A report in the New York Times says that Dr. Beverly L. Hall was indicted by a grand jury for her role in the Atlanta cheating scandal.
The story says, in part:
“Investigators laid blame for the biggest standardized-test cheating scandal in the country’s history on the superintendent, Dr. Hall, who led the 50,000-student school system from 1999 until her resignation in 2011. Dr. Hall, who was hailed as National Superintendent of the Year in 2009 for her role in making Atlanta’s once-failing urban school district a model of improvement, had “emphasized test results and public praise to the exclusion of integrity and ethics,” the report said.
“The report asserted that Dr. Hall, while not tied directly to cheating or the direct target of a subpoena, tried to contain damaging information and did not do enough to investigate allegations, especially after 2005 when “clear and significant” warnings were raised. As superintendent, she received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses tied to bogus improvements in test scores.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I just saw this come across my screen. I am hopeful it will start a trend of locking up all these cheats
If only the Superintendent could counter sue when charged with cheating, like for-profit charter schools do! http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-selling-out-of-camdens-schools-part.html
Now, let’s see if this happens in DC schools. It will require a major scandal (or 2 or 3) to really turn the tide against the corperoreformers.
This kind of accountability needs to come to Connecticut.
On deck….the Rheeject!
Campbell’s Law at work!
Good news on a Good Friday from Atlanta. We education watchers in Atlanta believed she was oh-so-inauthentic long before all the cheating was revealed. It is good to see the one at the top be held accountable. Such a nightmare! But you know our legislature just passed a bill through house and senate (and the governor will sign) that will require student test scores to count for at least half of educator evaluations beginning in 2014-15. Bigger nightmare! Thanks, Race to the Top!
That, of course, will just increase the occurrence of these sorts of scandals.
Absolutely it will. They will just be a lot more careful about who they let know what is going on.
Well, this just in, “DC group suing to halt school closings” http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/03/29/606339dcdcschoolclosures_ap.html
Maybe these will become trends, so that disconcerted Chicagoans file lawsuits over school closings, and indictments come down in DC over cheating under Rhee, etc.
Time for Rhee to pay the piper, as well.
She does have a criminal attorney on retainer.
Great! Now they need to go to Louisiana and pick up Supt.John White, who was a TFA, and Gov. Bobby Jindal. One of Jindal’s top people over Health and Hospitals just resigned unexpectedly. Something about a crooked health care contract. Hmn. Public schools and health care have both suffered similarly drastic cuts for the past 5 years—the entire Jindal administration.
If they didn’t indict Michelle Rhee in D.C., then how is this fair. They both should be indicted and all the money and bonuses returned. These are not the only ones.
Paula ~
Michelle Rhee’s DC is eerily similar to Atlanta. Once Rhee accomplished her suspect test score increases, $$$$ bonuses paid, teachers & principals fired, she left DC & test scores plummeted! Scores are back where they were before she arrived in DC. Can we connect the dots?
M. Rhee wrote a book and is making the talks show rounds bragging about her accomplishments in DC. Landed on her feet big time! DC kids lost all around.
What needs to happen for DC to be audited?
She is protected by Arne and Barack.
For Diane: Nevada’s state superintendent of education, James W. Guthrie, has resigned effective immediately: http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/BREAKING-Nevada-State-Superintendent-Resigns/yAmzZu5Iv0K3SF8VNGOQwg.cspx
I hope he doesn’t have health problems or whatever.
It doesn’t mean any replacement will be any better.
No explanation for Guthrie’s sudden resignation. You are right, Susan. He is likely to be replaced by someone with the same anti-teacher views. That is what the governor wants.
Perhaps this has to do with the indictment in Atlanta? Any test-cheating scandals coming up in Nevada?
Not that I am aware of. Since Guthrie is about 78 or 79 years old, I wonder if there is a health issue for him to have resigned suddenly.
