Schools, School Achievement Tests | featured news

For 15 years, teachers in three Southern states paid Clarence Mumford Sr. — himself a longtime educator — to send someone else to take the tests in their place, authorities said.

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.

Schools are responding to concerns that high-stakes testing and competition for college have fueled a grind that does little to raise achievement.

Between 2004 and last year, scores for young minority students increased on a federal test, but so did those of white students.