In-depth coverage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution discovered and reported the test cheating in 2008 and has followed the investigations and trial from beginning to end. Read more at myajc.com and at AJC.com.
Throughout the Atlanta Public Schools cheating trial, prosecutors and even the judge asserted a claim that no one could prove: that thousands of children were harmed.
Now, a study from Georgia State University has quantified the toll, with an estimate that 7,064 students had their test answer sheets manipulated.
Perhaps more importantly, the study by Tim R. Sass and two doctoral students attempts to calculate why it matters. On average, the victims of cheating lost between a quarter and a half year's worth of learning in reading and English language arts, the report, The Long-Run Effects of Teacher Cheating on Student Outcomes, concludes. The victims fell behind peers who in some cases were in the same schools and even the same classrooms but whose tests did not show indications of tampering.
“The students have kind of gotten overlooked and it’s gratifying that they are finally becoming the focus,” said Sass, who undertook the research at no charge last fall. He said he approached new Superintendent Meria Carstarphen and secured her cooperation after reading a comment from her in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about wanting to focus on the victims. “As far as I know, this is the first study into the impact of cheating on children,” he added.
The district gave Sass and his colleagues, Jarod Apperson and Carycruz Bueno, access to student information (the identities were censored to protect privacy), so they could track and compare the academic performance of cheated and non-cheated groups. Sass said performance jumps around from 2010 after the cheating was documented to 2014 when the data were gathered— up one year and down the next — suggesting that remediation has had no overwhelming effect.
Until now, Atlanta has offered a variety of tutoring and other help to all students falling behind, not just those identified as cheating victims. The administration under Carstarphen’s predecessor, Erroll Davis, said the victims could not be identified and that tutoring was being given to approximately 5,400 students.
But the school district’s new chief accountability officer, Bill Caritj, said Carstarphen will be identifying victims, assembling dossiers on them and channeling them into different or new programs to ensure that they graduate prepared for what lies ahead.
“There’s a point where we’re going to have to look at going above and beyond what we currently offer,” Caritj said, adding that it will take at least a month to identify the students and begin plotting a course for them.
The job will be a little easier due to the passage of time. Of those determined to have been cheated, only 3,728 — a little over half — were still enrolled in the fall. It’s unclear whether the rest graduated, aged out, dropped out or transferred to other school districts, though it’s probably a mix of all those possibilities. It’s unclear what, if anything, APS can do for those former students.
“That’s going to be a challenge,” Caritj said, adding that the district’s focus is on the students who remain. The goal, he said, is to have “targeted interventions” for each of these remaining cheating victims beginning in the fall.
