The first principal charged in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating scandal pleaded guilty Thursday .
Armstead Salters, former principal of C.L. Gideons Elementary School, also became the first defendant in the case to plead guilty to a felony charge — making false statements and writings.
After Salters entered his plea, former Humphries Elementary School teacher Wendy Ahmed also pleaded guilty to her role in the case. Ahmed became the eighth educator convicted so far among those charged in the sweeping racketeering conspiracy indictment.
Salters admitted he directed Gideons teachers to go to the school’s testing coordinator to get the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests that her students had just taken, so the teachers could change wrong answers to right.
It was an “open secret” throughout APS for years that cheating was going on at Gideons, prosecutor Clint Rucker said. Even so, former Superintendent Beverly Hall, who is also charged in the case, constantly praised the gains made by Gideons students on the standardized tests, Rucker said.
Salters, 74, was sentenced to two years on probation and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service. He agreed to return $2,000 he received as bonuses in restitution.
Salters began his Atlanta schools teaching career in 1966 as a high school science teacher. In 1981, he became principal at Gideons, serving in that job until 2010.
In a letter of apology, another condition required by prosecutors as part of his guilty plea, Salters admitted violating the trust of parents and the school system.
“I apologize for my actions in not upholding the ethics of the teaching profession,” he said. Salters said he coordinated test cheating “because of excessive and extreme pressure placed on me by the administration.”
Other pleas are likely this week as well.
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