Shani Robinson is one of the teachers who was convicted of cheating in the infamous Atlanta case. In her absorbing book None the Above: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal, Corporate Greed, and the Criminalization of Educators, Robinson makes a convincing case that she was railroaded by an over-zealous, unscrupulous and racist prosecution.
In this brief video, she explains what happened. She was teaching first grade, where there were no stakes, no rewards, attached to scores. One of her colleagues falsely accused her to avoid prosecution. The trial was a sham. Many cities had cheating scandals. Atlanta is the only one where teachers were tried (using a “racketeering” statute written for the Mafia) and sent to jail.
The video is part of a collection of over 1,000 videos by Bob Greenberg. Bob calls them “brainwaves.” He is a former teacher turned videographer.
Here are two more “Brainwaves” that Greenberg made with Shani Robinson.
Lord, Why Did You Make Me Black https://youtu.be/vOTsBznfejA
Teachers Make a Difference https://youtu.be/RmipMN0FdGU
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ed reforms reaction to this was appalling. If you read the actual report (which none of them did, apparently) it’s very even handed. The report blames the engineers and managers of this debacle as much or more than the teachers.
None of the elite engineers of this disaster suffered at all, though. They all moved on to the next city, getting fat contracts to put the same old garbage in. They’re all well-respected in ed reformworld and all making bank on ed reform. While the teachers march off to prison.
Some parts of the report really stick with you. There was a teacher-witness who described being so berated for not getting a test score increase that she climbed under the table. They were in this absolutely insane system and the only way to operate within it was to put test scores above everything else.
There’s an investigation into the Wells Fargo system where Wells Fargo ended up pushing their people into actually stealing from customers bank accounts. They were collecting fees for phantom accounts and services because they had to get the numbers up. It’s exactly the same mindset which is not surprising, because it comes from exactly the same people.
When Arne Duncan repeated “outputs not inputs” like some kind of mantra of ridiculous sloganeering this was the result.
These slogans are ridiculous on their face, yet all these graduates of America’s most expensive private schools all repeated them like parrots. Remember- these are the same people who lecture and scold second graders about being “critical thinkers”.
No dissent at all. No real criticism. “Outputs not inputs” swallowed whole and recited. For 20 years.
I know high school sophomores who ask more and better questions. They should worry less about the public schools they didn’t attend and don’t use and worry more about why their own elite private school system is churning out this nonsense.
Thank you, Shani. You are remarkable and courageous.
And thank you, Diane for posting this important information.
Public School Teachers and Public Schools are two of America’s Treasures.
Keep Shani’s story current for us. Keep speaking out, Shani!
Best of luck with your appeal. I hope you get to clear your name.
This is so awful. The double standard to indict people is astonishing — those connected to power are given free passes because there isn’t “sufficient evidence” but those without power get railroaded.
In one article I read, it mentioned that Shani Robinson was a Teach for America teacher. Is this the case? When she was accused, did TFA dump her as fast as they could, or did they support her?
“…those connected to power are given free passes because there isn’t “sufficient evidence” but those without power get railroaded”
And yet you support Al Franken, who couldn’t be any more connected to power and could hardly have gotten much more of a free pass even in the face of obvious guilt. He resigned only after the EIGHTH woman accused him. How many women accusing him do you think it would have taken to put him behind bars had he been a poor black man? One? And how flimsy could the evidence have been? Yet because Franken’s a rich white man he walks free and still people like you think he got a raw deal.
dienne77,
I supported Al Franken getting the full hearing as he requested. Just like I expected the same from Kavanaugh. The problem is that Kavanaugh got a pass and was given free reign to trash the one person who was allowed to testify against him with all kinds of witnesses intentionally ignored. That isn’t at all what Franken wanted and I certainly would not have supported him if he had.
In fact, you are the hypocrite to rush to judgement because you jump to condemn Franken and aren’t accusing Shani despite “many” other teachers accusing her. And you certainly have made it clear that you just don’t know whether Trump’s campaign did anything wrong with regards to Russian interference as you just haven’t seen enough evidence to convince you that Trump and his cronies did anything illegal. And yet you condemn the Clinton campaign and the DNC on much less evidence.
Really, when it comes to double standards, I suggest you look in the mirror.
I don’t know whether Al Franken is “guilty” but I do know that there was never any investigation. Ken Starr was given unlimited subpoena power and spent years trying to prove that Bill Clinton raped multiple women. Or even harassed them. Starr came up with an consensual extramarital affair and not because he wasn’t using every bit of his never before seen power to threaten witnesses and try to get them to give evidence against Clinton.
We live in a world where Democrats are supposedly guilty of major crimes based on innuendo — judged by people who call themselves ‘progressives’ — and those same people give Republicans a pass when they shut down and limit all investigations into their wrongdoing.
By your standards, Shani is absolutely guilty. I’m sorry but I think she got railroaded and the full story didn’t come out.
Shani came into teaching through TFA.
I don’t recall that she got any help from TFA.
I read Shani’s book; she is unbelievably courageous. To be pregnant and have to fight for your rights when you are innocent; what is the matter w/our society? (Well, according to the definition of “society,” it would seem we have none left.)
& to hear that she is still having to clear her name.
You all know who should be tried (for the educational treason perpetrated upon the children of America)? Arne Duncan. &, ironically, while Shani is still having to clear her name, Arne is still running around (& making a heap o’cash, to be sure) & causing pain to the students, parents, teachers & communities in the U.S.
You see clearly in Shani’s book that the prosecutors offered get-out-of-jail cards to those who implicated others and punished those like Shani who insisted they were innocent. A certain way for the guilty to go free by accusing the innocent.
There is a lot of this railroading in the US “justice” system. It’s one reason why the US has more people under penal supervision (in jail, in prison, or on parole) than does any other country in the world. We have a sick and corrupt system.
How many of the convicted criminals in Corporate Charter School Scams ended up with a verdict and judgment that was as criminal as the one those public school teachers ended up with?
From what I have read the last few years, the majority of the Corporate Charter School Criminals (CCSC) can steal millions, even billions and never spend on a day in jail. All that happens, is the CCSC has to move their con-of-a-fraud to another state where they are allowed to repeat the crime.
So agree…
When this happened to Shani, it was such a terrible time for public schools and public school teachers. Never again!
Shameful to persecute those at the bottom rungs for the misdirection of those at the top. …the other great crime and sin being the teachers in New Orleans who were not given their jobs back. …being black and female …and a teacher…
This shameful episode should have been made into a cause for the teaching profession nation-wide. I thought at the time there should have been more outrage.
Sounds like a very Southern story. I didn’t expect it in Atlanta, though.
I do not believe the mainstream media realize just how widespread the charter school industry is a pretentious front for very wealthy criminal behavior…..sometimes gangster like in what they do.
Under bothTrump and Obama……….and the democrats are either going to do something about it……………………..or they are going to nominate a 76 year old man who they think is the safest bet to replace Trump. Black people in particular have a responsibility to recognize that as good a president as Obama was, and what a horrible farce Trump remains…..not all that Obama did…….with the wealthy and ignorant Bill Gates and Arne Duncan was perfect.
I hope that someone will make Shani’s story into a documentary.
And then, her book into a feature-length film (because, probably, more Americans see movies than docs).