For the third time, Atlanta Public Schools is seeking to fire one of the district's former testing coordinators for cheating on state exams.
The case against Theresia Copeland sheds additional light on how the widespread test cheating a state investigation uncovered at APS includes the employees whose job was to protect the integrity of the test.
Copeland, a former Benteen Elementary School testing coordinator, is fighting for her job. Her attorney says she did not change wrong answers to right on state tests as APS alleges.
APS said that in 2009 Copeland would start cheating early and stay late. Investigators said she'd roll carts of CRCT tests down the empty halls to her office where one witness testified Monday she saw Copeland through her office window bent to the task of test-tampering, eraser and pencil in hand.
"It was like materials spread out on her desk, and she was like writing on them," testified Lucrelia Craig, a cafeteria manager at the school. Craig said she recognized the CRCT tests because of the clear plastic boxes with white tops where the tests were stored.
Copeland is one of about 180 educators accused of cheating in a state investigative report released last year. APS since has been working to fire implicated employees, but several educators, including Copeland, have job protection rights, entitling them a hearing before a three-person tribunal before they are terminated. Copeland did not take the stand as attorneys for APS still have two witnesses to call.
Monday, APS called a pair witness who said they saw Copeland with the documents. A third witness, Lori Anne Revere Paulk, testified that after the students had been given the test and Paulk turned them over to Copeland. Copeland, she said, returned them to her out of order, suggesting Copeland had tampered with the tests.
As testing coordinator, it was Copeland's job to make sure the tests are not tampered with. She was also responsible for making sure teachers followed testing protocols adopted to detect and discourage cheating.
During cross examination of APS witnesses Monday, Copeland's attorney, Warren Fortson, continually hammered at the teachers, asking them why, if Copeland had cheated, they had not reported her to school principal, Diana Quisenberry, which school regulations require.
Witness Javacia Jones said she didn't report Coleman to the principal, whose contract was not renewed the year, because she's already been punished at least once by Quisenberry. Jones said Quisenberry put her on cafeteria duty, and she knew that Quisenberry and Coleman were friends. She didn't want to risk more reprisals, Jones testified.
But wasn't she worried about losing her credential by violating school policy and not reporting her?, asked Fortson: "Why didn't you protect yourself?"
"I was protecting myself as a single parent!" Jones shot back. "I needed my job!"
Jones had testified that the cheating at the school — where investigators found 43.1 percent of classroom had wrong to right erasures that were statistically improbable — was so extreme one girl student had essentially slept through the CRCT and still passed the test.
The hearing will be continued on Friday.
APS UPDATE
2 Number of educators whose recommended firing was not upheld by a tribunal.
14 Number of educators whose recommended firing has been upheld by a tribunal.
13 Number of educators recently notified they will be reinstated back to classrooms.
30 Approximate number of educators named in the investigation who are challenging efforts to fire them.
127 Approximate number of educators named in the investigation who resigned or retired.
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