The thirty-five Atlanta Public Schools educators and administrators involved in the largest standardized test cheating scandal in the nation’s history have started turning themselves in, the rest of those indicted have until today to surrender to Fulton County Jail.

The scandal is the most extensive in U.S. history and involves 178 teachers and principals — including 82 who confessed to cheating— and close to 50 schools in the 52,000-student district from 2005-2009, according to the Atlanta Black Star

The defendants face charges of racketeering, making false statements, corruption, retaliating against whistle blowers and conspiring to improve test scores to win millions in scholarship money.

Tameka Goodson, a school improvement specialist at Kennedy Middle School, was the first to turn herself in. Goodson is accused of working with her school’s principal and secretary to change students’ wrong answers on standardized tests, CNN reported. 

"This is the closest she's ever been to a jail in her life," Goodson's attorney, Raymond Lail, told CNN affiliate WXIA. Lail said Goodson, an educator for about 20 years, is "absolutely not guilty of these charges."

The most recent updates from NPR and WBSTV report that four other educators have followed in her footsteps. They include an assistant principal charged with racketeering and false statements, and two testing coordinators accused of asking two teachers to participate in falsifying test answer sheets and false statements.

The rest of the defendants include senior administrators, principals, a former superintendent, assistant principals, teachers, testing co-ordinators, a school secretary and a school improvement specialist, said BBC.

See the most updated list at NPR

The five educators are being held on extremely high bail bonds ranging from $200,000 to $1 million. Lawyers for some of the 35 defendants are trying to get their clients’ bonds lowered, claiming the charges and bonds are excessive and “over kill,” Fox News Atlanta reported.

The Star Tribune reported that lawyers say the charges amount to "cruel and unusual punishment."

A dozen clergy members described the indictments against the educators in the APS scandal as outrageous and are a “slap in the face to educators charged in the case.”

From a Fox News 5 interview with Fulton County Reverend Timothy McDaniel:

"It is not criminal. Yes, there was misconduct! Yes, there was wrongdoing! But let's not try to kill a gnat in with a sledgehammer. There could be restitution. For some of these other teachers, I mean there are other ways they could be suspended for two or three years. They could have their license revoked,” said McDaniel.

Former Atlanta School Superintendent Beverly Hall is among those named in the grand jury’s indictment and has yet to turn herself in.

In 2009, Hall was named superintendent of the year by the American Association of School Administrators for her leadership in turning Atlanta into a model of urban school reform, the same year the bulk of the supposed cheating took place.

During her reign, scholarship money delivered to Atlanta students jumped to $129 million from $9 million. Graduation rates, while still not stellar, rose to 66 percent, from 39 percent. Seventy-seven schools were either built or renovated, at a cost of about $1 billion, according to the New York Times.

According to prosecutors, Ms. Hall was given a $78,000 bones from the public school system for her impressive work in turning around Atlanta’s urban, struggling school system.

Hall’s bail was set at $7.5 million bond for her and she could face up to 45 years in prison. The former superintendent has denied any role in the cheating scandal.

Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said that the gravity of the charges alone are ruinous to the reputations of all those involved and “will raise questions regarding the legitimacy of the performance of other school systems that have experienced significant student achievement gains.”

“Educators have been swift to punish students when they have been caught cheating, and we should be equally swift in penalizing adults convicted of perpetrating crimes,” Domench said in a statement.

All those identified by the grand jury had to surrender Tuesday, or face arrest in their homes or workplaces.

“Educators have been swift to punish students when they have been caught cheating, and we should be equally swift in penalizing adults convicted of perpetrating crimes,” said Domenech

 

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