Posted on 03/18/2015 2:37:14 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
ATLANTA — Closing arguments started Monday in the trial of a dozen former Atlanta Public Schools educators accused of participating in a test cheating conspiracy that drew nationwide attention.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that one minor charge was dropped against former Benteen Elementary School testing coordinator Theresia Copeland and former regional director Sharon Davis Williams before jurors entered the courtroom Monday. Copeland and Williams are still charged with racketeering.
A grand jury indicted 35 educators in March 2013, and many have already reached plea agreements with prosecutors. The educators have said they faced pressure from supervisors — including former Superintendent Beverly Hall — to inflate students' scores.
Hall was supposed to be tried along with the others, but her lawyers successfully argued she was too sick to help her own defense. She died two weeks ago from complications linked to breast cancer.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The paper, which I don't take, and it's sick Evening Edge (which they litter my driveway with) is only good for Kitty litter under-liner.
They supported Al Gore's concession retraction giving us the Florida hanging chad debacle.
IMHO: That Paper, like all Liberal/Progressive spewing papers are not worth the paper they are printed on.
From another article I recall teachers, administrators getting big bonuses for exceeding the test score goals.
Recall that Lois Lerner’s IRS, and various VA officials also got big bonuses for their fraud and crimes.
In America the little people go prison, high political crimes and felonies are rewarded with lucrative pensions.
I hope these prosecutions spread to other districts; public school “teachers” have been hoodwinking parents for years (and making a ton of money in the process).
Though I agree that the teachers in the Atlanta City school district that cheated should be prosecuted and banned from teaching forever, Your blanket statement about all public school teachers being dishonest and making a "TON" of money is so wrong and should not be allowed to stand.
This cheating took place in the Atlanta city school district. There are multiple other school districts in the metro-Atlanta area who were NOT involved..... Bartow County Schools, Cherokee County Schools, City of Marietta Schools, Cobb County Schools, Dekalb County Schools, Douglas County Schools, Forsyth County Schools, Fulton County Schools ,Gwinnett County Schools. NONE of the these were accused of being involved.
As for your statement that teachers are "making a ton of money"..... well that is just ludicrous. The pay scale median for Georgia teachers is $54K. That is NOT a ton of money. It is not that far above poverty level for some families. At best it is a meager living.
If we paid our teachers a decent living than perhaps we could have better qualified teachers.
It is almost impossible to catch individual students cheating. But catching teachers that might be cheating, not all that hard. And some of it is almost laughable...
$54k plus almost 3 months off for summer and winter break.
Don’t forget the chance of being fired is almost non-existent, let alone the life-time pensions the taxpayers fork over.
Does anyone FORCE these people to become ‘teachers’?? No? Then I have no sympathy for the POOR poor-teachers at ‘only’ $54K
The “low pay for teachers” myth was put to rest years ago when the Asbury Park Press published all of our teachers’ salaries (as public information); it catapulted Chris Christie into the governor’s mansion where he continues to spare taxpayers from the parasitic demands of their unions. When NJ taxpayers realized kindergarten teachers (in their mid-40s) could take home $80K+ (for 180 part-time days of work for a grade that isn’t even required), it was all over. Now when teachers get 4-5% raises (while those of us paying them are forced to make do with less), our property tax caps mean teachers lose jobs (and we can stay in our homes).
$54K for a part-time job is a LOT of money in Georgia; it is a lot of money anywhere. If we paid them more maybe they could work full-time like most people receiving such lucrative pay and benefits (and like most of their employers - the taxpayers). If they just have a list of excuses as to why they can’t teach, let us take them at their word and simply replace them with security guards for 6 hours per day (again, 180 days per year).
The Atlanta scandal is just the tip of the iceberg, and I believe there were financial incentives for those “educators” to lie (which crossed the line from slap-on-the-wrist misconduct to crime). I want them to investigate the diploma mills where fake advanced degrees are sold to “teachers” to drive up their pay; regardless of who/what they teach, they add thousands upon thousands per year to their paychecks by receiving scraps of paper without doing any coursework or seeing the inside of a classroom.
When “educated” public school teachers ask me if Japan is an island, or if Jewish people “speak Jewish”, or I watch them add two fractions by adding the numerators across the top and the denominators across the bottom, then you see who is teaching our children. They are from the bottom of their college classes, and it shows; no other job would allow such mediocre qualifications or accept such dismal results.
The standardized testing usually exposes the students who don’t have performance that matches their grades; while it isn’t perfect it at least measures something. In my area grades are so inflated - parents have no idea how uneducated their A students really are...
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