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Jamaican Atlanta schools chief leaves amid cheating probe
AP
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
ATLANTA, USA — Longtime Atlanta schools chief Beverly Hall has been lauded nationally as a top leader for turning around struggling urban districts, but she retires this week amid allegations of widespread cheating and accusations that she ordered a cover-up of test tampering.
It's not quite the ending Hall's supporters imagined for her nearly 12-year career as the superintendent of the 50,000-student district — where nearly three-fourths of students live at or below the poverty line.
The 64-year-old Jamaica native won the national Superintendent of the Year award in 2009 and landed on short lists for US Department of Education jobs. Even her long tenure in Atlanta stands out nationally: few urban school superintendents stay in one district longer than four years.
But now Hall's actions are among those being scrutinized as part of yearlong criminal investigation into the cheating allegations, which stem from a state report showing high numbers of erasures on standardized tests given to Atlanta students in 2009. And the district faces losing accreditation after school board squabbles over the scandal led to the system being put on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
"We feel terrible for Beverly that she's leaving with less than the adulations she ought to be receiving after the great work she has done," said Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, which gave Hall her national award.
"The problem with superintendents is because you're making tough decisions all the time, the list of detractors grows and grows and grows, and they tip the scale and they get you," he said.
Hall declined requests from The Associated Press for an interview. A district spokesman confirmed she has an attorney but did not know the lawyer's name.
District officials have denied the allegations against Hall.
In a video message to schools staff last month, Hall warned that the state investigation launched by former Governor Sonny Perdue last year would likely reveal "alarming" behavior.
"It's become increasingly clear that a segment of our staff chose to violate the trust that was placed in them," Hall said. "There is simply no excuse for unethical behavior and no room in this district for unethical conduct. I am confident that aggressive, swift action will be taken against anyone who believed so little in our students and in our system of support that they turned to dishonesty as the only option."
Hall came to Atlanta in 1999 after spending three years as the state-appointed superintendent of the Newark, New Jersey school district. Before that, she was a top administrator in the New York City school system, the largest in the country.
The no-nonsense leader vowed to turn around the struggling Atlanta district, where barely two out of five students graduated high school in 2000 and scores on nationally administered tests trailed far behind state and national averages.
Now more than 65 percent of students get a diploma, and the district has seen some of the largest jumps in scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress — called "the nation's report card" — among large urban districts.
About 40 percent of eighth-graders passed muster on the reading test in 2002. In 2009, the latest scores available, that number had increased to 63 percent.
That performance has helped Hall win more than one national award, including garnering the top prize for urban education leaders from the Council of the Great City Schools in 2006.
Despite the gains, the district has failed to meet federal benchmarks and has been labeled as "failing" since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted in 2002. The cheating investigation has overshadowed much of the progress made by students.
A February 2010 audit by the state showed an unusually high number of erasures on standardised tests used to meet the federal standards. The report identified 74 schools statewide where there was possible cheating in 2009, and nearly half of those were in Atlanta.
The audit lead to investigations in more than a dozen Georgia districts, but the then-governor ordered an additional investigation into the Atlanta erasures because he said the probe conducted by the district was "woefully inadequate." The state probe is in its final stages, with investigators expected to announce the results early next month.
A former employee has accused Hall of ordering the destruction of documents that detailed a pattern of widespread cheating on standardised tests and telling employees that the district has a right to "sanitise" the investigation, according to a person familiar with the probe who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss it. The employee is seeking a financial settlement after she resigned over accusations she had made lewd comments to male employees.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Jama...e#ixzz1Qj5zGf7N
AP
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
ATLANTA, USA — Longtime Atlanta schools chief Beverly Hall has been lauded nationally as a top leader for turning around struggling urban districts, but she retires this week amid allegations of widespread cheating and accusations that she ordered a cover-up of test tampering.
It's not quite the ending Hall's supporters imagined for her nearly 12-year career as the superintendent of the 50,000-student district — where nearly three-fourths of students live at or below the poverty line.
The 64-year-old Jamaica native won the national Superintendent of the Year award in 2009 and landed on short lists for US Department of Education jobs. Even her long tenure in Atlanta stands out nationally: few urban school superintendents stay in one district longer than four years.
But now Hall's actions are among those being scrutinized as part of yearlong criminal investigation into the cheating allegations, which stem from a state report showing high numbers of erasures on standardized tests given to Atlanta students in 2009. And the district faces losing accreditation after school board squabbles over the scandal led to the system being put on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
"We feel terrible for Beverly that she's leaving with less than the adulations she ought to be receiving after the great work she has done," said Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, which gave Hall her national award.
"The problem with superintendents is because you're making tough decisions all the time, the list of detractors grows and grows and grows, and they tip the scale and they get you," he said.
Hall declined requests from The Associated Press for an interview. A district spokesman confirmed she has an attorney but did not know the lawyer's name.
District officials have denied the allegations against Hall.
In a video message to schools staff last month, Hall warned that the state investigation launched by former Governor Sonny Perdue last year would likely reveal "alarming" behavior.
"It's become increasingly clear that a segment of our staff chose to violate the trust that was placed in them," Hall said. "There is simply no excuse for unethical behavior and no room in this district for unethical conduct. I am confident that aggressive, swift action will be taken against anyone who believed so little in our students and in our system of support that they turned to dishonesty as the only option."
Hall came to Atlanta in 1999 after spending three years as the state-appointed superintendent of the Newark, New Jersey school district. Before that, she was a top administrator in the New York City school system, the largest in the country.
The no-nonsense leader vowed to turn around the struggling Atlanta district, where barely two out of five students graduated high school in 2000 and scores on nationally administered tests trailed far behind state and national averages.
Now more than 65 percent of students get a diploma, and the district has seen some of the largest jumps in scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress — called "the nation's report card" — among large urban districts.
About 40 percent of eighth-graders passed muster on the reading test in 2002. In 2009, the latest scores available, that number had increased to 63 percent.
That performance has helped Hall win more than one national award, including garnering the top prize for urban education leaders from the Council of the Great City Schools in 2006.
Despite the gains, the district has failed to meet federal benchmarks and has been labeled as "failing" since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted in 2002. The cheating investigation has overshadowed much of the progress made by students.
A February 2010 audit by the state showed an unusually high number of erasures on standardised tests used to meet the federal standards. The report identified 74 schools statewide where there was possible cheating in 2009, and nearly half of those were in Atlanta.
The audit lead to investigations in more than a dozen Georgia districts, but the then-governor ordered an additional investigation into the Atlanta erasures because he said the probe conducted by the district was "woefully inadequate." The state probe is in its final stages, with investigators expected to announce the results early next month.
A former employee has accused Hall of ordering the destruction of documents that detailed a pattern of widespread cheating on standardised tests and telling employees that the district has a right to "sanitise" the investigation, according to a person familiar with the probe who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss it. The employee is seeking a financial settlement after she resigned over accusations she had made lewd comments to male employees.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Jama...e#ixzz1Qj5zGf7N
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