Implicated Atlanta school employees put on leave (AP)

ATLANTA – Atlanta Public Schools employees implicated in a widespread cheating scandal are getting notices that they've been put on paid administrative leave.

The notices sent out to teachers and others are among the steps the district must take as it begins to sort through each employee's case.

Superintendent Erroll Davis, who has been adamant that none of the employees will work in front of the district's students again, says he plans to start termination proceedings as quickly as he can.

A state report released earlier this month implicated educators in 44 schools for cheating on state tests. District officials say 41 of the educators suspected of cheating have already quit or retired.

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Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re_us/storytext/us_atlanta_schools_cheating/42405338/SIG=10krkhktm/*http://www.ajc.com

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Interim Chief Begins Cleaning up Atlanta Public Schools (U.S. News & World Report)

Three year-round elementary schools in the Atlanta Public School system opened this morning, including two implicated in one of the largest cheating scandals in K-12 public education.

Boyd Elementary and Hutchinson Elementary both hired new principals earlier this week after their former principals were removed. Interim schools chief Erroll Davis Jr. has started cleaning up a district in which 178 teachers and principals were found to be cheating on standardized tests according to an investigative report by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal. Last week, the Atlanta school board gave Davis a yearlong term to help the district navigate through the scandal.

[Learn more about the Atlanta cheating scandal.]

Shake-ups in the beleaguered school district continued on Tuesday. Millicent Few, who served as human resources chief of the system since 1999, resigned after a state report claimed she "ordered the destruction of documents related to cheating."

"It is not compassionate to allow someone who has cheated to remain on payroll," Davis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "A major mistake leaders make is they show too much compassion for people and not the institution. I was hired to protect the institution and I will do it."

Davis began removing officials earlier this week, starting with area superintendents Tamara Cotman, Michael Pitts, Sharon Davis-Williams, and Robin Hall. Their status with Atlanta Public Schools is pending. The four were replaced with principals from schools that weren't implicated in the governor's report.

Former school board chairman Khaatim Sherrer El also resigned earlier this week. "I failed to protect thousands of children who come from homes like mine," he said. El was one of the first school board officials to put pressure on the government to investigate cheating allegations. He will take a job with a nonprofit in Newark, N.J. In his departing note to the community, El wrote that Atlanta made "a deal with the Devil that sold out a generation of children for the sake of the city's image."

Other cities have faced mysteriously high test scores, including Detroit, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. Cheating has also been suspected in districts in Ohio, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and California. Bob Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest, a national organization that tracks cheating, wrote in a USA Today opinion piece that cheating is to be expected because standardized tests play such an important role in the U.S. education system.

"The cheating spike is the predictable fallout from the pervasive misuse of standardized tests in public schools. When test results are all that matter in evaluating students, teachers and schools, educators feel pressured to boost scores by hook or by crook," he wrote. "Just as in other professions, some will cross the ethical line."

See how your school stacks up in our rankings of Best High Schools. Have something of interest to share? Send your news to us at highschoolnotes@usnews.com.

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Official resigns amid Atlanta schools scandal (AP)

ATLANTA – A spokesman for Atlanta schools says one of the district's top administrators implicated by state investigators in a test cheating scandal has resigned.

Schools spokesman Keith Bromery says human resources chief Millicent Few resigned Monday night. State investigators say Few illegally ordered the destruction or alteration of documents to downplay reports of cheating in the 50,000-student district.

Investigators say Few denied the allegations against her. A listed phone number could not be found for Few.

She is among 178 Atlanta schools educators named in a voluminous state report who are accused of either cheating or allowing cheating. The probe found cheating in nearly half of the district's 100 schools since 2001, affecting tens of thousands of children.

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Officials replaced amid Atlanta cheating scandal (AP)

ATLANTA – The fallout from the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal continued to spread as four area superintendents were replaced and a school district in Texas put the superintendent it recently hired from Georgia on paid leave.

Interim Superintendent Erroll Davis replaced the four superintendents late Monday, hours before trustees of the DeSoto Independent School District near Dallas placed Superintendent Kathy Augustine on leave as they re-examine her previous post. Augustine has denied having any knowledge of test cheating as Atlanta's deputy superintendent.

The four removed from their area superintendent jobs — Sharon Davis-Williams, Michael Pitts, Robin Hall and Tamara Cotman — were implicated in the scandal. Interim Superintendent Erroll Davis did not say whether they will stay with the school district.

Georgia investigators say 178 educators in 44 schools cheated on standardized tests used to meet federal benchmarks. Educators told state investigators they were pressured by administrators to improve test scores. The testing problems first came to light after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some scores were statistically improbable.

Davis also said two year-round elementary schools named in the state investigative report made public last week will get new principals before classes start Wednesday.

