Good money after bad: What does it take?

Voters approve $3.2 billion worth of educational funding
[ajc] Throughout metro Atlanta, the SPLOST passed despite a struggling economy, heated opposition from tax weary residents and sagging public confidence in several school systems recently rocked by scandal.
Voters essentially gave DeKalb County schools, where the former superintendent is facing fraud charges related to previous SPLOST money, $475 million for school construction, including $144 million to replace seven elementary schools.
Atlanta Public Schools, which is in the midst of one of the nation's biggest ever test cheating scandals, could raise $513 million. Two new schools in Buckhead and a new middle school in Midtown are among the projects the 1-cent tax would fund.

It never occurred to me that this might pass. Honestly, I thought Georgia voters had more sense.

If APS is having money problems, it's because it's a target for every educational grifter and smarmy technology salesman in the southeast. We've got hot and cold running money (I can just picture them saying, as long as it's Not For Attribution), as long as the phrase "for the children" is in the prospectus somewhere.

Or maybe voters figured that now that the barn door is closed and the corruption of the previous regime is a thing of the past, now this money will be spent wisely. I can't even say that with a straight face.

LOST isn't an acronym, it's a word, and that's what this money is going to become--lost. Meanwhile, teachers are still buying their own photocopy paper for class handouts.

Have you ever tried to hire 170 people?

I mean, all at once? For a job more complicated than entry-level fast food?

APS short 120 teachers after cheating scandal
[wsb-tv] Chandra Galashar’s child attends Parks Middle School, where the principal and 10 other educators were removed and now face professional disciplinary action.
“We don’t have enough teachers in these schools,” Galashar told Channel 2’s Tom Regan on Thursday.
...[School spokesman Keith] Bromery said the school district currently needs to fill about 120 teacher positions, which is down from 170 vacant positions just two weeks ago, and more jobs are being filled every day.
“The only thing I can tell you (is) as soon as possible. I can’t give you a date, but we’re filling them as we can identify qualified candidates and put them through the process,” Bromery said.

I have three hypotheses. (1) The media are deliberately combining quotes made in different contexts to create the appearance of a continuing crisis situation and a system running out of control. Why? The same reason they have "weather alerts" instead of weather reports. (2) Parents would rather have quantity than quality. (3) Possibly they figure their old teachers were railroaded. The vast majority of the accused educators are black and the public faces of the investigation are white. I don't think that's a factor: I wonder if these parents do.

Business as usual, take 1 1/2

Atlanta high schools broke rules to meet performance standards
[ajc] The morning of the high school writing test, in September 2009, school administrators pulled Chantel and several other Carver juniors aside. All stood a good chance of failing — and of lowering the school’s odds of meeting its do-or-die performance targets. While the rest of the 11th grade took the test required for all juniors, Chantel and the others worked puzzles in a special-education classroom.
Their absences could be excused, because the school had placed them in a grade all their own: 10 1/2.

Looks like I was wrong about the "isolated incident being blown out of proportion".

The New Schools at Carver (as Atlanta Public Schools likes to call the subdivided four-in-one high school) is the school APS points at to show what a great job they're doing. You might think that would attract media attention: That would be the point of using it as the showcase school of the High School Transformation Initiative (HSTI, in APS' endless mission to confuse observers with acronyms). You might think that everyone involved in its administration would be aware of being potentially under a magnifying glass. You might conclude that they would want to be on their best behavior. Dot every I, cross every T, By The Book.

If you thought that, you don't know APS very well. What it means is Look Good At Any Cost. And when in doubt, spend money. Splitting a high school into four parts means a lot of remodeling, plus paying consultants to create your basic educational structures, paying more consultants to teach your teachers how to teach all over again, not to mention hiring five principals (one for each school plus one overall). Wouldn't you just know that one big high school with four 300-student schools within would cost far more than four smaller standalone schools? Economics of scale work backwards in schools--or, at least, in Atlanta.

Ever since HSTI was announced, I've been curious what happened to students who wanted to attend a general-purpose non-specialized high school. Does APS really think that, as in Lake Wobegon, all children can be above average? Or do they think they've gotten so good at cooking the books that it no longer matters what the students actually know?

Do students in grade 10.5 move up to 11.5 the next year? Do they receive .5 of a diploma?

I don't think that word means what you think it means

APS slow to carry out principal’s suspension | www.wsbtv.com
[wsb-tv] Channel 2 has learned that an Atlanta high school principal who was given a 10-day suspension in January for cheating hasn't served a day of it yet.
...When [reporter Richard] Belcher confronted school officials about the issue, they said [Carver High principal Dr. Darian] Jones is planning to take one week of suspension in November and another week in January, but nothing is in writing.

Er, if you get to choose when you take it, it's called a "vacation".

Undocumented rewards for "favorites"

The Dirty Half-dozen were even dirtier than I suspected. They were creating busywork positions downtown for their "favorites" and paying them very generous full-time salaries for part-time positions. In addition, since these "favorites" were technically rehired retirees, they were simultaneously collecting an APS pension.

Retirees can't continue careers in APS
[ajc] Superintendent Erroll Davis ordered the firing of about 70 retirees, some who earn handsome hourly wages out-of-step with the district's salary scale. Contracts for the retirees will be terminated Oct. 31 and could amount to $1.7 million in annual savings, the equivalent of one furlough day.
Almost half of the targeted positions fall under the office of former Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Kathy Augustine, a key figure in the state's test-cheating scandal, and some worked as assistants to major players in the investigation. Critics say some positions are evidence of the district's culture of cronyism.
...According to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request, educators who retired as principals returned to the district in ill-defined central office jobs such as "administrator" earning $33 an hour.
...A retired principal who was rehired as an hourly administrator and paid $33.43 an hour said her job was to assist an APS area superintendent named in the cheating investigation in "whatever was needed," such as fielding calls from principals or parents.
...Charles Carey, president Atlanta Association of Classified Employees, a group with about 250 members, said under the old APS leadership, aging employees were pressured into retirement so the district could make room for retirees who were "favorites."
"They would bring back [favorites] and let them work no matter if they had a bad record when they left," he said. "People who retired with good records, if they didn’t like them, they wouldn’t let them come back."

This was a very difficult story to pick a "money quote" from. It's not very well written (sorry, Mr Sarrio), unless the reporter's intent was to obscure this key concept, which doesn't show up until paragraph fourteen.

"We are trying to protect the educator"

Why we couldn’t name names
[ajc] Back in July, when a 400-page state report on the Atlanta Public Schools’ cheating scandal was made public, we put the full text on the ajc.com website. The report was riveting and drew extraordinary online traffic.
It’s impossible to know what readers found most interesting in the report, which was prompted by years of reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But I’d bet that one of the better-read parts was the “school summaries” section, which included shocking details and names of individual schools and teachers.
Given the specificity of that report, some readers were surprised this week when we did not name 11 educators initially sanctioned by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission.

"Surprised" wasn't exactly the word for my reaction. "Chagrined" or "appalled" or "resigned", maybe.

Here's the reasoning:

That’s because the sanctions are not final — educators can request a hearing and appeal at several levels — and so results could be changed or penalties reduced. The Georgia Professional Standards Commission’s policy of keeping details of a case confidential until action is final is set by state law and is the same for all cases, not just those related to the APS scandal.
“We are trying to protect the educator up until the due process and the commission’s action is final,” said John Grant, chief investigator for the Professional Standards Commission.

"We are trying to protect the educator." Well, of course you are. It's what you do. It's Job One. That's the process that the educator lobbyists and educator unions have fought so hard to get codified into state law. That's the "business as usual" of the education industry that I was frankly hoping this scandal would call into question.

Apparently not.

Look, it wasn't that long ago (only July?) that the state attorney general censured the governor, mayor and school board for violations of open meeting / public records laws when, er, Stern Words Were Exchanged behind closed doors regarding the openly fractious school board and the mayor's inability to successfully mediate.

I said it in August. The fix is really very simple.