He may just be frustrated. Recently the task force developing Nevada’s student growth percentile evaluation system stated they needed another two years minimum to pilot the system. Guthrie disagrees. An attorney on the task force has termed the system volatile and indefensible at this time. Recently on t.v. Governor Sandoval’s opponent, Rory Reid stated that tests are inappropriate for teacher evaluation and the money spent on this was a waste. The fact that this even made it to the network news is a positive sign. I suspect that Mr. Guthrie has better things to do. Since the governor appoints the superintendent, the only real help for teachers will be to replace the governor.
What a crazy system we have. Nevada is funded almost entirely by gambling. When I looked in the local county where some of my sisters live outside of Reno I noticed that almost none of the county gambling taxes went to the schools. States need to have a more stable tax base than just based on one item in the entire economy.
He didn’t elaborate on why he is leaving. He is 76 years old, and it appears his health isn’t a factor. AP report: http://www.rgj.com/viewart/20130329/NEWS02/303290060/Nevada-school-superintendent-Guthrie-abruptly-resigns
Teachers have one option when faced with the impossible of raising scores beyond what kids earn, REFUSE TO TEST – ACROSS THE USA! Do not try to suffer alone. Tell, tell, align with other teachers and ‘ JUST SAY NO’. Didn’t work for Nancy Reagan’s antidrug campaign, but it would work for all teachers in USA. Passive resistance!
I think the parents also have to refuse to have their children tested..I think we need a nationwide movement to keep our kids home on test day. My only fear is that the government will punish our schools by withholding funds.
Yes, Iheart! AND–if EVERYONE EVERYWHERE refuses, & that $$$ to schools is, really, TAXPAYERS’ $$$, HOW is the government going to w/hold funds from EVERYONE?
Yes, HA!
Schools are about culture. The cheating in Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore and the test scoring shenanigans in NYC are the result of imoral, unethical BROAD advised focus on test score increases! In NJ the charter school of a political boss was found to have “erasure patterns of wrong to right” several standard deviations above the mean. For their cheating ways, Broadie Chris Cerf named Robert Treat (Cheat) Academy a NJ Reward school!
Message sent, message received. By hook or by crook get the scores up. Learning, morals, character, integrity mean nothing.
Failure by design, sponsored by Eli, and his spawn.
Many more should come including indictment of Rhee.
Yes, this is the Michelle Rhee story as well. Folks, take heart (but have pity/sympathy for Atlanta). Ed reform and testing mania is slowly collapsing under its own weight.
I doubt if Rhee will get indicted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/dc-schools-cheating-report-thin-and-biased/2012/08/11/569d3f5c-e40d-11e1-a25e-15067bb31849_blog.html#pagebreak
I think it’s also important to note that the Atlanta community hired her. Perhaps somebody should investigate what their school boards expect from their employees?
No, the Atlanta School Board hired her. The Board has always been highly political and the system was coming off of the fiasco that was J. Jerome Harris and was having to pay out his contract. Prior to J.J. was Alonzo Crim who was beloved as a teacher and principal before he was Superintendent. He basically aged out. Atlanta had a tendency, at least at that time, of promoting from within. It is a predominantly African-American city and educated blacks were always highly prized as leaders. We are talking about the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King here. His kids went to public school, by the way.
Well, unfortunately corruption and stupidity is rife within our meritocracy. As is a hostility to democracy. It will be a rocky road downward because no one can envision a world in which the U.S. is not boss.
In your view, purple, would an honest meritocracy earn your approval?
Who cares if it earns my approval ? That’s not the point.
We are making sure of a self-fulfilling prophecy and I am not religeous.
BTW, Beverly Hall was absolutely adored by Broad and Gates. They need to be tied to her with steel cables.
She was not the only one named… important..
It perplexes me how many white collared professionals with job security commit fraud. The highest echelons of society could be using their position and power to elevate the rest, but no, they can’t. They’re too busy getting over while looking down on the people whose interests they’re hired to take care of. What a sham education has become.
I so agree!
