Atlanta fires first teacher in cheating scandal | ajc.comIn the accompanying video, Lewis points out that he and his fellow teachers "had nothing to do with the aura of fear and intimidation." That's probably true. If all of the teachers like him who yielded to pressure from above to cheat had stood their ground and said no -- all of them, publicly -- then the true sources of that pressure might have been dealt with years before.
“We were told failure was not an option,” [Damany] Lewis said. “Teaching and learning was the primary focus of the teachers. Results were the primary focus of this district and our administration.”
But of course...
Some time back, I expressed curiosity as to why principals and senior administrators could credibly threaten to fire unwilling teachers if it's so damn much trouble to fire teachers. The answer is simpler than I thought it would be. Administrators can create fabricated personnel records and negative performance reviews just as easily -- probably easier -- than they could create false CRCT test forms. APS is presently handicapped by having to act openly and honestly. If the current administration were as crooked as the previous, the firing process would go a lot more smoothly.
But then, if the current administration were as crooked as the previous, they wouldn't be trying to fire 180 people in the first place.
On further thought, it IS easier to fake personnel records than test scores. The test forms actually have to leave APS hands to be scored: Evaluations just get entombed somewhere inside the APS shrine.
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