CLOSER TO HOMEWhitfield County’s Eastside Elementary School came under scrutiny during reviews of Criterion-Referenced Competency Test results when figures showed the number of wrong-to-right answer changes exceeded the overall state average of 4 percent. Schools were ranked in one of four categories of concern – clear, minimal, moderate and serious – and more than 190 Georgia schools were flagged. Eastside’s wrong-to-right changes edged into the investigation-triggering “moderate” category by less than one percent. Whitfield officials had to conduct an internal investigation that was submitted to the state and adhere to certain testing requirements for the CRCTs given last year.Whitfield’s other 17 schools fell into the clear category.Catoosa County’s Cloud Springs Elementary, Dalton’s Brookwood Elementary and Walker’s Cherokee Ridge Elementary schools also were flagged as of “minimal concerns,” records show.
DORIE TURNER, Associated Press
SHANNON McCAFFREY, Associated Press
ATLANTA – Former Atlanta schools Superintendent Beverly Hall knew about cheating allegations on standardized tests but either ignored them or tried to hide them, according to a state investigation made public Tuesday.
An 800-page report released to The Associated Press by Gov. Nathan Deal’s office through an open records request shows several educators reported cheating in their schools. But the report says Hall and other administrators ignored those reports and sometimes retaliated against the whistleblowers.