1. Don't lie. Tell the truth. 
2. Hide nothing. Let the sun shine in.
3. Say exactly what you plan to do, then do it. (If it doesn't work, admit it right away and try something else.)
4. Dot every "i", cross every "t". 

There, see? Was that hard?

Business as usual?

Investigation: Students given crossword instead of test | www.wsbtv.com
[WSB-TV] One parent filed a formal complaint against the district after a September 2009 incident at Carver High School of Technology in Southeast Atlanta.
Deirdre Cox told investigators her daughter, who has a learning disability, was "removed for the testing room, placed in an empty classroom and given a crossword puzzle."
Cox goes on to write in the complaint, "I have learned that other students with disabilities like my daughter and 'who could possibly jeopardize Carver's test scores' were not allowed to take the GHSGT test."
Atlanta Public Schools settled the case with the mother, and told Channel 2 Action News that there was no attempt to exclude students from the 11th grade writing test.

The unnamed spokesman says that this test wouldn't have affected Carver's AYP (adequate yearly progress) numbers anyway, so there would be no reason not to allow the student to take the test. Is that the best defense they can manage?

This may well be a case of one parent blowing an isolated incident out of proportion: That explanation actually feels right here. But in light of APS' current reputation, it's worth remembering that in the "widespread" CRCT scandals, most of the district wasn't investigated at all. They found cheating in every school they checked, but they only checked a relative few, the ones where complaints were so outrageous they couldn't be ignored. Not that APS didn't try.

3 revoked, 8 suspended so far

8 Atlanta teacher licenses suspended, 3 revoked in scandal
[Atlanta Business Chronicle] On Thursday, eight teachers were given a two-year suspension of their teaching certificates, while three administrators had their certificates revoked, the station reported.
The names of those disciplined were not disclosed.
If an educator chooses to accept the actions of the PSC, that educator's name and record would become public. If an educator chooses to fight, the educator's name would not be revealed until the attorney general's office assigns a judge to the case, WXIA explained.

It's no end of frustrating that they haven't announced names yet. But then, I might not be the most impartial of observers. Some of these people I'm wanting to see serve some actual jail time.

Would it be legal, I wonder, for any of these "educators" to seek employment elsewhere while they run out APS's game clock? I'm sure there are some young people elsewhere whose lives they could ruin before the Georgia Professional Standards Commission moves itself to actually commit to anything publicly.

Another thing that bothers me is that I know, know, that there are some "educators" still on duty in APS schools who are still doing business the same way, through manipulation and intimidation... which means that the game hasn't really changed yet at APS.

But it's a start.

A good start

11 Atlanta educators lose teaching certificates

[ajc] The Georgia Professional Standards Commission voted today to sanction the teaching certificates of 11 Atlanta educators accused of cheating by state investigators.
Of the 11, which were considered the some of the most severe cases, eight were teachers who received a two-year suspension, and three were administrators who had their certification permanently revoked.
The educators were not identified. They will be notified and have the chance to appeal the decision before it is final.

I hope they don't assume that teachers were all victims: Some of them were willing and enthusiastic co-conspirators, and deserve the same lifetime sanctions. I wonder if they're ever going to name names?

High stakes

First punishments to be handed down in APS cheating scandal
[ajc] A group of Atlanta educators implicated in a districtwide cheating scandal will find out Thursday whether the state will yank their teaching certificates. Those in charge will likely face the stiffest penalties.
The Professional Standards Commission will hand down the first formal punishments in one of the largest test-cheating cases in U.S. history. About 180 Atlanta Public Schools employees were implicated and test tampering was uncovered at 44 schools.
The commission, which certifies and polices Georgia educators, will decide the fate of about a dozen APS educators Thursday. It is expected to hear cases through January.

I would hate to have gone through all this trauma just for the PSC to serve a simple reprimand. If the Dirty Half-Dozen are not permanently removed from the school system, they will reinstitute the climate of fear and intimidation that has allowed them, not only to sabotage thousands of children's best shot at academic and lifetime success, but to profit by so doing.

Do the right thing, PSC. Do not offer them the possibility of returning to the school system contingent on the results of a criminal trial. Toss 'em out on their asses. Nothing less than full, lifetime revocation of their teaching credentials will demonstrate that you give a damn about the students they've shafted and the teachers they've blackmailed.

I'm sure they do

APS officials want erasure analysis thrown out
[WSB-TV] The lawyer for four high-ranking Atlanta Public Schools officials told Channel 2 Action News he will ask a judge to throw out an erasure analysis that is key to many of the allegations against his clients in the CRCT cheating scandal.
Attorney George Lawson represents SRT Executive Directors Tamara Cotman, Dr. Sharon Davis-Williams, Dr. Robin Hall and Michael Pitts. Lawson spoke exclusively to Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne about why he alleges the erasure analysis is flawed and should not be used against his clients. Lawson told Winne regarding the 2009 and 2010 CRCT erasure analysis ordered by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, “it’s not sound, scientifically and statistically.”
Mike Bowers, one of the governor’s special investigators, counters that claim . “I say he’s totally wrong ," Bowers said. " I think it is absolutely legitimate, solid. I don’t see any reason not to rely on it.”

Of course it's sound. *sigh* I'm telling you, they don't make criminal masterminds like they used to. The thugs SRT directors relied exclusively on fear and intimidation: There was absolutely no cleverness involved.

The company that scores the test has been doing this for years. They've got plenty of statistics to back them up when they say what percentage of wrong-to-right erasures is average, and what percentage is excessive. And GBI forensics are plenty sophisticated enough to tell the difference between sporadic individual corrections and bulk erasures. Heck, we could probably eyeball it if we saw two forms side-by-side.

Now you're just teasing us, WSB

Some educators could learn fate from cheating scandal next week
[WSB-TV] Channel 2 Action News has learned 11 Atlanta educators, including teachers, a principal and administrators will learn next week if they will lose their professional certificates.

Which eleven? This report is no end of frustrating.

I mean, we know who six of them are. I think. Although if Beverly Hall were among them, why wouldn't they name her?

The dirty half-dozen

TOP: Beverly Hall, Kathy Augustine
BOTTOM: Sharon David-Williams, Michael Pitts, Robin Hall, Tamara Cotman

Hall, top lieutenants face sanctions in cheating scandal
[ajc] The names of Beverly Hall and five high-ranking Atlanta Public Schools officials were turned over to a state licensing board, officials confirmed Thursday, where commissioners will determine whether the educators should be barred from classrooms due to their involvement in a widespread cheating scandal. Former Superintendent Hall, former Deputy Superintendent Kathy Augustine and former Area Superintendents Sharon Davis-Williams, Michael Pitts, Robin Hall and Tamara Cotman will face the scrutiny of the Professional Standards Commission, which polices Georgia educators.

Pictures of Beverly Hall and Kathy Augustine are easy to find, but these "area superintendents" (SRT Directors, they call 'em) stayed out of the spotlight and put nothing in writing. Cotman's infamous directive to her principals to "tell the GBI to go to hell" was delivered verbally. (Her mistake there was saying it in an open meeting, rather than one-on-one behind closed doors where she could credibly deny it.)

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this. Although, as I've said, barring them from classrooms is no punishment at all, as they would rather chew ground glass than set foot in an actual classroom.

None of these six people must ever again draw a paycheck working in education.

Investigators going after administrators' certifications over cheating scandal

[WSB-TV] Channel 2 Action News has learned the Atlanta Public Schools CRCT cheating investigation is leading to a different investigation that could cost former school executives their teaching credentials, which would mean APS could stop paying three of them while they are on administrative leave. Investigative reporter Mark Winne spoke to John Grant, the chief investigator for the Ethics Department of the Georgia Professional Standards Commissions, about complaints filed by the Governor’s special investigators against five high-ranking APS officials. Grant confirmed Special Investigators Bob Wilson, Mike Bowers and Richard Hyde referred former Superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall, former Deputy Superintendent Kathy Augustine and SRT Executive Directors Tamara Cotman, Dr. Sharon Davis-Williams and Michael Pitts to the PSC this week for possible action against their Georgia education certificates.