As I read this story of obsession, tragedy, and misplaced values, I realized that a piece of each of us dies when one educator’s error impacts our profession. We stand for honest ideals, and respected trust. We can never devolve into professionals who revel in the failure of others. In an era of collaboration, commitment, and creativity, we cannot become models of dishonesty! Enron is not our professional model and I am embarrassed by Atlanta’s lost moral compass. Our children deserve our best; this is not it and I am sad.
http://www.ajc.com/documents/2013/mar/29/read-indictment/
a link to download the indictment…
I believe this will set a precedent for Rhee to be indicted. She will take the fall for all the financial backers who are behind her. I agree that the movement to say no to the test has to gain momentum. I’m sick of Pearson making big bucks while I can’t get paper for my classroom.
Personally, I want the puppetmasters and the puppets not the low level people scared to death and not really scoring in the process.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina and commented:
DEDOE hired Hall to speak to DE educators! http://www.dasl.udel.edu/sites/dasl.udel.edu/files/users/user10/11_18_09_Beverly_Hall.pdf
for shame!
Click on the link and read the NYT article in its entirety. Much of the edubully establishment is involved in one way or another.
This is a [sadly] stunning confirmation of Campbell’s Law (1975): “The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.”
For just one example from the article, note how a drastic (and false) rise in test scores deprived teachers and students of essential funds and resources.
Cruel immorality in pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$.
Remember, it’s all about the kid$.
HALLELUJAH! finally some bit of justice in this god forsaken profession.
Hope the investigations start to spread like wildfire around the country.
-ask questions,start trouble-
I was saddened to read this post. My first thought…what would cause someone, probably out of character, to do this? My second thought and answer…OBSESSION with TEST RESULTS! If the stakes weren’t so high would these people have done what they are accused of? In part, I believe NCLB and RTTT are the seeds from which this rotten fruit grew.
COMMON CORE will make NCLB and RTTT look like child’s play. Control of results of CC will not be local or State but at Microsoft. Indictment will be much more difficult as time goes on.
Data collected and stored in Utah site , under construction, will not be accessible but will be used to create ‘individual’ curricula. Assessments will be individualized too. No # 2 lead pencils involved. Altered results will be untraceable.
The future under technology controlled education/training does not look good.
I worked for APS for 10 years and the cheating goes WAY back to before Beverly Hall, and was noticeable in the term of J.J. Harris, a big blowhard who despised special education teachers. The Board had to pay off his contract to get rid of him. In fact Beverly was hired mainly because she was an “outsider” and the Board thought she would be able to reduce the cronyism prevalent in a system where who you were related to, where you went to college, your race, your Greek affiliation, and your church affiliation often meant more, particularly when it came to acquiring administrative positions, than what you knew did. At the same time, I dearly loved working for APS and still resent being put out 10 years later by a racist principal who hated special education and those of other races. The competent faculty respected me and I became a well honed professional educator, and even got to teach some professional development. But I also learned a lot about what has been called “reverse racism”.
The cheating goes back to around 1990, at least, when I worked at a small elementary school that would have been shut down save for the fact that it held the 2nd largest contingent of self-contained special education classes in the system. Our staff outnumbered the regular education staff. I had the only all Profoundly Intellectually Disabled class in the system.
I know about the cheating because it was so bad that the school cheated itself out of its Title I money. The scores got too high. Shortly thereafter, monitors were sent out and when the students were tested again the scores were at the expected levels again.
I know this because that Title 1 grant was the biggest mess you have ever seen. “Downtown” said something had to be done about it before the deadline. It had been written by committee, one I had requested to be on but was denied because they didn’t want special education included in the money. None of the parts fit together. It made no sense. The objectives were not even written right. My paraprofessional talked to the Lead Teacher and told her I could fix the grant. She did not ask me first. Her daughter was in the Lead’s class. They were desperate. It was due in a few days. For several afternoons I worked on the grant while my para took over our class as I borrowed the typewriter (we had no computers) from the librarian and fixed the grant. Everyone stayed away from my classroom. I heard that “Downtown” said it was perfect, although I never got any kind of recognition or even a thank you. This did not matter because the kids were going to get their much needed funding. After that year, the school was VERY closely monitored for cheating, but we all knew there was stuff going on system-wide. Special education did not have to cheat, however. As usual, we taught instead and our special needs kids who took standardized tests scored better than a lot of the regulars. Of course we were all real, certified, teachers. Always makes a difference.
