Cheating may force APS to pay back nearly $1 million

By Kristina Torres and Nancy Badertscher

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta Public Schools could be forced to pay back more than in $950,000 in federal money earned with falsified test scores, a state official said Wednesday.

Enlarge photo

Bob Andres, bandres@ajc.com Staff members welcome students as they arrived for the first day of school at Boyd Elementary -- one of two year-round elementary schools in Atlanta that opened Wednesday with new principals appointed as the fallout from an ongoing cheating scandal continues.

Related

• Photos: Schools open

Look back at APS scandal »

• APS to teachers in scandal: Resign or be fired
• APS board member wants Hall to pay back bonuses
• APS educators seek legal advice
• APS may forfeit $1M
• Hall response: 'I apologize'
• Atlanta school kids angered
• APS HR chief quits
• Four APS superintendents removed
• Ex-APS official put on leave
• ‘I will do it,’ vows APS interim chief
• Atlanta’s testing scandal adds fuel to U.S. debate
• Hall could lose national award
• Unethical behavior all around
• Report: Vol. 1 | Vol. 2 | Vol. 3
• Map: Schools flagged

More Atlanta/Fulton news »

• Motorcycle crashes; cops can't find driver
• High temperatures coming back
• Several detained after shooting
• ATL parking among cheapest in U.S.
• Atlanta/South Fulton
• North Fulton

All 44 schools where state investigators suspect cheating occurred on the 2009 CRCT were recognized as Title I Distinguished Schools, meaning they made adequate yearly progress three years in a row, said Matt Cardoza, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education.

Most of the schools received awards ranging from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, state data shows.

Two schools -- D.H. Stanton and Fain elementary schools -- each were awarded $99,628 from 2005 to 2009, state records show.

If the schools are found to have made AYP due to CRCT cheating, refunds probably will be sought, Cardoza said.

He didn't say when the state will make that decision.

CRCT scores are the academic measure for AYP determinations. AYP is a key benchmark under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The amount each Distinguished School received was determined by the school's number of low-income students, the number of schools that qualified statewide and the total money the federal government provided for the program.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in September that federal authorities were investigating whether APS committed fraud because it has accepted the grants with ill-gotten test gains on the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests. CRCT scores help determine whether schools make "adequate yearly progress," a key benchmark under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

No findings have been announced from that probe. This is the first time the amount of money involved is known.

The APS's annual budget is $578 million. It's not clear how the system would repay the money.

A 10-month state investigation produced evidence of widespread cheating in Atlanta schools, according to a report released last week. It said former Superintendent Beverly Hall ignored a culture of cheating, cover-ups and obstruction that blossomed during her 12-year tenure as she stressed annual academic targets by whatever means necessary.

More than 800 pages in length, it named 178 educators, including 38 principals, as participants in cheating, including erasing and correcting mistakes on students' answer sheets. It concentrated on, but was not limited to, state tests given in 2009.

More than 80 APS employees confessed. The investigators said they confirmed cheating in 44 of 56 schools they examined. There are 104 schools in APS.

Hall, who left the system June 30, accepted responsibility and apologized in a statement to the AJC last week, though she has repeatedly denied she knew of or encouraged cheating.

In 2009, the state made three schools, including Deerwood Academy in Atlanta, relinquish their 2008 Distinguished School money after the state found strong evidence of cheating on standardized tests at those schools. Deerwood had won $842.

Contributing: Jaime Sarrio

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

• APS opened three year-round elementary schools Wednesday for classes with no reported problems, a system spokesman said. Two of the three schools, Boyd and Hutchinson, received new principals Monday and Tuesday after the schools were named in a state investigative report made public last week. The report found widespread cheating in Atlanta schools, implicating 178 employees in 44 of 56 schools investigated. Parents, however, did not seem fazed. "No worries at all," said APS parent Nikeshia Howard, who drove 4-year-old son Byron to Boyd Elementary for his first day of kindergarten. "All the information we needed or wanted to know is online. It's going to be a great year."
• Former APS teacher Regina Farrell told Channel 2 Action News Wednesday that one of four principals named as a new area superintendent ignored her concerns about testing irregularities as early as 2009. Davis promoted Danielle Battle, former principal of King Middle School, on Monday. Battle was not named in the report, nor was King Middle.
• Board member Courtney English will host a town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at Douglass High School, 225 Hamilton E. Holmes Dr.