When Principles Cheat to meet testing Standards. (see how he did it).

[Danno 1,228]

Even though this school averages nearly $9300 per student (nearly a grand more than the state average) they still needed to resort to cheating on the state test to reach the minimum overall school grade.

Obama keeps talking about a public option when it comes to healthcare, when will he do something about getting a "private option"...implemented for these dismal schools, with simple vouchers which lets real competition in the game?

This Principle was so stupid he not only changed the kids test scores so they passed he made them so high it tipped off the investigation.

cheating details revealed

AJC Exclusive: Records obtained by AJC provide closer look at how far educators might go to ensure good grades

By Kristina Torres

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

7:23 a.m. Friday, February 12, 2010

On a late June day two years ago, two DeKalb County school administrators panicked.

A few dozen of their elementary school students had just finished high-stakes summer retests — exams first taken in spring but not passed. With just a glance at the answer sheets, Atherton Elementary School Principal James Berry and Assistant Principal Doretha Alexander saw they were in trouble.

“We cannot not make AYP,” Alexander said. Not making AYP, or adequate yearly progress, meant not meeting a required federal benchmark. These students, all fifth-graders, also faced being held back if they did not pass.

“OK,” Berry answered. He pulled a pencil from a cup on Alexander’s desk. “I want you to call the answers to me.”

With that, he began to erase the students’ answers.

State officials announced Wednesday that 191 schools — 10 percent of Georgia’s public elementary and middle schools — will be investigated for possible cheating on state tests. It was the second time in as many years that the state’s testing program has come under fire.

The first was last year, when Berry and Alexander got swept up in a groundbreaking audit by the state that included an “erasure analysis” of student answer sheets. In the subsequent scandal, officials found tampering at three other elementary schools besides Atherton, including those in Atlanta and Fulton and Glynn counties.

The state sanctioned 13 educators, banning them from its public schools for at least 90 days. None of those cases, however, was resolved as fast as Berry’s and Alexander’s. Both were the first to be investigated and both received among the harshest penalties. The state banned Alexander for a year; Berry’s ban lasts for two years, the harshest sanction the state imposed.

Neither appealed. Now, their case files are public. Obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution under Georgia’s Open Records Act, the files reveal details for the first time how Berry and Alexander cheated — and how cheating may have occurred in other schools.

Both Berry and Alexander signed affidavits. Berry admits to erasing and replacing answers; Alexander says she called out the correct answers to Berry but did not personally alter tests. Both also initially denied that they had knowledge of improper activity during the administration of the tests at their school, according to the files.

Berry’s attorney, Jackie Patterson, said Berry acted out of a misguided belief that he was helping his students. “He acknowledges he made a major mistake,” Patterson said. Neither Alexander nor her attorney, Don Samuel, returned calls for comment.

Improbable gains

Their overzealousness was clear from the start.

In the fall of 2008, prior to the state’s investigation, the AJC published an analysis that showed improbable gains at some schools on tests taken first in the spring and then in the summer. One of those schools was Atherton, where half of the DeKalb school’s fifth-graders failed a yearly state test in the spring. When the 32 students took retests, not only did every one of them pass — 26 scored at the highest level. At the time, Berry told the paper that he knew of no problems with test security.

Instead, he said he stressed to teachers how important test scores were. He said he also “pulled out every stop known to man.”

Summer testing in DeKalb that year occurred on June 25-26, a Wednesday and Thursday, with makeup tests on Friday. DeKalb policy at the time allowed Berry and Alexander to keep the answer sheets at the school over the weekend, as long as they secured them on campus and turned them in by the following Monday. The case files do not make clear whether the two officials changed answers that Friday or during the weekend.

The files indicate that, at some point, the two talked in Alexander’s office with the answer sheets in their possession. Berry then began to erase them, working with Alexander for about two hours to get the changes made.

“I really didn’t pay much attention to the amount of erasing that he was doing,” Alexander said in her affidavit, according to the files. “I think there was a total of about 32 tests administered. He told me that he needed for 26 students to pass for us to make AYP.”

Alexander said Berry did all the erasing while she called out the answers. She said she only “complied with [berry’s] directive, of my superior.” Berry said they both erased and changed answers. They never talked about that day again, even after state officials came to the school to investigate.

Denials, then confessions

According to the files, both “adamantly denied” to state investigators that they cheated or knew of any irregularities. Only after the state made its findings public the following June did both confess to DeKalb school officials.

No law in Georgia makes it a crime to cheat on state academic tests, although lawmakers late last week filed bills that would make it unlawful to knowingly tamper with state tests or help students or other educators cheat on them.

The bills would make test cheating a misdemeanor, violators subject to fines and the loss of their pensions.

Berry and Alexander were the only two educators of the 13 in the scandal to also face criminal charges by local authorities. DeKalb authorities charged both with falsifying a state document, a felony that carries a potential two- to 10-year prison term. Berry pleaded guilty to that charge in December. He was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $1,000 fine. Alexander completed 40 hours of community service at a local food bank and faces no further action.

http://www.ajc.com/news/crct-cheating-deta...led-300244.html

http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/20870

Clearly they need to serialize the tests and replace No.2 pencils with Black ink pens since cheating seems to be the norm in too many schools.

Edited February 16, 2010 by Danno

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Do you think schools in Georgia exemplify schools across the US?

[Danno 1,228]

Do you think schools in Georgia exemplify schools across the US?

Wow, I hope not.... did you have a point I missed?

