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.