Why aren’t these people treated like common criminals. Actually worse as they are destroying young lives. They hammer teachers and let the real “Bad Guys” go such as the board members, superintendent and high level administrators. Put a few of them in the “Pokey” and watch things change when it could happen to them also.
Reblogged this on LiterateOwl and commented:
We have issues in BC public education, like tearing up teacher contracts but a strong tradition of professional integrity, locally elected governance and socially valued schools has prevented this kind of corporate atrocity in education. Also read… http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.ca/2013/03/the-selling-out-of-camdens-schools-part.html Corruption, cheating, political campaign payoffs…doesn’t happen in BC- yet.
This just blows me away. Makes me sad, too. A lot of the names in the indictment are familiar to me and one person indicted was a co-worker. I am surpirsed at some of the names that are missing and one of the schools that is not listed. Maybe those people have retired. APS needs to be cleaned up, but it is also the heart and soul of the community in a place where almost all the kids attend public school. The parochial system has never been large and the privates were elite schools that only the wealthy could afford.
MUST READ: THE ATLANTA INVESTIGATION REPORT
4 volumes; 800 pages: You will not be able to put it down.
I wrote the following brief commentary after reading it.
“Teaching in ‘A Culture of Fear, Intimidation and Retaliation'”
http://npe.educationnews.org/Review/Essays/v7n7.htm
“Atlanta: Teaching in a Culture of Fear” Erich Martel, DCPS Teacher
(Scroll down to the 4 NYTimes links to each of the 4 volumes.
First sentence:
“The 800-page Investigation Report on the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) cheating scandal involving 178 named school-based principals, teachers and other staff is a riveting and chilling anthology of the “culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation” that teachers face in schools around the country when they report mismanagement and abusive administrative behavior.”
Links to spreadsheet showing the flagged schools (sheet #3) by number of classes, number flagged and the break-down of staff cited for cheating by numbers in each position, by school: principal, asst principal, testing coordinator, math/literacy coach, support staff, teacher.
That quick overview supports conclusions stated in the Investigation Report (sheets 1 & 2):
– In 44 schools, one or more educators were cited by name:
– In 38 of the 44, the principal was cited
– Of the 108 teachers cited by name, 91 were in schools where the principal was also cited.
In most of the 44 schools, investigators stated that there were more staff members involved, but there was insufficient evidence to cite additional names.
In 12 schools, investigators stated that improprieties occurred (158 flagged classes), but there was insufficient evidence to cite any names.
In 22 schools with 114 flagged classes, there is no explanation, if there was an investigation or not. This group includes 4 public charter schools (Imagine, Drew, Kipp West, Atlanta)
In 6 schools, there were no flagged classes.
Erich Martel
Social Studies Teacher
Washington, D.C. Public Schools
ehmartel@starpower.net
These are the four Atlanta Public School (APS) Investigation Report documents:
There are some unexpected surprises. Supt. Hall hired two “experts” to do a review of a few schools in response to concerns. One is a well-known consultant, author of “Unpacking the Standards.” His report was very approving (he visited 8 schools in one day, during his 3-day stay). Supt Hall posted it on the APS website. The other, critical report she “lost,” claiming that she never received it. Go to p. 311 of the “Exhibits to Report.”
Click to access Volume-1.pdf
Click to access Volume-2.pdf
Click to access Volume-3.pdf
Click to access Exhibits-to-Report.pdf
This testing is out of control.
Some states test on every single subject over and over and over.
It is done for political and economic reasons and the big publishing companies.
It serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever.
There needs to be four tests.
One at the end of the 4th grade, 8th grade, 11th grade, and an exit exam..