Yes, I realize that this is really a paraphrasing of the same information covered in the AJC story. Partly I'm including it because it makes clear that once the SRT Directors' teaching credentials are revoked, they lose the APS paychecks they are collecting for doing nothing.

And, I'll admit, partly I'm repeating it because I never get tired of hearing it.

The future is now: No wonder they can't tell time

I'm old enough to remember Cracked when it was an actual magazine, a not-very-subtle ripoff of Mad that redeemed itself by being almost as good, and sometimes better. These days, of course, it's metamorphosed into a website, where it has, surprisingly, become a go-to page for trivia, odd history and list-based humor. Where most people over twelve are now only dimly aware that Mad is still being published, Cracked has become a Name. Go figure.

One of their featured lists today is 5 Things Our Kids Won't Have In School. I won't spoil the whole article for you, but I will spoil it to the extent that I'm going to tell you what those five things are, and (in a word or two) what Cracked author Evan T. Simon blames their demise on.

We're losing...		...because...
Recess and gym		No Child Left Behind
Summer vacation		Our kids forget everything in three months
Textbooks		Who reads anymore? Besides, e-books are cheaper
Valedictorians		We can't all be valedictorians
Failing grades		Failure makes students feel bad

Most of these ideas come as no surprise to me. Although Simon here blames summer vacation on a historical need for kids to help with the crops at home, in another Cracked list Paul Jury attributes it to theories that the little darlings just can't hold up to year-round teaching. And we aren't really losing valedictorians, we're just losing the concept that there can only be one "best".

I'm expecting academic consistency from Cracked? It doesn't really matter. Simon and Jury both conclude that year-round school is probably a good idea.

But the thing that really takes me aback is that Simon attributes the loss of recess to George Bush. I'll summarize: Thanks to the cruel oppression of testing (and the teacher bonuses that high test scores bring), schools no longer have time to let the kids go out and play. This theory is just flatly wrong.

We are losing recess, that's true enough, but the reason we're losing recess is financial liability. It's an article of faith at all levels of education that there isn't enough money. That every school at every level is just one paycheck away from homelessness. Schools therefore welcome opportunities not to spend money. Liability insurance costs money, as does playground equipment, and most educational administrators can easily convince themselves that recess is not a core part of their mission. Many new schools, and many newly-renovated schools, do not have playgrounds at all. Even if the president of a well-funded PTA offers the school a check to build a playground, the school often will turn it down. If the principal is imaginative, she may suggest instead that the PTA build a garden.

And even when they do have playgrounds, they don't use them during school hours. Only after-schools and daycares (which, even if housed in the school building, are owned and run by private firms) will let the kids go outside.

"We had to cheat..."

The "We-had-to-cheat-because-the-standards-were-a-pain" defense [ajc - Get Schooled blog]
Is academic achievement impossible in disadvantaged communities? Many educators argue, at least in private, that very few low-income children and children of color are capable of reading and doing math at grade level.

Are they right?

Read it. Read it. Read it!

Unfair? Imbalanced? Unleveled?

APS will move teachers to balance enrollment [ajc]
Atlanta Public Schools this week will begin reassigning teachers to balance enrollment. But the process, referred to as “leveling,” has upset some parents who worry class sizes will be too large as a result. The district is using a headcount taken on Sept. 2, a month into the school year, to determine which schools have too many teachers and which have too few. Teachers are moved based on performance and seniority. The process is expected to be completed by Oct. 4.

It sounded so benign. It happens every year in all school systems. And, after all, they have suspended 178 educators (as a consequence of the ongoing CRCT cheating scandal), overwhelmingly from the southwest part of town. Budget concerns make it impossible to hire enough teachers quickly enough to replace them seamlessly. A larger-than-usual number of transfers and larger-than-usual class size are inevitable.

Leveling is usually achieved quietly over the summer break, before children return to class. Obviously Atlanta Public Schools has had other things on its mind.

APS decision on moving teachers is delayed [wsbtv]

Verdallia Turner, the president of the Atlanta Federation of Teachers, is still not satisfied. She told [Channel Two's Richard] Elliot she's been trying to get more information on the criteria used to decide which teachers may or may not be moved, but she hasn't received any clear answers. "We're not getting enough information, and it's coming in too slow," Turner told Elliot. "They're trying to do a catch up, but we can't do a catch up with the children. The children are there. They have to learn, and we need all the support that we can get."

Ms Turner, you're right that it's not good that leveling is still going on. You're certainly right that the children shouldn't be penalized because it's been delayed. But what, exactly, are you asking for? Right of approval over teacher transfers? That seems unrealistic. Immediate halt to teacher transfers? Even less realistic. Reinstatement of those 178 accused educators to bring the workforce up to size? Only if the lesson you want the children to take home is that there are no consequences to lying.

But then, you are a union rep, and your only concern is keeping these educators' jobs. Not your concern whether they're actually guilty of anything they should be fired for. I think reinstatement is your goal. You'll get no sympathy from me if that's true.

Schools, parents weigh in on overcrowding and class sizes in Buckhead [Reporter Newspapers]
"As I received your emails and met with PTA presidents today, it was apparent that the numbers the board approved and the numbers that Human Resources was working off of were very different," [District 4 School Board Member Nancy] Meister wrote. "To the best of my knowledge, this discrepancy has been identified and although there will be an increase in class size, it will not be as severe and will be what your principals anticipated."

[Superintendent Erroll] Davis said the numbers that were released were preliminary ones released Sept. 12. He said he did not know who released those numbers to the public, but said the firestorm it generated should be a lesson in patience. "It’s an example of moving too quickly on erroneous information and if you don’t believe we have the children’s best interest at heart you might react that way, but the only thing I can say is we do have their best interests at heart and you should perhaps wait for official decisions before you gear up your machines," Davis said.

I'm sympathetic, Superintendent Davis, but you have to admit that historically APS has not given parents much reason to trust them. In the past, once a statement has been made, it's been too late for any degree of public outcry to affect it. We can't afford to wait.

Money for nothing

Texas district pays ex-Atlanta school official Augustine $188,000 for day's work
[ajc] A former deputy superintendent for Atlanta Public Schools received $188,000 for the day of work she put in as head of a Texas school district before a test cheating scandal derailed her contract. The DeSoto Independent School District board of trustees canceled Kathy Augustine’s contract as superintendent in July ... While on paid leave she received $31,333. The DeSoto district added to that $156,666 to complete the severance package, the district said in a release this week. The package was equal to what would have been Augustine’s annual pay, officials said.

Remember, dozens of teachers and administrators are on paid leave in Atlanta, awaiting dismissal and / or prosecution. This isn't the last story of its kind we are going to see. I wish I could take comfort that at least the financial payoff will be smaller for most of them... but that's the same pay range as those four Atlanta SRT Directors make. (I wish I could use past tense.)

State panel to consider lighter punishment for educators who cooperated in cheating probe
[ajc] The Professional Standards Commission, which licenses Georgia educators, took the first steps Wednesday to begin its inquiry into test tampering in the city's public schools. ...Commissioners, relying extensively on evidence from the state investigation, will look into each case and decide over the next few months whether the educators named in the report are guilty of cheating or other ethical violations. Those found guilty could face sanctions ranging from a reprimand to loss of a teaching license. But educators found guilty who cooperated with the probe could receive suspensions of 20 to 90 days if commissioners agree to recommendations from the state's Attorney General Office. For those who did not cooperate and are found guilty, state attorneys are recommending a two-year suspension for teachers and license revocation for principals and administrators. ...The commission expects to start deciding cases next month and hopes to have all the cases resolved by January.

Santa had better start stocking up on lumps of coal. So, by January the 90 days will have passed, so I suppose at that time both the "innocent" and "guilty but cooperative" teachers can be back at work. I'd feel better about revoking guilty administrators' teaching licenses if I was certain that one actually needs a license to hold a non-teaching position in the first place.

