Latest developments in Atlanta Public Schools' cheating scandal:
-- One principal and six teachers implicated in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal walked away from their jobs this week, opting not to fight after the district offered a three-day grace period that ended Wednesday. According to the district, they are: Charlene Martin, former teacher at Fain Elementary; Janice Hicks and Nettie Walker, former teachers at Slater Elementary; Beverly Shanks, former teacher at Grove Park Elementary; Oliver Banks, former teacher at Gideons Elementary; Rose Neal, former teacher at Dunbar Elementary; and Linda Paden, former principal of Finch Elementary. Of the seven, two resigned and five retired. The district is now expected to begin termination proceedings against those who stayed. The process will take several months, because of employees' contractual and legal rights to due process. -- Kristina Torres
-- APS Superintendent Erroll Davis told the AJC the number of employees accused by state investigators of cheating has changed slightly. He said a lawyer told him that the state removed one name from its list of 178 accused of cheating, but added two others, bringing the current total to 179. -- Ty Tagami
-- Former APS teacher Tameka Butler-Grant filed what may be the first lawsuit stemming from the state investigative report. Butler-Grant claimed then-Dobbs Elementary School Principal Dana Evans got her fired after she provided information about cheating to investigators. In the suit, which was filed Monday in federal court, Butler-Grant asks for damages and that she get her job back. -- Kristina Torres
-- DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James said he has opened a criminal investigation involving five APS schools named in the report, all of which are located in his jurisdiction. The schools are Coan Middle and East Lake, Toomer, Whitefoord and Boyd elementary schools. "We are going to go where the facts take us," James said, adding that he expected the investigation to take some time. -- Kristina Torres
-- The cheating investigation is spilling over into the state’s annual assessment of whether schools made "adequate yearly progress," a key benchmark of the federal No Child Left Behind, state officials said. Not only is the state education department temporarily withholding AYP status this year for all APS schools, officials are also going to take a second look at the past year’s AYP status for the 44 schools identified as having cheated. -- Nancy Badertscher
-- State Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, called for the resignation of Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the region’s premier business organization. Fort and other community leaders accused Williams of playing a role trying to cover up the test cheating in the Atlanta Public Schools. “The buck stops at the top, and Mr. Williams has made himself … the top guy, and he needs to be held responsible,” Fort said. -- David Ibata
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