Late last year a story emerged that Atlanta Public Schools were embroiled in a standardized test cheating scandal when the teachers responible for blowing the whistle were fired by school administrators. What has emerged may be the largest cheating scandal since 1994's Naval Academy Cheating Scandal. Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that investigators have submitted their findings: that the cheating scandal was encouraged by senior administraotrs, and teachers were involved in "cheating parties" where student test sheets were corrected before being scored. One teacher claimed that APS was, "run like the mob."
The investigation discovered that teachers were rewarded for inproving scores "by any means necessary" and teachers were punished and fired for opposing the widespread cheating. Investigators found the following:
- Over 80 teachers confessed to cheating.
- Evidence of cheating was found at 45 of 56 schools investigated.
- 38 principals were involved in the conspiracy.
Read more at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
