An Atlanta Public Schools tribunal has recommended firing a first-grade teacher as part of the district's effort to remove all educators implicated in a state test cheating investigation.
The Fain Elementary teacher, Cedric Carwise, was charged with willful neglect of duties, immorality and ethics breaches for failing to stick to the script in the 2009 administration of the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. He admitted to state investigators to paraphrasing a few exam questions for his students.
A state investigation released in July uncovered evidence of cheating at 44 schools on the CRCT, a standardized test that's a pivotal measure of a school's achievement. About 180 educators were implicated in the report; about 70 have left.
APS is paying about $1 million a month to more than 100 educators accused of cheating who are on leave and face being fired.
Superintendent Erroll Davis no longer has confidence in Carwise’s ability to educate kids, said the district's attorney at Wednesday's hearing
“There are a number of ways you could cheat if you wanted to if you are a test examiner,” said Carol Callaway, APS's attorney. “You could change the answer sheet. That is not what Mr. Carwise did. Mr. Carwise reworded test answers. He paraphrased. In his own words, he used comfort language. Why is that wrong? It changes the questions. These are standardized tests. ”
Callaway said the teacher, who was in his second year when the incident occurred, received training on how to administer the CRCT that he ignored. A statement in the test booklet for teachers warned against paraphrasing.
Carwise said he made a rookie mistake and he is not part of the systematic cover up to change answers from wrong to right on a state exam test booklet.
“It was something that just occurred through circumstance,” Carwise said. “I had maybe 23 students. It was their first time ever taking a standardized test of that magnitude. It was three days of testing. A lot of the students were getting antsy. Some were crying. I used words of encouragement and let them know how hard we have been working to assure them that they could do this."
Carwise said he shortened questions by dropping words in the language arts section.
His lawyer Theodore Frankel gave this example:
If the test question read "The rabbit jumped over the wall. Which one is the verb?" Carwise shortened it to rabbit, wall, jump, over. Which one is the verb?
Callaway said Carwise helped students by also shortening answers and by eliminating some that may have been incorrect.
Beyond admitting paraphrasing, Carwise also told investigators his principal encouraged teachers to use inflection to guide students to the right answers, though he did not use the tactic, he said.
Callaway said he also showed unethical behavior by failing to report the cheating.
His case was referred to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, which has not taken action on his case.
Carwise's attorney said he did not benefit monetarily from cheating and is being punished for his honesty. "If Mr. Carwise said nothing to GBI [Georgia Bureau of Investigation] he probably wouldn't be here. He is an honest person," Frankel said.
The school board will soon vote on the recommendation to terminate, said APS spokesman Keith Bromery.
If the board accepts the recommendation, Carwise has 30 days to appeal the decision to the state Board of Education.
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