Ashlyn Strozier's candor and cooperation likely will lead to her dismissal as an Atlanta Public Schools teacher.
During the Woodson Elementary School teacher's tribunal Thursday, an investigator described a two-hour interview recorded in 2009 in which Strozier confessed to prompting her students to change wrong exam answers and rearranging their seats so they could cheat off each other.
"Ms. Strozier stood out to me because she was one of a handful of teachers who were very honest and forthright," said Kristina Smalley of the GBI, who interviewed Strozier as part of a broad investigation into alleged cheating on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. "It's not like I had to sit in there and pull teeth."
Strozier maintained she never admitted to cheating and was confused by Smalley's questioning.
The tribunal sided with the school district and will recommend that she be fired.
"I was trying to eliminate anything that was detrimental to students not doing well on the test," Strozier told the tribunal. "I was trying to create the most conducive classroom environment so we could get optimal performance from our students."
Strozier and another teacher at Woodson, Celesia Baugh, were accused of using the same strategies. A tribunal upheld the recommendation Baugh be fired earlier this month.
"It was one of those schools where it was OK to do what you wanted to do in the classroom," Smalley said. "It was an unwritten rule that you just don't get caught. It was the message that was preached."
Strozier's teaching license recently was suspended for two years by the state's Professional Standards Commission — a decision she plans to appeal.
Strozier described her third- and fourth-grade classroom at Woodson as chaotic, cramped and filled with impoverished students from local homeless shelters and housing projects. She testified one of her students had a split personality and would shout out at imaginary friends during class.
She admitted to switching students' seats for the test as part of a classroom management strategy.
"I'm quite the expressive, lively teacher," she said. "I might have gone to kids [during the test] and said, 'Come on. Keep going.' There were a lot of kids who cried and would get frustrated on the test. I was trying to keep a positive atmosphere."
But that explanation was inadequate for district administrators, APS attorney Marquetta Bryan said. "Her testimony continues to confirm the mockery she makes of this system," Bryan said. "This case is quite clear."
The tribunal's recommendation will go to the school board, which will make the final decision at its next meeting.
"We respectfully disagree with the decision," said Strozier's lawyer, Gerald Griggs. "This is the first step on what to pursue legally, but it's not the end."
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