Selena Dukes-Walton, former Slater Elementary School principal, should be fired for failing to prevent test cheating, an Atlanta Public Schools tribunal ruled Monday.
APS attorneys argued Dukes-Walton, the first principal to go before the tribunal to fight for her job, failed in her duties to ensure the testing was secure and above board. Dukes-Walton has denied participating in test cheating.
“She did not provide appropriate oversight for testing in her school,” testified Karen Waldon, APS' Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum Instruction. “APS’ opinion is that it was Dr. Walton’s responsibility to ensure that there were no opportunities for individuals to assist students in any matter that might have been inappropriate."
Slater Elementary is one of 44 Atlanta schools implicated in test cheating in a state report released last year. That investigation uncovered evidence that about 180 educators in the school system -- including 38 principals -- may have been involved in test cheating.
Testing analysis from 30 Slater classrooms showed a number of wrong-to-right erasures so high that they could only reasonably be explained as cheating, according to investigators.
“Students were given answers,” APS attorney Sherry Hall Culves told the tribunal. “Students were allowed and encouraged to go back and change previous answers.”
Two teachers at Slater confessed to cheating. Neither implicated Walton, but APS argued that didn't absolve her from blame and responsibility. .
“All of this occurred while Dr. Walton was principal,” Culves said. “All of this occurred on her watch.”
APS also said that Dukes-Walton, who had worked at Slater Elementary for eight years, encouraged cheating just before exams by giving teachers a document that described how many students needed to pass the test to meet district standards.
“To hand teachers information regarding the number of students who can fail an assessment during the course of that assessment — that’s academic dishonesty,” Waldon testified.
“Short of pressuring her teachers to cheat, there was no reason to provide those mandates to her staff when she disseminated testing procedures and protocols,” Culves said.
But Dukes-Walton testified that she did nothing wrong.
“I followed all guidelines, policies and procedures,” she told the tribunal, adding later, “I had monitors. I had everybody on point. I don’t know of anything else I could have done differently that year.”
Dukes-Walton said she never handed out a document listing student pass-fail requirements just before testing. She also said that she was unaware of cheating. No one reported any cheating to her before or during the test, she said.
Multiple Slater staff members vouched for Dukes-Walton, testifying that she was a "fair" and "approachable" principal who never sanctioned or encouraged cheating.
As for APS' argument that Dukes-Walton should be held responsible for a failure of "oversight," the former Slater principal said, “Yes, I’m ultimately responsible for what goes on in the building, but I cannot do anything about something I’m not aware of."
The tribunal ultimately rejected that explanation, making Dukes-Walton the latest in a string of educators to lose at an APS hearing. The Atlanta School Board must now vote on whether to uphold her recommended firing.
Where they stand now
About 89 educators of 178 suspected of cheating remain on the Atlanta Public Schools district's payroll, including teachers and administrators. They can make their case to keep their jobs before an APS tribunal. Once the hearings are held and terminations are recommended, the matter goes to the school board for approval. If the board upholds the decision, the employee is terminated immediately.
Where the cases stand
1 -- Number of educators whose recommended firing was not upheld by a tribunal.
10 -- Number of educators whose recommended firing has been upheld by a tribunal.
50 -- Number of letters sent to educators outlining charges and the school district's intent to terminate.
78 -- Number of educators notified that their contracts will not be renewed; some will have the option of a hearing.
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