It cheers me to remember that the Professional Standards Commission inquiry is only the first step:

In addition to sanctions by the commission, those named in the report could be fired by APS or charged criminally by a Fulton County grand jury. The district is paying about a $1 million a month to employees on administrative leave while it decides when to begin termination hearings. A grand jury is waiting on documents from APS requested in an expansive subpoena.

APS educators and administrators face potential charges of giving false statements to investigators or altering public documents, both of which are felonies with punishment of up to 10 years in prison. School officials who submitted test scores that they knew were false also could face felony charges with penalties of up to five years in prison.

If I were one of these accused teachers, and I were actually honest, I would want the full weight of the law to verify that, openly and publicly. Back-room deals are going to look suspicious, and presumed guilt is almost impossible to dispel.

A Scandal of Cheating, and a Fall From Grace
[New York Times] “I will survive this,” said Dr. Hall, 65, in her first public interview since a scathing 800-page report by state investigators outlined a pervasive pattern of cheating at 44 schools and involving 178 educators. During her reign, scholarship money delivered to Atlanta students jumped to $129 million from $9 million. Graduation rates, while still not stellar, rose to 66 percent, from 39 percent. Seventy-seven schools were either built or renovated, at a cost of about $1 billion.

Does the New York Times not know what "falsified test data" actually means? Do they think that being paid well to lie makes the lies true?

Dr. Hall maintains that she never knowingly allowed cheating and does not condone it, but acknowledges that people under her did.

You hear that, you four SRT Directors? That's the sound of you being thrown under the (school) bus to save Beverly Hall's reputation.

Still, the scope of the report — which she and others argue was overreaching and contained inaccuracies — shocks her. “I can’t accept that there is a culture of cheating,” she said. “What these 178 are accused of is horrific, but we have over 3,000 teachers.”

That's the same flawed defense U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made on her behalf. Most of those 3,000 teachers weren't interviewed. The entire Atlanta Public Schools system wasn't investigated: Only a handful of schools were targeted. 178 implicated teachers over 44 schools works out to damned near all of the teachers working the grade level at which the CRCT is given. All.

The teachers who had those same children the year before and the year after knew what was going on. And they knew what it would cost them to speak up.

She pointed to a June retreat with principals. “The principals who were [supposedly] so intimidated and couldn’t reach me gave me three standing ovations,” she said. “I always felt that the principals respected me but also had a real connection to me.”

Or, they feared for their jobs, just like they told the GBI investigators. Maybe they felt they didn't dare not applaud. Or maybe they actually meant it. Goodness knows Hall can talk purty when she wants to.

She remains personally stung by how she is being portrayed by the local news media, especially The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which began investigating potential cheating in 2008 and has continued to dig deep into Dr. Hall’s performance.

She did her best, she and her friends on the Chamber of Commerce. They tried to "finesse" the Governor with a hand-picked "Blue Ribbon Commission" of investigators. But those damned numbers still didn't add up.

She was taken to task for her car and driver, an Atlanta police officer on the school district payroll who made nearly $100,000 a year, including overtime. (“You can’t get around this system and do what’s asked of you if you are thinking about parking,” Dr. Hall said.)

Here's a radical notion: How about putting your offices in a neighborhood where you don't have to pay to park? (Like every other Board of Education in the state does?) There's no particular reason APS has to be across the street from City Hall and the State Capitol, other than an inflated sense of your own prestige. Let's see, where are we going to find a building with enough room and parking...? Say, I know. How about one (or two) of those empty buildings you aren't using and can't sell? The ones that used to be full of students? The schools you closed because families were abandoning the City of Atlanta by the thousands? Those buildings not good enough for you?

Dear me, I'm getting too excited. Where's my masseur?

The Sodom and Gomorrah of Public Schooling?

The Sodom and Gomorrah of Public Schooling?
[Cato @ Liberty] Though Duncan made an off-hand comment that high-stakes NCLB-required tests may have contributed to the pressure that lead to the cheating, he repeatedly blamed the cheating on a uniquely “morally bankrupt culture” in Atlanta’s public schools.

Unique to Atlanta. I see. Can't possibly happen anywhere else. Except that it is: Philadelphia. Washington. Albany, GA. Which is to say, pretty much everywhere it's actually being looked for, it's being found. Yeah, New York has its head firmly embedded in its... er, that is, is dogmatically insisting "it can't happen here," which is what Beverly Hall was saying a couple of years ago, while it was happening here.

Did Rhee and Hall consult the same playbook on how to respond to news of cheating?
[ajc "Get Schooled"] I have to wonder if all school chiefs follow the same playbook when confronted with catastrophic evidence of cheating in their districts: Dodge, deny and dismiss.
It did not work for former APS Superintendent Beverly Hall, and it isn’t working for Michelle Rhee, the ex DC chancellor who is now confronting her own Erasure-gate as the result of a well done USA Today investigation.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt, it's the source of the bottled water they serve in teacher schools.

"The results [from] 2010 and 2011 ...have not been questioned"

Former Atlanta schools chief Hall says recent scores "have not been questioned" [ajc | PolitiFact]
Hall submitted her commentary to Education Week on Aug. 9, according to its opinion editor. This is days after the AJC released its findings on the 2011 scores and more than a month after special investigators released their report.
She had more than enough time to figure out that GOSA, special investigators and the AJC have questioned her results.

Should I point out that there are three possible explanations for Dr Hall's statements and actions?

• Dishonest
• Incompetent
• Delusional

Which do you like? At this point, a combination of all three seems most likely (bubble-in D, "all of the above"), but I'm going to go with "delusional." Even now, she really doesn't think she's done anything wrong.

(I'm really amused that Education Week gave her the option to rephrase her comments after publication. Most public figures don't get that kind of... I'll call it "courtesy". Who do they think they are, the Congressional Record?)

(For those who don't know: The Congressional Record is "the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress", but it is not, in any sense, a transcript of what was actually said in session. Legislators can and do "correct" what they said "for the Record" to reflect what they "intended to say" and provide supporting data and additional exposition they didn't have time to say. They say.)

"The Atlanta Public Schools system under [Hall's] guidance was a disaster"

I adore that image to the right, there. It came from The American (see below), and it's just perfect. It reminds me of one of the less obvious problems of standardized testing, one that, er, a particular educator I know told me about. Sometimes, when students have absolutely no clue what to do with the test (they may not even fully grasp the concept of "bubbling-in" the right answers), they'll make designs with the bubble patterns on the answer sheet. The teachers call this "christmas-treeing".

Well, anyway.

Investigators call APS under Hall a 'disaster' [WXIA]
APS investigators call the state of Atlanta schools under Dr. Beverly Hall a "disaster." In their first sit down interview, Mike Bowers and Bob Wilson talk about a "heartbreaking" culture of corruption.
...Wilson says he lost track of days, sitting in a conference room from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., conducting and pouring over the 2,100 interviews they conducted and 800,000 documents they examined.

*sigh* That's poring, not pouring. But they're television reporters, they can't be expected to know how to spell.

Bowers and Wilson have pretty much concluded the Atlanta investigations, so there's nothing new to add here. However, you do get a sense of the scope of the investigations, and the reality of trudging through this tragic, shameful situation. It's important to remember that not everyone named in the report is a villain -- nor are the investigators.

But it was inevitable that, sooner or later, this crap was going to hit the fan.

More Cheating To Come...& Lessons Reformers Can Take from Atlanta [Education Week]
One key lesson from Atlanta is that civic leaders and the business community threw their influence behind Superintendent Hall because, as one local paper reported, she was "fluent in the language of corporate America." In doing so, they compromised their effectiveness and sacrificed their ability to constructively challenge the school system.
A second lesson that Atlanta highlights is the problem with presuming that school systems are being scrupulous with their data or open about their processes and problems.

The culture of secrecy manifested in plenty of ways. For all that APS struggled to hide its inner workings, they were hopelessly incompetent at hiding the fact that they had something to hide. But look how many lives were damaged before someone said "this cannot continue." As I've said, the wonder is not that the AJC caught them, but that it took so long.

