5:14 p.m
A former Atlanta Public Schools teacher broke down on the witness stand Thursday lamenting the toll test-cheating took on schoolchildren.
Fabiola Aurelien, who once taught math at Parks Middle School, said she had repeatedly complained about cheating at the school.
Later, after leaving Parks in disgust, Aurelien was teaching a high school student in an advanced algebra class and discovered the student could barely write or do basic math. When the student blamed her academic struggles on her time at Parks, Aurelien said she angrily sent an email to Parks’ principal, Christopher Waller, who coerced and intimidated his teachers to cheat on state-mandated standardized tests.
“You’re so lucky nobody cares to find out what you’re doing to these kids,” the email said, Aurelien testified Thursday during the APS test-cheating trial.
Aurelien broke down in tears, her shaking hands grabbing a tissue and putting it over her eyes.
Waller pleaded guilty in February to his role in the scandal and admitted he orchestrated test-cheating, getting his teachers to correct their students’ wrong answers on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. In the coming weeks, Waller will take the stand as a witness for the prosecution.
12:52 p.m.
Beverly Hall was among top-ranked officials, including former state superintendent Kathy Cox, who reportedly were sent descriptions of test-cheating and other fraud at Parks Middle School by an anonymous tipster.
That tipster, Stacey Johnson, was, and is, an Atlanta Public Schools employee, and she was the second witness to take the stand Thursday on the fourth day of the test-cheating trial.
Johnson testified that she sent anonymous tips after failing to get any action when she told a senior official in the district about the conduct of her principal, Christopher Waller. Waller has already pleaded guilty to a felony charge of false statements in writing, for certifying his school’s test scores when he knew cheating had occurred.
Upon his arrival in 2005, Waller managed to change the mood at the school from one of friendly collaboration to Kremlin-esque paranoia where teachers feared talking among themselves lest they be seen with someone who wasn’t on Waller’s “team,” Johnson said.
Johnson said she hoped someone would act on her tips about test-cheating and fraud. Her letters also detailed tutorial services that were billed but not delivered in an after-school program and the falsifying of attendance records.
She testified she had officially reported her concerns to Michael Pitts, a former regional supervisor who is among the 12 defendants on trial.
“I told him we were being coerced and pressured to cheat on the upcoming CRCT test,” Johnson testified, referring to the high-stakes Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.
When asked if she could identify Pitts, he stood from his seat at the front row defense table. Johnson then pointed at him.
Waller urged teachers to cheat. Inflated scores resulted in fewer teaching resources for kids who need it. The result she saw: students who dropped out of high school or college, falling into gangs, prostitution and other crime.
“I have seen the effects on these students,” she said.
Her letter, stamped received by Hall’s office on Jan. 13, 2006, was entered into evidence.
Johnson said she would have no part of the cheating demanded by Waller, whom she also accused of sexual harrassment. For that, she said, “I was harrassed, intimidated and degredated.”
10:39 a.m.
The fourth day of testimony in the Atlanta schools cheating trial started with Merita Brown, an instructional specialist who saw unlikely test score gains before she retired in 2005.
Brown, a veteran teacher and former interim principal who’d been with the district for three decades, said those scores had become the highest priority for the district. They were posted in hallways and in meeting rooms. Educators at schools with the most big jumps got prominent seating at a districtwide event while she and others with modest results were seated in the bleachers.
Prosecutors used Brown to set the stage for noting the improbability of increases at schools such as Gideons Elementary, where widespread cheating has been alleged.
When children from that school reached Brown at Parks Middle School, they were woefully behind, Brown said. They were nowhere near sixth-grade level academically. So where were they?
“I would say anywhere from fourth grade or below,” she said.
Brown also testified that she saw children with their books open during testing. She reported it to her principal, Christopher Waller, but to her knowledge the incident was never investigated.
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