Dive Brief:
- On Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter ruled that Shani Robinson, a former elementary school teacher who participated in the Atlanta cheating scandal, would spend a year in prison.
- In April, Robinson, along with 10 other former educators, was found guilty of conspiring to falsify students’ test scores; eight, including Robinson, will spend time in jail.
- Robinson, the mother of an infant, will not be required to serve out her sentence immediately, and she’ll also spend four years on probation.
Dive Insight:
While other cheating scandals in major cities have since emerged, the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal has proved a catalyzing event for opponents of high-stakes testing. While some educators and administrators have condemned the actions of the dozens of educators involved in the Atlanta conspiracy, many have also pointed out the extreme pressure schools were under to perform — or face severe consequences.
"With educators' livelihood and reputations at stake, the pressure to raise test scores from students who were already under great stress became overwhelming,” Fordham University's Mark Naison wrote after the 11 educators were found guilty. “It is understandable to see how some educators, in this immoral and untenable position, chose to manipulate test scores rather than put their students under even greater stress.”