Bradmac,
Here's some info I received:
Massive Cheating Scandal Rocks Atlanta Public Schools.
A great deal of media attention was focused on the widening cheating scandal in Atlanta's public school system, much of it outraged in tone. Under the headline "America's Biggest Teacher And Principal Cheating Scandal Unfolds In Atlanta," the
Christian Science Monitor (7/6, Jonsson) reports that Gov. Nathan Deal (R) announced on Tuesday that some "178 named teachers and principals" had allegedly perpetrated "what's likely the biggest cheating scandal in US history." Noting that 82 of the alleged individuals have "confessed," the Monitor adds that the charges "point an ongoing problem for US education, which has developed an ever-increasing dependence on standardized tests." The Monitor describes the deleterious impact the scandal has on the image of outgoing Superintendent Beverly Hall, "who was named US Superintendent of the Year in 2009 largely because of the school system's reported gains." In describing how the story relates to the debate over NCLB, the Monitor quotes Education Secretary Arne Duncan's recent criticisms of the law.
The
AP (7/6, Turner) that according to the state's report, Hall "knew about cheating allegations on standardized tests but either ignored them or tried to hide them." Moreover, despite reports from a number of educators of systemic cheating, "Hall and other administrators ignored those and sometimes retaliated against whistleblowers." The reports states that fears over the cheating issue created "a 'culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation' in the school district."
The
CBS Evening News (7/5, story 2, 3:15, Pelley) also covers the "massive cheating scandal in Atlanta's public schools. It matters far beyond that city because the alleged cheating involved the same sort of standardized tests used all over the country." The piece notes that some 80% of the schools investigated were implicated by the "scathing" report which detailed "a decade of systemic cheating...by the adults." The piece shows Deal vowing that "there will be consequences." CBS notes that the motive for the cheating was to feign progress on standardized testing, and shows former ED official Diane Ravitch saying, "We have a terrible federal law called No Child Left Behind that says that all schools have to have 100% of their students proficient in reading and math by the year 2014 or their schools will be closed down." The segment indicates that "tampering with a state exam in Georgia is a potential felony punishable by up to ten years in prison."
CBS News (7/6, Strassmann) also has a text version of this story on its website.
Education Week (7/6, Samuels) adds that state officials say the report says that the cheating "led to thousands of children being denied the remedial education they were entitled to," and that "the cheating dated back to at least 2001. The 48,000-student Atlanta district has been under a cloud for the past two years, ever since an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis found improbably high results on the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, or CRCT," which are used to monitor NCLB progress. The piece notes that under Hall, who was honored by the American Association of School Administrators as "superintendent of the year" in 2009, the district investigated reports of potential cheating, but "then-Gov. Sonny Perdue called the district's own investigation 'woefully inadequate' and appointed an independent investigator."