In Texas, trustees of the DeSoto Independent School District held a lengthy closed-door meeting that lasted late into the night before Augustine read a statement announcing she was taking the leave of absence effective Tuesday.

"Please know that I understand your need for thoughtful deliberations about my appointment," Augustine told the trustees after announcing the decision, which she said was reached after "mutual consideration."

After Augustine announced she was taking leave, the trustees took no immediate action on a proposal to terminate her employment. DeSoto schools hired Augustine in April to the $188,000-a-year job in the district, which has some 9,000 students in the Dallas area.

Also Monday, Atlanta Public Schools board member Khaatim El announced he was resigning from the board.

"I just concluded in the end it just shouldn't be this hard to do the right things for kids," El said as he fought back tears. "I failed to protect thousands of children who come from homes like mine. It remains to be seen, no matter how deep this thing goes, whether the soul of Atlanta has been stirred."

The state investigation revealed the nation's largest cheating scandal yet on standardized tests, with nearly half of Atlanta's 100 schools involved, and highlighted the immense pressure put on educators to produce better scores. Criminal charges are likely for some of the educators who confessed and the rest who were implicated by colleagues.

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Atlanta schools extend contract of interim chief (AP)

ATLANTA – The Atlanta school board is delaying its search for a new leader.

The board voted Thursday to extend the contract of interim Superintendent Erroll Davis for a year. Board chairwoman Brenda Muhammad says the district needs stability as it grapples with a cheating scandal.

Davis announced a plan during Thursday's board meeting for dealing with a state investigation that revealed cheating in nearly half of the district's 100 schools.

The district is expected to find out in September whether it will be taken off probation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Muhammad said she hopes extending Davis' contract will help gain back the trust of the commission.

Davis has been in office less than a week after retiring as chancellor of the University System of Georgia.

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Atlanta schools announce changes after scandal (AP)

ATLANTA – As the Atlanta school district grapples with a cheating scandal that has drawn national attention, the interim school superintendent said Thursday that the district will automatically investigate suspicious test scores and require ethics training for all employees.

The changes announced by interim Superintendent Erroll Davis Jr. come two days after state investigators said 178 educators had cheated on standardized tests used to meet federal benchmarks dating back to 2001. Davis reiterated Thursday that none of those educators will work in an Atlanta classroom again.

The educators face possible criminal charges and could lose their teaching licenses for changing answers on students' tests and helping students answer questions. Some may face charges of lying to investigators or tampering with state documents.

"This is just a start," said Davis, who has been on the job less than a week.

The educators in the probe represent just a fraction of the 6,000 employees in the 50,000-student district.

Davis said the office that receives ethics complaints will now report directly to the school board rather than to the district's human resources division. State investigators found that the ethics office didn't adequately look into complaints and tried to cover up the extent of cheating allegations in the district.

Any classroom where test scores increased by unusual or unreasonable amounts will automatically be investigated by district officials, he said. And he said he will require annual ethics training — likely online — for all 6,000 of the district's employees.

Children affected by the cheating will be given as much tutoring and remedial help as needed, Davis said. Before the state investigation, the district had begun giving extra help last year to 5,400 students identified in a district-based probe of the cheating.

The testing problems first came to light after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some scores were statistically improbable. The state launched audits of test results after the newspaper published its analysis of the test scores.

The state investigation was launched last August by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue who was upset over what he called a "woefully inadequate" probe by the district.

Educators told the state investigators they were pressured by administrators to improve test scores. The investigative report said former Superintendent Beverly Hall either knew or should have known that cheating was widespread. Hall's attorney has denied all allegations against her.

Meanwhile, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Thursday called the Atlanta schools cheating scandal "unfortunate," saying it highlights the need for transparency in education. Educators told investigators they were under immense stress to raise student achievement and test scores.

Duncan said schools across the country are facing the same pressures but are making "genuine" progress without cheating.

Parent Cynthia Briscoe Brown, whose son is a rising sophomore in Atlanta, said she is pleased with the district's response to the cheating probe.

"I think it's very appropriate," said Brown, whose son is not at one of the 44 schools where the state found cheating. "(Davis) is clearly moving swiftly to make sure teachers who made bad choices suffer the consequences."

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Dorie Turner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/dorieturner

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Atlanta schools chief leaves amid cheating probe (AP)

ATLANTA – Longtime Atlanta schools chief Beverly Hall has been lauded nationally as a top leader for turning around struggling urban districts, but she retires this week amid allegations of widespread cheating and accusations that she ordered a cover-up of test tampering.

It's not quite the ending Hall's supporters imagined for her nearly 12-year career as the superintendent of the 50,000-student district — where nearly three-fourths of students live at or below the poverty line.

The 64-year-old Jamaica native won the national Superintendent of the Year award in 2009 and landed on short lists for U.S. Department of Education jobs. Even her long tenure in Atlanta stands out nationally: few urban school superintendents stay in one district longer than four years.