The Atlanta Cheating Scandal's Tough Lessons for Business Leaders [The American]
As a seasoned legislative staffer who champions business involvement in education told us, “It makes a difference when a business person …[tells us], ‘I don’t care what your [standardized test] scores or your [reports] say, the kids who come to work for us can’t read.’” This valuable reality check was compromised in Atlanta when the business community threw its influence behind Superintendent Hall regardless of results, just because, as one local paper reported, she was “fluent in the language of corporate America.”

Mn. That phrase "fluent in the language of corporate America" keeps coming up. Because "The American" is a publication of the American Enterprise Institute, they may be looking to blame everything on Beverly Hall using her corporate wiles to delude the innocent businessmen of Atlanta. I'm not so sure. I can't say they're wrong, but I fear that willing co-conspirators may go unexamined.

Teachable moments

Hall invoices district for $127K in legal fees [ajc]
Rhoda Spence, a mother of two APS students, has been watching the continuing fallout from the cheating scandal and the mounting financial commitments the district is having to make as a result.
“I’m sorry this happened," Spence said. "I just want the focus to be back on the children.”

I think we're all sorry it happened, Ms Spence. Some are sorry they lied; others are sorry they got caught.

I believe the interim superintendent is doing everything he can do to return the focus to the children. But if dishonest teachers are not investigated and (when appropriate) prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows, what will the children learn from that? The response to this situation really isn't optional: Actions must have consequences, or else nothing teachers say matters at all.

"The names of all employees paid bonuses..."

Despite cheating scandals, testing and teaching are not at odds [Washington Post]
The Atlanta cheating scandal has been described as the worst known incident of systemic cheating, so it is worth noting that even there investigators found cheating in 44 out of 2,232 schools in Georgia.

They were only looking for cheating in 56 schools. They found it in 44. What if 4:5 is representative of the rest of the state? (The same investigators are now looking in Dougherty County.) Who's responsible for this misleading piece of... Oh, no. Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education! We're in deep trouble if SecEd is trying to cover for us.

Well, maybe I should be optimistic. Maybe he isn't trying to cover for us. Maybe he's just... stupid? Oh, I feel so much better now.

Fulton grand jury subpoenas APS records [ajc]
A Fulton County grand jury has subpoenaed Atlanta Public Schools, seeking among other things the names of all employees paid bonuses for improved student test scores, as well as a list of those disciplined since 1999.
...Another point seeks a list of all teachers, principals and administrators “fired transferred or demoted since 1999, along with reasons for their status change.” It previously has been reported that employees who reported test cheating risked retaliation by school administrators.

Bring it on! Let the sun shine in! Hey, Grand Jury? Better also look into who they chose to replace "disciplined" employees. Ah, it's a grand new day!

When Teachers Cheat, What About The Kids? [npr]
What [previous Governor] Sonny Perdue did after just another one of these blue ribbon commissions that produced nothing is he said he wanted to get to the bottom of it. And he appointed three people. And I think this was the key.
Michael Bowers was a former attorney general in the state or about 15 years, so - Robert Wilson, who was the DA for DeKalb County for about 12 or 14 years, and Richard Hyde, you know, really a great investigator. And he basically said - left them alone. He said I'm not going to read the report ahead of time. I promise you I'll give you the manpower you want, you go do and what you need.
And they spent 10 months, and by the time they were done, they had about 60 or 70 investigators working with them and over 100 people altogether.

Mark the calendar, I'm going to compliment NPR. This is a very, very, good interview. It summarizes the story for anyone new to it (there might be some), it explains how the cheating was done (fairly ineptly, as it turned out, but it was in everyone's interest to cover it up), and it explains why the story is a big deal (the sheer scope and effrontery of it).

And an "A" in self-esteem

Maureen Downey: Teaching punctuality 101
[ajc] Many people lament the spotty interpersonal skills and work ethic of the millennial generation, the media-savvy teenagers who can command MacBooks and PhotoShop but apparently can’t figure out an alarm clock.
...Millennials grew up in a society that rewarded them for just showing up, said Deborah Covin Wilson, senior adviser for career support Georgia Tech, at a town hall meeting Thursday at DeKalb Technical College in Clarkston.
“On a soccer team, everybody gets a trophy whether you win or lose. Because you came, you get a trophy,” she said. “If you grow up like that, you think that if you just barely got to work and didn’t do anything, then you have the right to stay there.”

But I have to think that if schools were actually teaching the knowledge they're supposed to be teaching, the rest would take care of itself. If you never fail, you never really learn what success feels like. And Kia can't find employees who will actually show up on time.

"It was all about greed"

Atlanta school cheating scandal presents valuable ethical lessons
[Spartanburg Herald-Journal] Several students said the following: "They're selling us short. I think they're really taking education away from us. It was all about greed — ‘to make sure the money is there.' " In other words, I would apply the egoism principle here to say that Atlanta Public Schools was only looking out for itself to ensure its funding and status as a successful school district instead of building its success upon bright, well-rounded and aspirant students, especially as they matriculate in order to become active public servants for our world.

When Atlanta students speculate about the scandal being "all about greed", they're not talking about school funding, prestige or what I might call "abstract" rewards. Teachers and principals got bonuses, direct financial incentives, for high test scores -- and public humiliation among their peers for poor ones.

I do not blame solely the Atlanta Public School District for its role in the cheating, for I believe that "it takes two to tango," which is where our households come into play. I am from the household that education begins at home.

"I am from the household that education begins at home"? I believe I know what Mr Wilder is trying to say, but his inability to say it clearly is troubling. He seems rather less comfortable expressing his thoughts in print than I would like my college-level political science instructors to be.

Schools happy program being left behind
[Pekin IL Daily Times] School districts are pleased that President Barack Obama signed an executive order this week granting states the option of requesting a waiver of No Child Left Behind requirements if they pursue other education reform efforts.

Which districts are pleased? Are some ambivalent? Perhaps my district is fraught with ennui. "Districts" are not entities capable of being pleased: People can be pleased, but when they are, they should be quoted, or at least attributed anonymously. What do they teach kids in journalism school these days?

It's also too soon to claim that "No Child Left Behind" is being "left behind", and yes, *sigh*, I saw what you did there.

No cheating on tests should be tolerated
[Charlotte Observer] School officials had revealed last month, as the Atlanta scandal swept headlines, that [Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools] conducted 11 investigations into test cheating or security violations last school year and found seven incidents involving misdeeds.
...The most troubling incident - the kind that has the Atlanta Public Schools reeling - involved a teacher assistant at Lake Wylie Elementary who was showing students the correct answers. She was supposed to be acting as a monitor to make sure the teacher was following test rules.
...The 11 CMS breaches may be the only ones that occurred. But all we actually know is that those were the only breaches uncovered and reported.

Surely seven positives out of eleven investigations is enough to widen the scope of the inquiry. I have a sinking feeling that the problem is far larger than any single school system.

How many billable hours is that?

The hottest story in the ongoing APS scandal is how much taxpayer money Beverly Hall spent on her own legal defense. The Freedom of Information Act makes those records public, an event that one must assume Dr Hall did not anticipate.

Once you hear "$125,000 for March, April and May" (that's her last three months in office, after the scandal hit -- I would say "while she was still insisting nothing was wrong", but she still says that), there really isn't anything for me to add.

Reporter's Notebook: Dr. Hall & how much she spent on legal defense [WXIA]

Well, I guess there is one more thing: Perhaps she didn't consult the right lawyers.

Beverly Hall: "I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona..." [Eric Wearne]
Former state official says Dr. Hall’s defense rings hollow [ajc | "Get Schooled"]

And now I've found one reason why my RSS feed seems to fill up with stories I think I've seen before: I have seen them before. A Kansas City Star commentary I saw Tuesday and commented upon on Wednesday has just shown up again, word-for-word reposted on Saturday with no hint that it's a rerun. That's far from scandalous, of course, but in this age of search engines and archived internet stories surely it's unnecessary?

