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Several Educators Now Suspended From Teaching in Atlanta Public School Classrooms

Georgia is finally making headway in getting those teachers involved in the cheating scandal out of the classrooms. While the process may still be a long and drawn out one, the punishment for the crimes are being realized at this moment.

Read report from AJC.com below:

Sixty-seven educators accused of cheating in Atlanta Public Schools lost their certification to work in a classroom Thursday, the most sweeping move yet to punish them.

The Georgia Professional Standards Commission, which certifies and polices educators, handed down two-year suspensions to 47 teachers. One teacher was given a one-year suspension, and 19 educators in leadership positions, such as principals and testing coordinators, were recommended for revocation. Educators must be certified to work in Georgia schools, and actions against a teaching license follows an educator from state to state.

However, they will not automatically be fired.

The state’s landmark investigation into test cheating implicated 180 APS educators, some of whom confessed to changing wrong answers to right on Georgia’s standardized test that measures student achievement. In addition to punishment handed down by the PSC, those involved face possible criminal charges. APS is taking steps to fire educators accused of cheating.

But firing those educators has proven to be a long and costly legal process.

Terminating an educator is a separate process that allows the educator to appeal. For that reason, about 95 teachers named in the 400-plus page cheating investigation released in July are still employed by Atlanta Public Schools.

Again, this is good news and we pray that these educators and others take this serious enough to know that their jobs had so much more to do with educating the child and not the high testing scores, that proved fake and fraudulent at the expense of the child and ATL’s reputation.

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