[Ali G. 37]

So you feel the problem is with Obama? Rather than the unreliable, inefficient, and total waste of money county/city oriented education system plaguing the US.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but an A in a Georgia based school is probably a C- in a Maryland or Northern Virginia school.

Why do you think there is such a disparity? Hint: It's one of the things republicans cherish the most. Second hint, city/county mentioned above.

Edited February 16, 2010 by Booyah

[scandal 951]

When Principles Cheat to meet testing Standards. (see how he did it).

This Principle was so stupid he not only changed the kids test scores so they passed he made them so high it tipped off the investigation.

How stupid is he? Gee, I don't know. Stupid enough to spell it 'Principle' (an article or normative rule) instead of 'Principal' (one who administers a school), do you think?

[Danno 1,228]

When Principles Cheat to meet testing Standards. (see how he did it).

How stupid is he? Gee, I don't know. Stupid enough to spell it 'Principle' (an article or normative rule) instead of 'Principal' (one who administers a school), do you think?

Well finally, you contribute something of value tonight... Spell cheker.

[Danno 1,228]

So you feel the problem is with Obama? Rather than the unreliable, inefficient, and total waste of money county/city oriented education system plaguing the US.

No it's not Obamers fault, I just wish he would join in the effort to give all kids a choice in education... yah notice his family said "no thanks" to the public option concerning DC schools.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Me thinks someone has more than a chip on his shoulders concerning the quality of his education...

[Ali G. 37]

No it's not Obamers fault, I just wish he would join in the effort to give all kids a choice in education... yah notice his family said "no thanks" to the public option concerning DC schools.

Two things need to happen to stop the US from falling to being ranked last amongst the OECD.

1. Get rid of the city / county system, which will save hundreds of millions from the removal of duplicated bureaucracy and pool the states resources together.

2. Once school is funded on a state level, allow parents to send their kids to a school of their choice and receive the appropriate funding distributed to the school.

[Ali G. 37]

Well finally, you contribute something of value tonight... Spell cheker.

Scandal's posts are so awesome and intellectually stimulating that I propose we have them framed and sent to the Smithsonian for display. Unfortunately for him, he is not the first of his kind, as summa cum laude goes to Alex

[SMR 368]

Two things need to happen to stop the US from falling to being ranked last amongst the OECD.

1. Get rid of the city / county system, which will save hundreds of millions from the removal of duplicated bureaucracy and pool the states resources together.

2. Once school is funded on a state level, allow parents to send their kids to a school of their choice and receive the appropriate funding distributed to the school.

This is a great idea. Actually, this is essentially what Republicans and conservatives have been pushing for. Typically, these steps are listed in the opposite order. But considering the only reasonable way to implement these steps is simultaneously, the order is immaterial.

The reason that conservatives push for local control of services is that it gives the voters more recourse. That is, if the town or county government isn't performing, it's reasonable for a small number of citizens to actually effect change. On a state or federal level, you either have to quit your day job or get a lot of funding (or both). If vouchers are implemented, there is no need for local control of education on a government level, because every individual family has a recourse--change schools.

[GabiandVi 34]

Two things need to happen to stop the US from falling to being ranked last amongst the OECD.

1. Get rid of the city / county system, which will save hundreds of millions from the removal of duplicated bureaucracy and pool the states resources together.

2. Once school is funded on a state level, allow parents to send their kids to a school of their choice and receive the appropriate funding distributed to the school.

While I have no problem with either of these steps, they will not address the reason for such low scores. They may address the disparity among grade values, and they will allow parents who give a d*mn opportunities they are denied presently, but the problem is with the perceived goal of education. That is fundamental, and it has to be adjusted. The fixes you are talking about are organizational.

[SMR 368]

While I have no problem with either of these steps, they will not address the reason for such low scores. They may address the disparity among grade values, and they will allow parents who give a d*mn opportunities they are denied presently, but the problem is with the perceived goal of education. That is fundamental, and it has to be adjusted. The fixes you are talking about are organizational.

Vouchers is not simply an organizational change. It is a fundamental change. You underestimate the effect it would have.

The present system is not able to effectively help children whose parents don't care. There is no government organization that will effectively do that. You can pay someone to be a teacher, a caretaker, even a disciplinarian. But you can't pay someone to be a parent. For some of these children, hopefully someone else will step up and try to fill the hole left by the delinquent parents. But that has to be something that someone does by choice because he or she cares.

What do you see as the perceived goal of education, both now and in the ideal world?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Vouchers is not simply an organizational change. It is a fundamental change. You underestimate the effect it would have.

The present system is not able to effectively help children whose parents don't care. There is no government organization that will effectively do that. You can pay someone to be a teacher, a caretaker, even a disciplinarian. But you can't pay someone to be a parent. For some of these children, hopefully someone else will step up and try to fill the hole left by the delinquent parents. But that has to be something that someone does by choice because he or she cares.

What do you see as the perceived goal of education, both now and in the ideal world?

How do you think school vouchers remedy what is lacking in a child's home life if you agree that a child's home life has a major impact on the success of a child's education?

[SMR 368]

How do you think school vouchers remedy what is lacking in a child's home life if you agree that a child's home life has a major impact on the success of a child's education?

I think that vouchers help those students whose parents couldn't otherwise afford educational opportunities beyond public schools. Although that may not include most members of Congress or the President, it does include most American families.

To answer your question, they don't. That's what I meant when I said there is no governmental organization that will effectively do that.