On the other hand, I guess it generates fresh page-views for no cost. I mean, I looked again...

"It Is Tiring To Make This Point Over And Over Again"

Can Teachers Alone Overcome Poverty? Steven Brill Thinks So [The Nation] The research consensus has been clear and unchanging for more than a decade: at most, teaching accounts for about 15 percent of student achievement outcomes, while socioeconomic factors account for about 60 percent. It is tiring to make this point over and over again.

I'm sure it's no more tiring for Dana Goldstein to say than it is for me to hear. But there's so much more that needs to be said.

For instance (assuming the data are reliable), is this across all 13 classes of primary school (K-12), is she trying to convince idealistic young teacher graduates out to Change The World that their efforts are better spent almost anywhere else than in the classroom?

Is she saying that because it's been true for ten years, it will always be true? And if it is true, why is it true?

Now, APS had a reported graduation rate of 69% in 2009 (since questioned, but let's leave that for now), which is depressing enough. Is Goldstein saying that IF every one of those teachers was doing the best she could, and IF they had instead just been counting days until retirement, the rate would only have dropped to 66%? Then what accounts for the 43% graduation rate -- yes, less than half -- in 2003? Did 25% of APS families suddenly get rich?

I really need to see the source.

Yes, it is certainly true that a child's home situation is more important than his schoolteacher. But it's also true that children can overcome pretty much anything they want to overcome.

You have to catch them very young. If you wait until high school to start moaning about low graduation rates, there's nothing to do but count the bodies. Even middle school is far too late. You have to surround them from pre-k to grade 2 (and beyond) with people who demonstrate that those little ink marks on paper mean something, and that it's important to learn how to figure out what they mean.

The academic damage done in a lower-income household has almost nothing to do with money per se. It happens because the parent (statistically, there's only one) doesn't read and doesn't see any reason why anybody should. She (again, statistically, it's a woman) may have reasons that look pretty good to her, biggest being she doesn't have time. But if this environment is allowed to stand until the child reaches, say, third grade, there's no recovery.

But because teachers with seniority get to choose where they teach, the schools who need experienced quality teachers the most are almost guaranteed not to get them. Low-prestige elementary schools in lower-income neighborhoods are nobody's first choice. The cycle continues.

"The doors got closed to the grassroots"

APS to meet Monday on accreditation, contracts
[ajc] The Atlanta school board Monday will meet to work on issues related to restoring full accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In January, SACS placed the district on probation for poor governance and infighting among members. The board is also scheduled to finalize new Superintendent Erroll Davis' contract. The meeting will be held from 5:30-9 p.m. in the Center for Learning and Leadership auditorium, 130 Trinity Avenue, Atlanta, 30303.

Mr Davis' contract isn't finalized yet? Aren't you supposed to do that before he starts working?

Am I the only person who doesn't understand why Atlanta Public Schools calls their downtown fortress office building the "Center for Learning and Leadership"? Even leaving aside that precious little of either is in evidence there. "The CLL building", employees call it, as if that makes sense. Shouldn't it at least be "the APS building"? "District Office" is what most other school systems call theirs.

I'm going with the simplest explanation: Deliberate obfuscation. The same reason, I suspect, they call their deputy superintendents "school reform team directors". We learned these words in teacher school, dammit, and we're going to use them.

Want Atlanta Public Schools To get Better? Get Involved
[East Atlanta Patch] A product of an APS education himself as were his children, [Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza] Hall said pioneers who moved in and revitalized many of Atlanta's in-town neighborhoods, shouldn't turn around and abandon the district now.

Even as a councilman, he said felt the same culture of aloofness from APS that other parents said they experienced.

But he said the district has no choice to open up now, giving parents and all who are interested in school improvement to give their input and help shape the district.

"The doors got closed to the grassroots and to change actually happening at a grassroots level," Hall said. "Now, in light of all the things that have happened, the door is back open; it's wide open."

Aloofness? Aloofness? It was undisguised hostility that I encountered when I wanted to know what was going on in what was supposed to be an open meeting at my child's school. I was told that my presence was not wanted.

"That’s actually lying to parents"

Are smaller elementary-school class sizes better?
[the Straight Dope] Education experts had long conjectured that young kids learn better in small classes but lacked the research to prove it. In the 1980s Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander, who would later become education secretary under George H.W. Bush, decided he'd fix that. The one government type in this whole sorry story who seems to have had a clue, Alexander persuaded the legislature to pony up several million dollars for Project STAR (Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio), a multiyear experiment involving roughly 6,500 kids and 330 classrooms in 80 schools throughout the state. The idea: reduce class size for some kids in grades K through 3 from 20-25 pupils to 13-17, and see if they do better on standardized tests.

Read this. Read this, read this, read this.

Atlanta votes to increase class sizes
[ajc] The Atlanta school board Monday approved a resolution to allow class sizes to be increased this school year. Citing a need to reduce the budget deficit, the district will add up to five more students per class at every grade level.

Well, remember they're still short some seventy-odd teachers from last year, and that's after transferring every librarian who still has teaching credentials. And, what the heck, para-professionals are a lot cheaper than fully-certified teachers.

Study Finds Low Test Standards
[gpb] A new report released Wednesday by the National Center for Educational Statistics says Georgia’s state eighth grade reading exam is one of the least rigorous in the country when compared to a well-regarded federal exam.

The report compared 2009 state test standards to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, exam. It found that standards for reading and math vary widely among states. And Georgia’s eighth grade reading standards were the second lowest in the country.

That means that many Georgia eighth graders who pass the reading CRCT would fail the NAEP exam. And a Georgia eighth grader found proficient in reading here could move to almost any other state and fail state reading tests there as well.

...Joanne Weiss, chief of staff to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, said that the federal No Child Left Behind law has inadvertently driven states to lower their standards. ..."That’s actually lying to parents, it’s lying to children, it’s lying to teachers and principals about the work they’re doing," she said.

So, if our students' average scores on the Georgia tests have risen (as previous superintendent Beverly Hall continues to claim) but the state tests are becoming less and less demanding, is our kidz gettin' any smarter?

It's hard to put a positive spin on "but a bunch'a other states are doin' it too."

• Bloomberg: U.S. Children Face Low Bar to Pass State Tests
• Wall Street Journal: States Fail to Raise Bar in Reading, Math Tests
• Education Week: What Do Rising Title I Achievement Scores Really Mean?

Broken clock is right twice a day: Huffington Post just ran a good article

Howard denies conflict of interest in APS cheating case
[ajc] [Fulton County Taxpayer Foundation] is demanding Fulton County's top prosecutor step aside from the criminal investigation of the Atlanta Public Schools test cheating scandal. District Attorney Paul Howard's wife, who was not named in the investigation, works at a school where staffers are accused of altering answers to improve test scores.
...Attorney General Sam Olens said Howard had no obligation to step aside unless his wife became an investigative target or a witness.

I'll go along with this. No, he has no legal obligation to recuse himself, and nobody's accusing him or his wife of anything. But his presence in the investigation will impair the perceived trustworthiness of the DA's office. Err on the side of caution: There must be other qualified prosecutors who can take the lead on this.

Does APS have any other choice but to pay suspected cheaters?
[ajc "Get Schooled"] There is indignation tonight over news that APS must dig into its savings to pay $6 million in salaries and benefits to educators accused of cheating. But does the district have any other real choice in view of the unresolved legal issues? At this point, the educators have not had their day in court.

I'll accept that. I'm not happy with the thought of all these accused employees sitting around collecting wages for doing nothing, but I'll accept it in the name of due process. But here's a question: If they're found guilty, should they have to give the money back?

