Sixty-seven educators accused of cheating in Atlanta Public Schools lost their certification to work in a classroom Thursday, the most sweeping move yet to punish them.
The Georgia Professional Standards Commission, which certifies and polices educators, handed down two-year suspensions to 47 teachers. One teacher was given a one-year suspension, and 19 educators in leadership positions, such as principals and testing coordinators, were recommended for revocation. Educators must be certified to work in Georgia schools, and actions against a teaching license follows an educator from state to state.
However, they will not automatically be fired.
The state’s landmark investigation into test cheating implicated 180 APS educators, some of whom confessed to changing wrong answers to right on Georgia’s standardized test that measures student achievement. In addition to punishment handed down by the PSC, those involved face possible criminal charges. APS is taking steps to fire educators accused of cheating.
But firing those educators has proven to be a long and costly legal process.
Terminating an educator is a separate process that allows the educator to appeal. For that reason, about 95 teachers named in the 400-plus page cheating investigation released in July are still employed by Atlanta Public Schools. At one point, the district was paying $1 million a month to implicated educators on administrative leave as they sought to fire them. It is possible that some of the educators who had their certifications stripped are among those still on APS’s payroll.
The PSC, which had been prevented from using evidence that was tied up by another government agency, is seeking to make an estimated 20 to 30 additional cases by next month.
“Given the circumstances we’ve had to deal with, we’re moving the cases forward as quickly as possible,” Henson said. “I’m comfortable the evidence supports the sanction. Not all of the cases this month were easy, but some of our most challenging cases are yet to come.”
The PSC decided 11 cases in October and hoped to have all of the approximately 200 cases resolved early this year. But work stopped because Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard did not want the PSC or other agencies exposing evidence that could be critical to a criminal case. Atlanta Public Schools also halted termination proceedings against teachers but has since resumed.
Henson said the commission will need access to additional evidence to make a decision on some cases. The commission may need to see evidence gathered by the district attorney, or it may need to find additional witnesses. For that reason, he said it’s hard to predict when the commission will be able to resolve all the Atlanta cases.
Details were not released about the educators sanctioned Thursday, including their names or where they worked. The commission does not identify educators accused of misconduct until the case is closed, a process that could take years because educators can appeal sanctions through a multi-step legal process.
The punishments handed out by the PSC can range from a warning to revocation of their certification. A revocation will make it difficult for an educator to work in another public school in Georgia or another state, as the sanction would appear in a national database.
In general, the commission has been handing out two-year suspensions for teachers, and revocations for those in leadership positions. At Thursday’s hearing, one teacher was given a one-year suspension because the commission determined cheating had not occurred.
“We didn’t feel like there was enough evidence to support cheating,” Henson said. “But there was ample evidence to support a significant testing protocol violation, and a significant failure to report violation.”
Attorney Gerald A. Griggs, who represents several of the accused educators, said the punishments are harsh, especially for teachers.
“For those teachers that actually admitted cheating and agreed to cooperate, I feel that any punishment should have been more in line with a suspension between three to sixth months, given the known climate of intimidation and coercion in APS,” he said. “For those that did not cheat and have proof of such, any punishment was unwarranted.”
So far, two educators have been fired following administrative hearings. The district is taking steps to fire 32 others, but those educators will have the option to challenge the action at an administrative hearing.
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's investigative reporters broke the story about cheating in Atlanta Public Schools in 2008, and we've continued digging ever since. Our commitment to bringing you complete coverage continues with today's report.
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