Cheating, Standardized Tests | featured news

Thirty-five former school officials indicted in a major test cheating scandal have until Tuesday to surrender in the US state of Georgia. The accused in the city of Atlanta face counts of racketeering, making false statements and conspiring to improve test scores to win cash bonuses.

Teachers helped students correct mistakes on standardized tests, prepared them with actual test questions or left instructional posters displayed in the classroom during testing, according to school district reports.

Educators say John Allen asked Crescendo principals to show teachers the state standardized test. L.A. Unified was going to suspend him, but the board voted to fire him and close the campuses. The meeting at Crescendo Preparatory South was progressing as usual when the acting principal dropped a bombshell: She had been given copies of the upcoming standardized tests.

The exams will require students to upload photos and provide their gender when they sign up for the tests, the Nassau County district attorney said Tuesday.

An investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows that hundreds of school systems nationwide exhibit suspicious test scores pointing to the possibility of cheating.

The schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, said he did not believe the increase meant that more misconduct was taking place.

Teachers spent nights huddled in a back room, erasing wrong answers on students' test sheets and filling in the correct bubbles. At another school, struggling students were seated next to higher-performing classmates so they could copy answers....

Atlanta's schools will flag suspicious test scores and achieve a culture of integrity in the wake of a cheating scandal that could lead to criminal charges, officials said Thursday.