Schools Caught Cheating In Atlanta, Around The Country
[Huffington Post] In an Ikea-sized warehouse turned de facto crime lab last fall, professor Gregory Cizek got his first look at the Atlanta test papers that would beget an education scandal of historic proportions.
...In the Indianapolis warehouse, far from both his office and the schools where the suspect tests were taken, he saw clear evidence of what has become the most widespread episode of cheating ever documented in U.S. public schools, one which has diminished one of the nation's few education success stories of the past decade.
"Here you have a kid, this fourth-grader who sat down to take a test, who wrote his name on top of an answer booklet," Cizek recalls. "You see it was obviously changed through an awful lot of erasing. That's when you say, 'Something is going wrong here.'"

I can't believe I'm citing the Huffington Post. I also can't believe I am pleading with you to read the whole thing, but I am.

It's not our fault

Beverly Hall: Real progress made by APS is being ignored
[ajc "Get Schooled"] Beverly Hall tells the “rest” of the APS story in Education Week today, insisting that the real and dramatic progress in Atlanta schools is being ignored in the media frenzy over the cheating scandal.

One, Beverly Hall has no credibility left. Two, I'll concede that some progress could have been made, but yes, it's being overshadowed by the cheating scandal, and it should be. When one set of statistics is proven to be questionable, the source is tainted.

"The progress made by Atlanta’s public schools over the past decade is real and dramatic." Says you. Gonna have to have more than your say-so, Dr Hall. You don't think cheating is real and dramatic?

The cheater's fallacy: Undermining the state aptitude tests is no preparation for life
[Philadelphia Inquirer] The unidentified [Philadelphia] teacher justified her role and that of others in helping students cheat on the PSSA tests, which monitor school goals under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The exposé came on the heels of cheating scandals in Atlanta, dozens of other cities and allegations of significant cheating in Philadelphia.

The teacher said her motivation wasn't to protect her job or bolster her school, but to protect the self-esteem of students battling poverty and the pressure of difficult home lives. She said her cheating was also meant to undermine the whole testing enterprise.

The...HELL?!?

Change the game
[Chicago Tribune] The way to stop that sort of behavior is not to waste more of our precious education dollars investigating whether teachers and administrators in Chicago and elsewhere might have changed test answers or found even more creative ways to cheat on high stakes standardized test. The way to stop the cheating is to change the rules of the assessment game. Rather than using one test to decide which schools are making grade, which teachers will keep their jobs and which administrators are effective leaders, we should be using a variety of measures over time.

Look, I want to agree. No single test is reliable enough to be worth the importance we give the CRCT. But are you seriously telling me that people who are guilty of criminal fraud should be let off the hook because President Bush and No Child Left Behind made them do it?

Bush to blame for cheating scandals
[Examiner.com] This national cheating embarrassment should bring an ugly but very necessary end to the Bush-era misevaluation of schools based on artificial targets as opposed to a holistic approach allowing teachers and administrators to assess individual students based on each child’s academic strengths and weaknesses.

I guess that's exactly what they mean.

Thanks, @apsupdate on Twitter

@apsupdate live-tweeted last night's Southwest & Northwest Atlanta Parents & Partners for Schools (SNAPPS) meeting at Agnes Jones Elementary. Interim Superintendent Erroll Davis was present, and took some really good questions -- and provided some really good answers, as well. I was waiting to link to a report from the AJC or a local television station or something, but I don't seem to be able to find one. Hmm.

Anyway, if there's a way to provide a convenient link to the whole session, I can't find it. The link above goes to the first tweet, but Davis' Q&A starts later. Here are some select exchanges: Do remember that this is a live tweet and not a transcript.

Q: Did the administration think about the downside of dismissing teachers and principals before due process hearings?

A: No one has been dismissed; people have been put on administrative leave. I had to balance a risk management question. I am hopeful that many are exonerated. And if they are I hope they are welcomed back with open arms. But I also want to make it clear that cheating did take place. We will solve these problems. I don’t believe in pre-judgement but I do believe in accountability. Some will find themselves in the criminal justice system, the professional standards and our own administrative hearings. Right now things are not moving quickly because the criminal justice system wants to operate first.

Q: Follow up comments from a parent/teacher who wants teachers put into places where they can work while waiting on their due process.

A: As soon as possible those teachers implicated than can be put into other capacities while they wait, will be.

Q: Why are we taking this type of drastic measure against our educators? Other counties have not done that. 

A: We need to make one thing perfectly clear. People did cheat. A number admitted and resigned from our district because of that. Is this system handling it differently? Yes. We did not call in the GBI or special investigators. I believe this could have been avoided and handled it like other districts but if you analyze our initial responses it was not effective. It is what it is. As I said before my decision is a risk management decision for what is best for the children and I am comfortable with the decisions I have made.

Q: Will APS reconsider it’s high stakes testing methods?

A: Absolutely yes. I am not a fan of high stakes testing. Evaluation should be on a body of work. We want to give teachers everything they need to be successful.

As soon as there's a better, easier link, I'll edit this post to include it. In the meantime, I like what Davis is saying.

LATER: Well, there's another link, but I wouldn't call it a better report:
Atlanta Schools superintendent talks about cheating scandal [WGCL]
I'm not sure the reporter attended the same meeting @apsupdate tweeted. The reporter and anchor worked the phrase "tough questions" into the report a truly comical number of times, but on this issue I'll give 'em a pass.

LATER LATER: I expected Talk Up APS to be mindless public relations, but I must apologize for my mistaken first impression. They are posting excerpts from the same SNAPPS meeting, with cleaned-up (but not substantively changed) quotes of the interim superintendent's comments. Bravo and thanks.

"Lackluster crop of candidates"

A message for APS students back in school
[CL] ...Judging from the lackluster crop of candidates running for an empty seat on the school board, [interim superintendent Erroll] Davis might not get much in the way of help from the next generation of elected officials.

Read the whole thing. I don't care for the "message for the students" conceit, which comes across as too cutesy when the article is not written for elementary-age readers. But it's not wrong.

As school year starts, here's what to expect
[AJC] Districts are under pressure to improve student achievement with high test scores and graduation rates and to deal with policy changes on graduation and math.

Budget cuts and unpaid furloughs. New teacher evaluation system. "No Child Left Behind" left behind. Changing graduation requirements. Option to teach traditional 'algebra, geometry and statistics' vs integrated 'math'. It makes it sound like they're jacking up the buildings and sliding new schools under them.

Culture of testing went too far in Atlanta schools
[Kansas City Star] No public schools are immune to the pressures of state test scores. And the next district to reveal cracks could be yours.
“Whenever you have an accountability system with severe sanctions attached to it,” said Betsy Regan, who coordinates testing in the Shawnee Mission School District, “... it drives a tendency to work around the system.”

I can't decide to be annoyed or amused at the KC reader who comments "Inner cities schools have challenges suburban schools just don’t have to face." Kinda funny, now that the Georgia investigation has moved to Dougherty County. That's Albany, nobody's definition of "inner city". (I'm not sure why the reporter feels the need to mention that Dougherty is a "majority-black" system. So is Atlanta.)

Aside: Content-management software makes you name a document when you save it. This original name isn't always reflected in its eventual headline. However, it often surfaces in the article's URL. This Kansas City article, for instance, says "theyre-watching-for-cheaters.html".

Journalism 101 fail

Atlanta charter school gets $1 million grant; four others also receive innovation grants

[AJC] Gov. Nathan Deal surprised an Atlanta charter school Monday with a big boost to its bank account – $1 million in Race to the Top money.

Students and staff at Charles R. Drew Charter School greeted news of the award with applause and cheers on the first morning of classes.

...Also picked to receive a $1 million grant was the KIPP Teacher Fellows Program, a teacher induction program that will train Georgia State University and Mercer University education graduates and deploy them to the most needy metro Atlanta school systems, the governor's office said.

When did it become journalistic habit to put the lede in the second paragraph? I'm seeing that far too many times to be a coincidence. Some editor is telling the reporter to put it there. Why? To keep the reader's eyeballs on that story for five seconds longer?

LATER: I get it now. It's a response to the popularity of RSS feeds. Site visits and click-throughs are the common currency of the web. It doesn't matter to the content provider how many readers follow the RSS feed if they don't click through to the site itself. And they won't do that if all the information they need is actually in the first sentence, where it belongs.

