I suppose what I'm objecting to is the headline, not the story itself. Although, I do have a lingering worry that having resigned, Christopher Waller faces no further sanctions. Certainly there's no sign in this story that the PSC or the DA is moving on his case.
But how can Waller possibly be at the center of a scandal that extends beyond the school of which he was the principal? Is he strongarming teachers at other schools into fudging their CRCT results?
Well, possibly, given the "school reform team" structure that makes him a senior principal on a team that includes the principals of the elementary schools that feed into his. I confess I never understood the purpose of the SRT model, other than to make its directors absolute rulers of their fiefdoms.
In 2006, Waller's first year at Parks, the percentage of eighth-graders who passed the math section of the CRCT rose from 24 percent to 86 percent. By 2007, Parks was meeting 100 percent of its goals set by the district.Makes you wonder how anyone could accept these numbers with absolutely no skepticism. No teacher, no principal, is good enough to go from 24% to 86% to 100% in three successive years. (The correct phrasing should be that "the percentage...appeared to rise" and that Waller "reported that he was meeting 100 percent of its goals." The report, it must be remembered, questions these numbers, and the fact that they are wrong is a key piece of evidence.)
The AJC has been shy about pointing out that the vast majority (though not all) of the cheating was found in SRT 2, under the influence of SRT director (assistant superintendent) Michael Pitts. His name is conspicuous by its absence from this circus thus far, except in the original Bowers / Wilson report in which it is said that he, like superintendent Hall and most of the SRT directors, "knew or should have known" what was going on.
In the Hall-era APS, success is never questioned, however unrealistic -- and whistleblowing is not tolerated, however deserved.
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