As an Atlanta native, I have been following the indictments thisspring in the Atlanta public schools cheating case, which USAToday and CNN callthe nation’s largest school cheating scandal. Thirty-five educators in theAtlanta Public Schools system (APS), including former school superintendentBeverly Hall, were indicted in March for participating in a conspiracy to cheaton standardized tests such as the Criterion Referenced Competency Test, whichwere used as benchmarks showing student proficiency. Showing progress towardsstudent proficiency in reading and math are required by the No Child LeftBehind Act. The APS cheating conspiracy was motivated, state investigators found,by federal incentives that the educators would receive, including cash, when Atlanta’sstudents met the proficiency standards mandated under the No Child law. The APS officials and teachers are accused ofcheating by giving students essay test questions in advance, assisting studentsduring tests, and having grade-changingparties to erase and make students’ wrong test answers correct. Stateinvestigators have found that teachers in 44of the 56 Atlanta schools examined had done some form of cheating onfederal tests, according to a 300-page investigative report given toGeorgia Governor Nathan Deal in 2011.
Fulton County DistrictAttorney Paul Howard Jr. has charged the educators under Georgia’s RacketeerInfluenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) statute, O.C.G.A. §16-14-4(c). The educators are charged under the Georgia RICO section that makes it unlawful to “conspire or endeavor to participate in anenterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity while being employed by,or associated with, the enterprise”). Like the federal statute it wasmodeled on, Georgia RICO was intended to prosecute crime syndicates, butprosecutors gradually began using RICO for public corruption cases such as theAPS cheating scandal. Georgia’s RICO law differs from the federal racketeeringstatute because Georgia law allows a defendant to be convicted for an“endeavor” to participate in a RICO violation (giving Georgia prosecutors a theoryof liability that the federal statute does not have) and broader definitions of”pattern of racketeering activity” and “enterprise,” MichaelP. Kenny and H. Suzanne Smith notes in their article, A Comprehensive Analysis of Georgia RICO. Both RICOvariations will help prosecutors. But while prosecutors can make the case forthe APS educators’ bad behavior, it may be more of a challenge to prove thatthe defendants were organized, however loosely, toward achieving a common goalto cheat—beyond simply working for the APS and not wanting to lose their jobs. Ina large scandal with many defendants, Howard will have to link the criminalacts with some sort of collective purpose, which usually requires a centralfigure directing the organization, notes RICO expert JeffreyE. Grell in an interview with the Associated Press. Thecentral figure here will be former Superintendent Hall. District Attorney Howard’sjob now is to convince a jury that Hall’s alleged acts of whistleblowerretaliation, firings, and document shredding shows her control and direction ofthe cheating scheme.
Also, NPR reports that suspicions have resurfaced about theremarkable turn-around of Washington, D.C.’s schools test scores under formerschools chancellor Michelle Rhee. The suspicions center around allegations thatunusual patterns of erasures and changed answers on student standardized tests.See Long-LostMemo Stirs Allegation Of Cheating In D.C. Schools.
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