The only purpose is to enrich your friends and nothing else. Students are a tool in this operation for their benefit not the students or society.
Why stop with her?
http://literacyinleafstrewn.blogspot.com/2013/03/should-we-indict-bush-boehner-obama-and.html
Knowing all this was being done, Atlanta Public Schools still received Race to the Top funding, after the fact. Imagine that- rewarding schools that cheat with millions of dollars.
Absolutely no excuse for cheating, threatening teachers, and the culture of lying.
But where were we in 2002 when NCLB was passed unnoticed under the shadow of 9/11? Why did those of us writing and criticizing the testing movement not press harder? Where were the professional organizations (NCTE, NCSS, NCTM …)? Why did we allow Mr. Obama to drink the Kool-aid left on the DOE table? Why didn’t we expose the Michelle Rhee’s, the quick fix reformers, and charter scammers when we saw what was happening Why did we allow our state legislators to fall into line so they could get re-elected based on test score results (or criticize the other guy for not getting them)?
Atrocities in history raise two questions: 1) How in the world could anyone be so evil, so toxic, so driven that such atrocities occurred? 2) Where were the bystanders and how could they let it occur?
Occupy DOE, keep writing, and then let us all make 2013-2014 be the year the professionals and parents took back public education.
Jere~
Absolutely.
Alfie Kohn was one of the first to sound the alarm as he spoke around the country in the late 1990s. He laid out the testing path our country would take, way before NCLB. Few listened. Once NCLB entered, educators scrambled like crazy, working on certifications to be Highly Qualified, SpEd & ELL were no longer excluded from the schls’ scores, universities aligned their faculties with required subjects, teachers went back to school, principals were in serviced & kids were tested & all were required to pass. Even kids w/ a 70 IQ had to pass all the tests, ELL kids just arriving in USA had to pass tests. Beginning of the Insanity. And much more. Several years forward, more $$$ and more testing, more Big Corp$.
No end in sight! Hard to Un-ring the greedy bell of US corp profit.
While many professionals and people in power looked away. Our kids paid a very high price for years to come.
Not a surprise; Michele’s legacy of curious scores took a predictable dip after they chased the dragon from their midst! Fudging scores to validate a school’s laughable
miracles is getting to be the norm. This tactic is rampant in falsely proving the charter school’s Trojan Horse gift to public education. We see such unethical treatment in every area of the school system. I chalk it up to the morass of unaccountability from the “legacy’ of “W’s” war for oil, the ’08 meltdown where the crooks didn’t get frog walked to their earned abode, but instead got huge bonuses, and the only ones who cried at the
economic crash, were its victims. Truth just isn’t the first casualty of war; it’s the casualty of any American institution from the Presidency on down, when corporate interests smell a killing to be had. Now in the cross hairs is public education, the post office also is slotted for slaughter and the results will be an ever growing international corporate
erosion of our economy and country.
Maybe this exposed and jailed superintendent will cause a chill across the nation to other systems that doubtlessly are knee deep in heavy duty erasing of reality to vie for the money pot such gaming the system brings. I’d wager we could fill many a jail with this disgraced Super’s unconscionable, fellow superintendents! Just as the old joke about lawyers, “What do you call 60 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A good beginning!”…60 Superintendents with the fishies could likewise be hailed!
Actually, if its 60 lawyers then it should be 60^2 education administrators/managers, private and public, as a realistic ratio.
Put them in the “Pokey.” Do the crime spend the time. This is not stealing candybars or a car this is destroying our future and children. This is at a different level. It should be treated as such. I can tell you this. If the D.A. in L.A. were to prosecute the easily provable beyond a reasonable doubt the breaking of the child abuse laws of the State of California LAUSD would have to replace a lot of principals and high level administrators up to and including the superintendent and general counsel. I believe this would cause behavior modification across the schools of the U.S. when they too can spend some time with Bubba in prison. Fair for one, fair for all. Think of the seriousness of the crimes and the effects on society as a whole. We must put this in perspective.