But now Hall's actions are among those being scrutinized as part of yearlong criminal investigation into the cheating allegations, which stem from a state report showing high numbers of erasures on standardized tests given to Atlanta students in 2009. And the district faces losing accreditation after school board squabbles over the scandal led to the system being put on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

"We feel terrible for Beverly that she's leaving with less than the adulations she ought to be receiving after the great work she has done," said Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, which gave Hall her national award.

"The problem with superintendents is because you're making tough decisions all the time, the list of detractors grows and grows and grows, and they tip the scale and they get you," he said.

Hall declined requests from The Associated Press for an interview. A district spokesman confirmed she has an attorney but did not know the lawyer's name.

District officials have denied the allegations against Hall.

In a video message to schools staff last month, Hall warned that the state investigation launched by former Gov. Sonny Perdue last year would likely reveal "alarming" behavior.

"It's become increasingly clear that a segment of our staff chose to violate the trust that was placed in them," Hall said. "There is simply no excuse for unethical behavior and no room in this district for unethical conduct. I am confident that aggressive, swift action will be taken against anyone who believed so little in our students and in our system of support that they turned to dishonesty as the only option."

Hall came to Atlanta in 1999 after spending three years as the state-appointed superintendent of the Newark, N.J., school district. Before that, she was a top administrator in the New York City school system, the largest in the country.

The no-nonsense leader vowed to turn around the struggling Atlanta district, where barely two out of five students graduated high school in 2000 and scores on nationally administered tests trailed far behind state and national averages.

Now more than 65 percent of students get a diploma, and the district has seen some of the largest jumps in scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress — called "the nation's report card" — among large urban districts.

About 40 percent of eighth-graders passed muster on the reading test in 2002. In 2009, the latest scores available, that number had increased to 63 percent.

That performance has helped Hall win more than one national award, including garnering the top prize for urban education leaders from the Council of the Great City Schools in 2006.

Despite the gains, the district has failed to meet federal benchmarks and has been labeled as "failing" since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted in 2002. The cheating investigation has overshadowed much of the progress made by students.

A February 2010 audit by the state showed an unusually high number of erasures on standardized tests used to meet the federal standards. The report identified 74 schools statewide where there was possible cheating in 2009, and nearly half of those were in Atlanta.

The audit lead to investigations in more than a dozen Georgia districts, but the then-governor ordered an additional investigation into the Atlanta erasures because he said the probe conducted by the district was "woefully inadequate." The state probe is in its final stages, with investigators expected to announce the results early next month.

A former employee has accused Hall of ordering the destruction of documents that detailed a pattern of widespread cheating on standardized tests and telling employees that the district has a right to "sanitize" the investigation, according to a person familiar with the probe who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it. The employee is seeking a financial settlement after she resigned over accusations she had made lewd comments to male employees.

While many city leaders have defended Hall, some have called for her resignation since the state audit came out early last year, including state Rep. Ralph Long, a Democrat from one of Atlanta's poorest areas. He called Hall's work "disastrous" and "crippling" for the city's children because he believes the schools aren't preparing students for college or life.

"I think she fostered an environment that cultivated pushing upstanding citizens like principals and teachers into a bad situation, and she turned her head," Long said.

A number of other urban school districts and individual states have been caught up in cheating scandals in the last several years, including Baltimore and Houston, and Texas, Washington and Florida.

Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, who led the city from 2002 to 2010, defended Hall in a recent post on her website Blogging While Blue. Franklin could not be reached for comment.

"As she packs her bags for her final day as superintendent, thank you Beverly Hall for your leadership and service to Atlanta. She leaves the school district significantly better than she found it," Franklin wrote in her June 23 post.

Many parents have come to her defense, too, instead blaming the district's woes on the school board and a handful of cheating educators.

Lisa Weldon, who lives in the tony Atlanta neighborhood of Buckhead, said just a few of the children in her neighborhood went to public school when her 21-year-old started school. Now, more than 80 percent attend public schools, Weldon said.

"I think she's done a wonderful job," said Weldon, whose youngest child just graduated from North Atlanta High School. "I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt. I'm going to wait until she has her day in court, because I've been nothing but impressed."

In an interview with the AP in August 2010 just before Perdue ordered a state probe into the cheating allegations, Hall vowed to root out the guilty educators and punish them.

She blamed the cheating on a few rogue employees, saying it wasn't a systemic problem. The problem, she said, is that most people are incredulous when poor minority children improve their academic performance.

"Nobody talks enough about the fact that students have consistently shown show progress over the last decade, but they hear everything that could possibly go wrong in Atlanta," Hall said. "So it continues to reinforce, I think, a pervasive belief that urban systems can't function and poor kids can't learn. The downside of this is we lose sight of the overall positive growth and focus on the negative."

Dorie Turner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/dorieturner

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