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Subscribe to RSSA central figure in the Atlanta Public Schools’ test-cheating scandal has resigned, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Wednesday.
According to the newspaper, investigators said Christopher Waller, former principal at Parks Middle School, played a key role in the cheating over four years at the school.
State officials launched investigations into allegations of widespread test-cheating in Atlanta Public Schools after the Journal-Constitution’s reports in 2008 and 2009 called to question gains in the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.
Officials with the school system issued an intent-to-fire letter last week, according to the Journal-Constitution.
Waller cited personal reasons for his departure, the Journal-Constitution reported.
“I've enjoyed being a principal in Atlanta Public Schools, working with students, parents, my fellow teachers and administrators," Waller said in a statement, the Journal-Constitution reported. "I appreciate the guidance and kindness offered [to] me during my time with the system."
Rock Center's Harry Smith investigates the largest cheating scandal to ever hit America's public schools. Atlanta Public Schools, once praised for soaring test scores, has come under fire after a 10-month investigation revealed widespread cheating by teachers on standardized testing. Dr. Beverly Hall, the former superintendent of Atlanta's public schools, speaks in her first national television interview.
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Good riddance
So umm...this is the whole story??? 2 small paragraphs? What scandal? Who all was involved? Why was only the principal nailed? Motivation? What grounds were established to blame the principal? Why was this particular school nailed?
What really really (for lack of words that could be censored) 'bad' reporting. Oh excuse me if one doesn't watch the video...could someone please take the effort to actually "report"?
justoneguy, I'd encourage you to actually read the story -- you'll notice that a link to the original full article is contained in the first sentence.
oops, my bad krull...forgot that MSNBC is simply a 'link' news source.
Mean while, back at the teachers picketing for higher wages, lower class size, and less work hours, someone said "It is for the children".
i is a great job being principal i tried 32 years and never got there, but the state test runs the schools kids dont care dont try heads roll the principals head. and sad part nothing great is accomplished by these tests. and the truth grades drop the school board looses control of the tax dollars. no more power of spending that cash. remember in the u s it is your money or your life. here cash wins
I think I see why after 32 years of trying, you were never a principal. O_o
Strandedgrampa: HUH? Thank goodness you never got to be a principal. I hope you never even got to be a teacher.
strandedgrampa, I'm pretty sure you were never anywhere close to becoming the Principal of a school.
Good God, grampa, you can't express your idea in English. How could you even try to become a principal? If you tried, that implies you taught....I feel sorry for your students.
If that is the best you can do constucting a post, I hope you weren't a teacher. It completely made no sense to me.
Your English language skills, grammar and punctuation are lacking. THAT is why you never became principal of a school.
Gezzzzz, strandedgrampa...
After reading [or at least attempting to get some sense out of] your sentence structure, I can now fully understand why, after 32 yrs, you still couldn't make the grade. Slow learner, perhaps???
oops...you beat me to it. Didn't see your post before I posted. :p
Natives had public schools for 100s of years before the euro tribes showed up and it's never been a lesson lost to a Native person to know that this "culture" is void, empty and shameful even in their own confessions, yet, nothing changes except the dates on the calendars to show progress and leadership.
A close friend who had been a teacher for many years and became a "guidance principal" in his final years as a contract specialist for public schools in Canada and USA said it simply:
- the principal "sets the tone" for the whole school
- bad principals, bad schools (or school environment).
It cannot be THAT hard to understand :-)
C_P
So true. I am working as an aide in a school now...the principal is simply terrible. She lets the kids behave atrociously. Isn't part of education teaching kids how to control themselves and behave??
I believe we will simply see more of this as states and districts rely more on some standardized test to judge student performance and teacher competence. The temptation to cheat has already proven to be too great in several instances, and we are only at the beginning.
Unfortunately, it is not a simple matter to judge what a child has learned; it never has been a simple matter. Yet, we seem to be a society that always wants everything boiled down to a simple number score; far too much trouble for most to try to assess data. Just give as a number from one to one hundred, and we'll base everything on that.
Naturally, this particular story will also be held up as proof positive that we need to privatize public schools to make everything all better. By people who stand to profit from privatizing public schools, of course.
We had the same problem here in the nations capital. It's a good thing Oblamo issued his executive order "every kid left behind".
Yes, clearly this is all an Obama issue.
Good grief, you people will really turn anything into an anti-Obama rant, won't you?
The Atlanta school system made the national news but we are the other school system in GA that was charged with the same thing. The GBI investigated the whole system & interviewed them. They ended up charging 50 individuals in the school system in the report to the governor. The schoolboard hasn't done anything yet with the report. They put them in a classroom where they don't do anything but draw their pay (except the ones that retired or resigned). I couldn't believe they let 3 or 4 retire with full benefits. The D.A. & schoolboard has until May 15 to charge them or their contract will be automatically extended (tenure) & then they can't be charged. It's really bad down here, one of the schoolboard members even signed up their children for the free lunch program even though her salary was close to $100,000 (not from the schoolboard). She & her husband were arrested, yet she is still on the schoolboard. They spent $150,000 dollars on a search for a replacement for the superintendent of schools who retired a couple years ago. They chose the 34th candidate out of all the applicants,he was a coworker from a nonprofit organization of the same women who was indicted for the school lunch B.S. It was all voted along racial lines (we are supposedly 70% black). The state is probably going to take the school system over it looks like. We are already over $9 million in the hole next year, we have to pay all the money back for improvement in the school system from them cheating. I'll get off my soapbox but it gripes me that you hear about Atanta on the national news, but never about the small counties that are even worse.
Doesn't read like you're willing to tell WHERE you're located either. Nevermind, I'll get it myself.