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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An investigative panel has recommended that 109 principals, assistant principals, school-based testing coordinators and teachers face further scrutiny or sanctions after it found evidence of suspected cheating at 58 Atlanta Public Schools.
Jolted into action by an audit that suggested irregularities on state standardized tests, the panel released its final report Monday after an exhaustive five-month inquiry. Among key findings:
• 78 of those city school employees worked at just 12 schools, emblematic of “schoolwide institutional issues” that warrant wholesale changes of those campuses, according to panel chairman Gary Price.
• 25 employees at another 13 schools appear to have acted individually.
• So did six employees at the remaining 33 schools investigated by the panel.
Investigators found no evidence that Superintendent Beverly Hall or top system officials orchestrated or condoned cheating, Price said. But panel members made clear they expect Hall to take aggressive action on their recommendations. That includes cultural changes to ease some of the pressure schools face to improve, given Hall’s reliance on test data and other measures such as financial incentives.
“We know that student achievement and measurable outcomes are critical,” Price said. “But that has to be balanced by positive ethical behavior.”
You think???
There’s more. If you can handle it, you can find the rest of the article at Atlanta Journal-Constitution online.
Enough with the tests, already, people!
Link to this page
"Enough with the tests, already, people!"
AMEN!
I seems to me there is way too much emphasis on testing. I read the article and it did not say what happens to schools that 'fail'. Is their funding cut? Or some other kind of disciplinary action? Or is it an issue of teachers receiving merit pay when the children do well but endanger their jobs when the children do poorly?
Either way the kids are the big losers.
Mother Mary, there are various sanctions associated with RTTT that include closing the school. My heart goes out to all of these kids (it's bad enough they have to take the test once – typically, when something like this is discovered [far too frequently] they get to take them all over again!).