Atlanta superintendent Hall will outline plans about report

Opening a pivotal week for her administration, Superintendent Beverly Hall will outline plans today to address an investigative report on alleged cheating in Atlanta Public Schools.

With the Atlanta school board still debating whether to accept the findings of the cheating investigation, Hall has yet to address the findings of an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story on Sunday that raised questions about the system’s rising graduation rate in tandem with a rising dropout rate. Tuesday, she will give her annual assessment of the system. Atlanta also may be a topic Wednesday and Thursday when the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, which initially called for the cheating investigation, meets.

Hall’s presentation today is scheduled for a 2 p.m. work session of the Atlanta school board, the board’s first meeting since it split 5-4 on a vote not to accept the investigative report. It is scheduled to take up the report again at today’s meeting.

Last week, Hall referred to the state teacher licensing board cases involving 108 educators named in the cheating investigation. She also temporarily reassigned 12 principals.

Tuesday morning, Hall is scheduled to give her annual “state of the schools” address, in which she typically highlights achievements as she lays out new goals and challenges.

State Board of Education members are expected to get a briefing from the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement this week.

As a consequence of the state’s review of Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, Atlanta and 33 other school systems statewide were directed to investigate evidence of cheating.

State board members also may discuss Atlanta’s handling of its state-ordered probe, after at least one member expressed disappointment about how the city board reacted.

The report was compiled by a commission appointed by the school board to review suspicious erasures on the tests at 58 city schools flagged by the state.

According to its findings, widespread cheating appeared to be limited to 12 schools, with some problems at another 13. It noted fewer concerns among the other 33 schools, although questions have been raised about the thoroughness of the investigation.

The state ordered the investigation after the AJC reported on statistically improbable increases in test scores in Atlanta and elsewhere in Georgia. After releasing its audit in February, the state ordered investigations of 191 Georgia public schools.

Atlanta had the most schools flagged in any system — more than two-thirds of its public elementary and middle schools. It is the last of the 34 systems to complete its investigation, which is now being reviewed by the state.