In convicting 11 of 12 former Atlanta educators of racketeering Wednesday, a Fulton County jury delivered an emphatic directive: Students matter and their education cannot be compromised to protect jobs, earn bonuses or save face.
With the 11 now facing the possibility of 20 years in prison, that message is being heard by educators nationwide. As former APS Superintendent Erroll Davis said, “Every teacher understands now the downsides of bad integrity. That’s abundantly clear to all teachers. If you don’t go about life in general with integrity, you’re going to have problems.”
It would be a mistake to cast the APS cheating scandal as a saga of failed character, although the trial revealed plenty of moral lapses and self-serving decisions.
The scandal also points to failed education policy, and the verdict is not yet in on whether that’s been addressed.
The most important policy questions yet to be resolved: Why did APS educators resort to cheating to enable their students to perform on a minimum skills test that most Georgia students pass easily? Was a single test score a fair measure of teacher, student or school? Were the educators unequal to the expectations or were the expectations unrealistic?
A former teacher at Dobbs Elementary School suggested the answer in his testimony: “When kids got to fifth grade, they lacked basic foundational skills … . Roughly 40 percent to 50 percent of students were unprepared.”
Another Dobbs Elementary teacher testified her principal ignored requests to retain a fifth grader with kindergarten-level skills. “I was appalled that this child was passed on and sitting in my class, fifth grade,” she said.
In his three years with APS, Superintendent Davis steadied the shaken district after the revelations of test cheating, which were first uncovered by an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation and confirmed by Gov. Sonny Perdue’s statewide review.
New APS chief Meria Carstarphen has the tougher job, moving Atlanta from stable to successful. She appears braced for the lift; her school board is young and smart; parents have warmed to her charisma and nonstop appearances; she proved herself an able reformer in Austin, although Atlanta poses greater obstacles.
Atlanta still grapples with underperforming schools. It has 27 – more than any other Georgia district — eligible for state takeover under the governor’s proposed Opportunity School District plan.
APS is not alone. No urban district with a high population of poor kids can lay claim to system-wide transformation. The reasons are many; poor children often arrive at school well behind middle-class peers, especially in language. Top teachers shun inner city schools where everything is harder. Scant political will exists to fund the wrap-around services that deal not only the child’s academic struggles but the family’s personal struggles.
Not all cheating involves unprincipled educators in dark corners with erasers. Some of it occurs in the bright light of day when we tell poor children who start out behind and fall further and further back that they can readily succeed if they just run faster.
