WHAT’S NEXT?
There will be no court on Monday because one of the APS defense attorneys has a long-standing medical appointment. On Tuesday, defense attorneys will resume questioning the Georgia Department of Education’s deputy superintendent for assessment and accountability.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter wants an update on the health of former Atlanta Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall because he has heard she has been out and about, despite having Stage IV breast cancer.
“We need to try her,” Baxter said Thursday, just before a morning break in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating trial. “Somebody said they saw her out eating the other day, so I need to know how she is doing.”
Baxter directed his comments to one of Hall’s attorneys, who has been in the courtroom each day, listening to testimony in the trial of 12 other educators accused of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy to inflate test scores.
Baxter gave Hall’s lawyer 10 days to produce a written update.
Hall, along with the 12 now on trial, is charged with conspiring to change students’ answers on Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.
But a month before jury selection began in August, Baxter accepted the opinion of Hall’s oncologist that chemotherapy’s side effects and the cancer’s progression would make it difficult for Hall to endure the rigors of a trial. Baxter ruled Hall would be tried when her health improved.
Although Hall is not in the courtroom, the “no excuses” culture she instituted regarding test scores and performance targets has been recounted repeatedly in testimony.
Indeed, on Thursday, former Usher-Collier Heights Elementary teacher Stacey Smith struggled to keep her emotions in check as she recalled the pressures of ensuring her third-graders did well.
A note from Smith’s principal, Gwendolyn Rogers, was used to emphasize the point.
“Think about the position Dr. Hall is in, my boss (the E.D.) and of course myself,” Rogers wrote. “I have to hold you responsible for the students that you teach for 9 months.”
Smith, who has immunity, admitted she erased wrong answers on the CRCTs of 11 students in 2009.
“I did something inexcusable and horrible,” Smith said.
She testified that testing coordinator Donald Bullock — who is one of the defendants — had returned the answer sheets to her classroom, saying she should make sure her students did well.
Smith said she was a nervous and insecure young teacher who wanted to be a “team player,” so she fixed some of the wrong answers.
Smith also said she did it for the children. But Smith wept when one of the defense attorneys, Gerald Griggs, told her that her third-graders were not helped if they were promoted despite not being able to perform at their grade level.
“Did you think about the damage you were doing?” Griggs asked.
“I did,” Smith answered.
“When you were thinking about it, why didn’t you just stop?” Griggs asked.
“I’ve wondered about that time and again,” Smith said.
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