In the years after a cheating scandal erupted in Atlanta Public Schools, researchers tallied the number of students who had their test answers manipulated: An estimated 7,064.

Those students were robbed of an education, officials said, because they were sometimes passed from grade to grade without adequate preparation, and they lost out on possible help because the inflated test scores hid their academic struggles.

Now, nearly a decade after taking the 2009 standardized tests that teachers erased and corrected, about 1,500 likely victims remain enrolled in Atlanta schools and are receiving remediation help -- to mixed results.

About the Author

Keep Reading

A graduate attends Clark Atlanta University’s 2025 commencement ceremony Sunday, May 18, 2025, at Georgia State’s Convocation Center. (Daniel Varnado for the AJC)

Credit: Daniel Varnado/For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Featured

Rebecca Ramage-Tuttle, assistant director of the Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia, says the the DOE rule change is “a slippery slope” for civil rights. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC