Cheating Scandal in Atlanta Public Schools

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AGDee

But if *real* scores were used, wouldn't they have faced losing most of their federal funding due to NCLB? Basing funding on test scores is going to lead to things like this. I'm not justifying their behavior, just noting that people will do what they need to do to get funding if desperate.

Nope. Only non-compliance results in loss of funds*. (Like you didn't give the tests, submit reports, that kind of thing, I think.) Funding is based on testing in the sense that you have to participate to get money, but not very tightly based on the results.

I believe the worst case for failing schools is restructuring in which the majority of staff are replaced at the school, but what's apparently really happened in most of the cases that have gone that far in other states is that the majority of staff will be moved within the district, rather than completely terminated. AND other corrective action counts as restructuring, like extending the day, etc, as I understand it. The district really didn't face that kind of pressure.

And there are other districts that have similar demographics in Georgia who apparently didn't feel the need to cheat, so I don't think there's any reason to give them a "well-their-backs-were-to-the-wall" pass on a systemic level. At the individual level, it's a little more complicated for me because I think it would be very hard to resist that level of direct pressure from your principal and colleagues, and other elementary jobs were pretty hard to find during this time period, for the most part.

But even then, you don't seen cheating in 100% of APS classrooms, so some people did act ethically in spite of the pressure.

This is district created pressure that was apparently resistible for some.

ETA: http://www.georgia-criminal-lawyers....egin_frau.html

Apparently, they were seeking additional federal funds for being "Distinguished" schools. And they could have lost this additional funding if they didn't score as well. But NCLB doesn't result in loss of your basic federal funding unless you opt out.

EATA: http://old.sccpss.com/District/Acade...+and+Myths.htm

This is kind of nice overview and explains that regular federal funding isn't tied to results.

[UGAalum94]

APS is one of the higher paid Metro areas districts, I'm pretty sure. Their salary information is down right now, so I can't check.

You guys doing the North Fulton/ South Fulton comparison are looking at a whole different district, but it's an interesting comparison with APS at the South Fulton level.
The demographics are comparable, but there's no systemic South Fulton cheating scandal. South Fulton schools aren't necessarily known for their great administration and some are really hard to staff, and yet, nothing like an APS response to testing pressure.

It's one thing to talk about supporting a struggling district, but if the district has repeated demonstrated that it mismanaged money and already has a surplus of county level administrators and non-classroom positions, what are you really going to do? What form does the support take?

And something else to consider, especially as data analysis seems to show a lot of the seemingly good urban results failing apart in terms of suspicious test gains, is that it's really hard to find people who have demonstrated success in schools like APS and South Fulton. Someone who can be a great principal with the situation at Chattahoochee doesn't necessarily have the skill set necessarily to make it happen at Tri-Cities. Just because a teacher can teach the heck out of kids at Walton doesn't mean he or she can motivate the kids at Crim. Even if you raised salaries to the point that people applied, a lot of suburban folks who look good on paper because they've been at schools with a lot of academic parental involvement, are simply not going to be able to get the job done without it.

I'm certainly not saying that we quit trying, but saying districts shouldn't be left to struggle and actually figuring out what to do are wildly different things. Most of the things people think will work have been tried in various forms.