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Megan Roberts

Ms. Bennett

British Literature

7 October 2011

Cheaters Never Win

Just imagine over 5,000 kids having all of their hard work after a school year just thrown

away because educators wanted better standard test scores or did not have enough faith in their

students. The Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal was one of the most scandalous things to

happen in years; it changed everything forever. The CRCT is the Criterion Referenced

Competency Test a test designed to test students in grades first through eighth. (AJC). Over 178

teachers and principals were involved in this scandal. (TP). They were caught changing the

students’ answers on the CRCT. When the scandal was being investigated not only was there a

413 page report put out about it, but it also changed the lives of many educators involved. The

high stakes of these tests given today can bring out the worst in educators, and cause them to do

things they would not normally do.

The CRCT, as stated before, is the Criterion Referenced Competency Test. (AJC). This

test is very important because it shows a school’s Annual Yearly Progress, so it is very useful for

students to take this test seriously; that way, the scores are accurate. (AJC) The CRCT is a

multiple choice test and tests students in the following subjects: English/Language Arts, Math,

Social Studies, and Science. It is used to test the skills in grades first through eighth grade. When

students are scored on this, test their results are categorized into one of three areas: exceeds

standards, meets standards, or does not meet standards. Students who are in first and second

grade, however, used to take the CRCT but in the school year 2010-2011 they did not due to

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budget cuts. When students are in the third grade and they take this test, they must pass the

reading portion to move on to the next grade. (AJC). Students in fifth or eighth grade must pass

both the reading and math to move on to the next grade. If students fail these portions of the test,

they are allowed to go to summer school or study and then take the test again. If the students fail

a second time, parent teacher conferences are held and then a vote is conducted by the teaching

staff on whether or not to promote the student to the next grade level. Essentially, the student can

fail the test twice and still move on to the next grade. In the year 2009, 77,910 of Georgia’s

third, fifth, and eighth graders failed the CRCT, but that year only 66,642 students were actually

held back.

It was found that 44 of the 56 schools that were investigated did actually cheat on

the CRCT. There were thirty principals and 140 teachers all together who were caught cheating.

Of the 178 educators involved in the investigation, only 80 actually confessed. (AJC). Why

these teachers cheated is mystery to some, but for the teachers who were involved there were

many different aspects they had to look at while the cheating was going on. (ATPS). Some

teachers were threatened that if they did not cheat or change their scores, they would be fired. In

this economy, it is hard for people to find jobs even if they have a good education. Teachers

would hold “cheating parties,” which involved groups of teachers meeting up at one house and

throwing parties while they changed answers on the test. What some teachers did not realize is

that being fired for not changing the answers is actually not as bad as actually changing the

answers. Educators who were involved in this scandal face many different obstacles in the future.

They will have difficulty locating future employment in their field and their current certifications

and background education will serve no benefit. (AJC). It is obvious that the educators involved

in this scandal did not contemplate the possible repercussions of their actions.

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This investigation took months, but when investigators were finally finished they

published a 413 page report about it. This report is available for everyone to see over the

internet. It also has three volumes to it, each one describing in detail everything that happened

with the investigation. Volume one has 24 sections to it. (AJC). This volume it states that Atlanta

Public Schools superintendent, Beverly Hall, as well as her staff, should have known or did

know about the cheating and other offenses going on right underneath their noses. Hall stepped

down in June and still says she had nothing to do with the cheating, but apologized for any

measures she failed to take. Also all awards or praise the Atlanta Public School System received

for the good grades made on the tests will now be taken away or just not count. (AJC). Also in

volume one, fifteen different elementary and middle schools are listed. With each school that is

listed, the report gives statistics and summaries about the cheating that went on. For example,

East Lake Elementary School is a school listed; it shows the statistics from 2009 and 2010 about

how many erasure marks were made on the CRCT in each class. Also given in the report is a list

of names and classrooms that were flagged as cheaters on the CRCT. (ATPS). Volume two

consists of more elementary and middle schools that were caught cheating. There are around 35

to 40 schools just in this volume that investigators talk about. Each of these schools is one of the

many that investigators researched and accused of cheating. The last section in this volume has

to do with the percentage of the Atlanta Public Schools that were involved in the cheating

scandal. Volume three is the last volume of the report. This volume consists of twelve sections;

one section answers many of the main questions people asked. The main questions being why

would this cheating occur? The answers vary, but what is certain for most is that there was a

tremendous amount of pressure put on these teachers to meet their targets. Not just the teachers

but the principals as well, were all pressured to meet the targets so that they could get the

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recognition they feel they deserved. For most educators this “target” was the main motivation

for them to change answers. Dr. Hall put most of the pressure on her educators by saying, “if

scores do not improve in three years you will be replaced.” Educators hearing this and knowing

this did whatever they could to keep their jobs. (AJC). Dr. Hall did replace ninety percent of the

principals in the school system. The main message that all new principals put out was to meet

your targets no matter what you have to do, this meant cheating for some teachers. (AJC). One

of the sections in this volume has to do with the test security; they mention what strategies they

used to determine if cheating did go on. Test security looked at the percentage of how many

wrong to correct ones were changed; also they looked at the abnormally high erasure marks that

were on the tests. (AJC). The conclusion to this last and final volume talks about the findings of

the total investigation. Some findings that were determined are that 78.6% of Atlanta Public

Schools were found to have cheated. Out of the 56 Atlanta Public Schools, 67.9% were found to

have direct involvement with all of the cheating that went on at their school. Six principals who

were found guilty pled the Fifth Amendment, which is “no person may be compelled to testify

against himself and that no person may be tried for a second time on a charge for which he has

already been acquitted.” Dr. Hall was also mentioned in the conclusion; it was found that Dr.

Hall was guilty of receiving numerous reports of cheating from a variety of schools, and hid

them or covered them up. To conclude this volume is a paragraph about Dr. Hall and how she

knew what was going on and was not enforcing any laws that should have been enforced so that

cheating would not have occurred.

The educators involved in the cheating scandal received a letter stating they could

either resign or be fired. This letter was sent to all 178 educators involved in the cheating

scandal. After being given this letter, the educators only had a number of days to make their

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decisions. Two days after the letter was sent out only two educators made their decision, and

decided to step down from their position. (AJC). Other educators were fired and stripped of their

titles as principals or teachers. Educators who were forced to change answers or felt forced and

pressured by their superintendent were not as severely punished as educators who changed the

answers by themselves. Educators now have been stripped of everything; their licenses, their

classrooms, and anything that was important. Educators have had to find other ways to earn

money rather than teaching.

The cheating scandal was one of the biggest things to ever happen to the Atlanta

Public School System. The CRCT is a test testing the skills of students and it is given only in

Georgia. The number of schools involved in the cheating scandal was over a third of the schools

in the Atlanta Public School System. Educators changed their lives by making this decision to

change their students’ answers. Children from now on will never be the same; things have

changed and will be changed from now on.