Investigation into APS cheating finds unethical behavior across every level | ajc.com

Investigation into APS cheating finds unethical behavior across every level | ajc.com

...For teachers, a culture of fear ensured the deception would continue.“APS is run like the mob,” one teacher told investigators, saying she cheated because she feared retaliation if she didn’t.The voluminous report names 178 educators, including 38 principals, as participants in cheating. More than 80 confessed. The investigators said they confirmed cheating in 44 of 56 schools they examined.The investigators conducted more than 2,100 interviews and examined more than 800,000 documents in what is likely the most wide-ranging investigation into test-cheating in a public school district ever conducted in United States history.The findings fly in the face of years of denials from Atlanta administrators. The investigators re-examined the state’s erasure analysis — which they said proved to be valid and reliable — and sought to lay to rest district leaders’ numerous excuses for the suspicious scores... 

...The special investigators’ report describes years of misconduct that took place as far up the chain of command as the superintendent’s office. The report accuses Hall and her aides of repeatedly tampering with or hiding records that cast an unflattering light on the district.  In one case, Hall’s chief Human Resources officer Millicent Few “illegally ordered” the destruction of early, damning drafts of an outside lawyer’s investigation of test-tampering at Atlanta’s Deerwood Academy, the report said...

 ...The district’s priority became maintaining and promoting Hall’s image as a miracle worker... 

...Her supporters were so concerned the district’s problems would reflect poorly on the Atlanta “brand,” the report said, that they attacked those who asked questions about the district’s purported success... 

...Hall preferred to spend her time networking with philanthropic and business leaders rather than walking the halls of her schools, the investigators found...

 “Hall became a subject of adoration and made herself the focus rather than the children,” the investigators wrote. “Her image became more important than reality.”