Schools accused of cheating collected thousands in bonuses

Schools accused of cheating collected thousands in bonuses
[AJC] Educators from at least 13 Atlanta schools named in the state cheating investigation were paid thousands in bonuses tied to student test scores, according to a review of documents by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News.
Since January 2009, about $500,000 in bonuses were paid to educators at those 13 schools implicated in the state investigation, according to records obtained from Atlanta Public Schools.
...District spokesman Keith Bromery said the bonus program, introduced by former Superintendent Beverly Hall in the early years of her tenure, was now "under review."

Financial incentives for job performance is one of those obvious business ideas that just doesn't directly translate to education. It requires us to rethink exactly what we mean by "job performance." Should a child be able to sabotage a teacher's bonus by "taking a dive" on a test? How do we know that isn't happening?

Day one summary

The overall tenor of the "first day of school" coverage is that parents, with no obvious justification, trust the teachers in their school. The schools with some of the highest ratios of altered scores inspire some of the most fervent faith. I don't get it.

"Oh, I guess they are just a great guesser"

CNN | Cheating report confirms teacher's suspicions
"I started believing that I wasn't a good teacher," [Julie] Rogers-Martin says. "Other teachers were coming in with these perfect scores and mine are not so perfect. I mean they weren't bad, they were just normal."

I'm tempted to respond to this with a sarcastic "welcome to the party" to CNN, who cannot possibly think this is a new story. They are, after all, headquartered here. But reporter Paul Frysh does something that few other reporters do, and he does it well: He puts a face to the honest teachers who found themselves bewildered by impossible student performance happening all around them -- but not in their own classes.

As I've said, the wonder is not that the news media are all over this: They should be. The wonder is that it took so long. It wasn't subtle, and it wasn't clever. When a student is below average one year, brilliant when CRCT is administered and back to below average the year after, how stupid does a cheating educator have to be to believe no one will notice?

They were confident in the ability of their administrators to terrorize everyone into, if not participation, at least cowed silence. This is to everyone's benefit! Don't you want those bonuses?

But... (I swore I'd never say this, because too many people invoke it as an "abracabra" phrase to halt debate) but... What about the children?

Mixed signals

AJC "Get Schooled" | Feds promise relief from No Child Left Behind goals to states moving in right direction. Georgia seems a shoo-in.
Responding to predictions that waves of U.S. schools would be proclaimed failing, the Obama White House delivered on its promise to offer states relief from the controversial provision of No Child Left Behind that all children demonstrate proficiency in math and reading by 2014.

They're going to blame this on President Bush yet. See if they don't.
(Later: Surprise! GPB | State Will Apply For No Child Law Waiver)

AJC "Political Insider" | A divide over prosecution in the APS cheating scandal
[Attorney General Sam Olens] said that the granting of immunity to teachers, principals and some school administrators by state investigators would make it harder to chase down malefactors at the top.

That's not the way immunity usually works, or else no one would ever grant it, let alone two such experienced prosecutors as (previously Georgia A.G.) Mike Bowers and (previously Dekalb D.A.) Bob Wilson. More likely, Olens is looking at this situation and seeing a very narrow margin of success amidst a strong possibility of disaster. A canny politician who doesn't have to get involved clearly wouldn't.

WCGL | APS appoints new deputy superintendent/chief of staff
[Steve] Smith has held executive positions with Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. and Georgia Public Broadcasting. He is also a former principal and teacher in Fulton County Schools.

Ah, here he is. I find myself encouraged by the fact that although he has experience in education, he isn't a career educator -- not unlike interim superintendent Erroll Davis. I dare to hope that Davis is laying the groundwork for what will follow him. But he may be tainted by his association with the Chamber of Commerce, and through it the Blue Ribbon Commission.

WABE | First Day of School & New Era For Atlanta Public Schools
Monday, August 8th, was the first day of school for thousands of students in the metro area.
Today, Atlanta, Clayton, DeKalb and Gwinnett all began the 2011-2012 school year.
In Atlanta, a new era begins as the district tries to move forward from the cheating scandal.

This is pretty much the traditional evergreen "first day of school" story: Nothing new here. So why mention it? Well, everyone remembers that the ABE in WABE stands for "Atlanta Board of Education", right?

AJC | Atlanta school board picks new, temporary member
Longtime Atlanta resident Nisha Simama was selected Monday night to fill the interim District 2 seat on the Atlanta school board. Simama, whose children graduated from the district, will occupy the position until a special election set Nov. 8.

That makes it sound like she's a random parent they picked out of line at the West End Kroger CitiCenter. Here she is. She's been employed for 18 years at Paideia School, where she is "multicultural coordinator." Looks like business as usual at the school board.

A tale of two cities

Yes, I know, it's a cliché headline. They get to be clichés because they work.

AJC | APS could pay those named in cheating probe $6 million
Atlanta Public Schools will use $6 million from savings to pay the salaries and benefits of educators named in the state cheating investigation, if the board gives approval tonight.
Almost 200 teachers, principals and staff were implicated in a state cheating investigation last month. Of those named, 126 people are on administrative leave awaiting a due process hearing. The rest have resigned or retired.

The phrase I used to describe what those 126 employees are doing is "running out the clock". If they get to split six million dollars, you could say they won. On the other hand, the measure is to ensure that the culprits' inevitable payoff won't come at the expense of school operations.

And that's only about $48k each. Not really enough of a payoff to trade one's career for.

Meanwhile, in DeSoto, Texas...

AJC | Former APS administrator's fate up for Dallas-area vote
A suburban Dallas school board is expected to vote Monday night on whether to cut its ties with Kathy Augustine, its newly hired superintendent who has been named in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal.
...Augustine was accused of illegally withholding public documents, making false statements and "aiding and abetting" [Superintendent Beverly] Hall in "falsifying, misrepresenting or erroneously reporting the evaluation of students" on the 2009 CRCT, according to the investigation.

The phrase the report used, and used repeatedly with so many of the named employees, is that she "knew or should have known". Translated, that means "guilty or incompetent". I can't avoid the phrase "didn't run far enough, fast enough."

Breaking news:
AJC | Dallas school district votes for Augustine removal
AJC | The APS cheating scandal casts a long shadow, all the way to Texas
AJC | Atlanta school board picks new, temporary member
AJC | APS takes $6 million from savings to pay accused teachers

A commencement speech

Ladies and gentlemen of Atlanta Public Schools, thank you so much for allowing me to address you today. I know you're probably confused that I'm calling this event a "commencement", since you all know that such a thing traditionally happens at the end of the school year.

But to commence doing something means to begin it. So it's actually quite appropriate, if unusual, to refer to the commencement of a school year.

But this is not just another school year. This is a new day. This is a golden opportunity for you to make history. You have it within your power, right now, to take control of Atlanta Public Schools and change it, dramatically and permanently. You only have to do one thing. It's easy. It's simple. And it's what you went into education to do in the first place: Change the world.

Tell the truth.

more...

Everybody thinks they know how to fix APS

• AJC | A business approach to fixing the APS system
• AJC | Creating a new culture at APS
• SunSentinel | Cheating scandal should be lesson for Florida
• Washington Post | A teachable moment from Atlanta’s cheating scandal
• WSB | Teachers, Parents Pray As School Starts Amid Scandal
• NY Times | Atlanta School Year Begins Amid a Testing Scandal
• AJC | APS hopes for fresh start but doubts linger

Look, the fix is simple. So simple it'll never happen.

1. Dot every "i", cross every "t".
2. Say exactly what you plan to do, then do it.
3. Hide nothing. Let the sun shine in.
4. Don't lie. Tell the truth.

There, see? Was that hard?

Meanwhile, here's one quote from someone who should know:

USA Today (WXIA) | Investigators in Atlanta cheating scandal discuss corruption "'There's probably two-to-three times (the number of teachers) from what we named. But we didn't have enough to name everyone,' said Bowers."

That's what I keep telling people.