonies that could bring prison terms as long as 10 years.
Cedar Grove Elementary PTA President Charlera German said she was upset to hear news of criminal indictments in a school district that’s already been put on probation by its accrediting agency. She said she hoped the defendants aren’t guilty.
“I just pray it really didn’t happen that way. I don’t want DeKalb to be another Atlanta. We have enough problems as it is,” she said. “Maybe we wouldn’t have that problem if the CRCT wasn’t emphasized so heavily.”
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