Teacher World

I apologize, but I feel compelled to postpone my Teach for America follow-up blog until tomorrow after hearing some late-breaking news today that I felt was so despicable that it needed to be addressed. It is the story of a former Philadelphia superintendent, Arlene C. Ackerman.

Ackerman is a Harvard graduate who, before being hired as Philadelphia’s school superintendent, had worked in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. schools. In her three year tenure in Philadelphia, Ackerman came under fire in spite of the fact that test scores in the district improved under her guidance and the graduation rate increased, improvements she was hired to bring about.

But this past summer, allegations surfaced suggesting that Ackerman both encouraged and took part in teacher-assisted cheating on the district’s standardized tests. If these allegations are true, she is guilty of knowingly and purposefully deceiving the community into thinking that progress was being made when that progress was really being fabricated and coerced.

Several unnamed teachers have admitted to cheating on these tests due to bullying and pressure from their administrators. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?) But the official investigation into Philadelphia’s 2009 testing procedures has not been conclusive. This scandal naturally reflected poorly on Ackerman.

Apparently, she also bumped heads with Mayor Michael Nutter when he reneged on a no-new-taxes pledge in order to raise funds for a jeopardized kindergarten program, after she went ahead and found the needed funds without reporting to him immediately. And she also was reported to have issues with other community members and the district’s teachers union.

On August 19, an embattled Ackerman told hundreds of principals from her district who were gathered for a professional-development meeting, “Sentence me. I dare you. Or set me free. But I admit to you today that I am guilty. Guilty of just being me. Once I understood that being guilty of standing up for children was a good thing, I stood just a little taller, held my head a little higher, and I felt liberated, liberated knowing that whatever happens to me, I have touched the future of thousands of young people in Philadelphia, and for the better.”

Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? But at the same time, rumors were circulating that high-ranking business leaders in the community were receiving calls asking them to donate money to a charitable education organization that would provide money to help buy out Ackerman’s contract. These donors backed out after critics criticized the deal’s lack of transparency.

On August 22, it was announced by Mayor Michael Nutter that Arlene Ackerman would be leaving the district. But she would be leaving it with a sizable severance check. Ackerman’s contract entitled her to more than $1.5 million, but in an effort to limit how much public money was spent to buy her out, she would walk away with $905,000, at the taxpayers’ expense!

Now, that is a ridiculous amount of money, I think we would all agree. So this woman, who was making a handsome $365,000 a year, walked away from a job which she apparently at the very least mismanaged, and at the very worst placed in the middle of a cheating scandal, with almost $1 million in lovely parting gifts? Does this not sound crazy to you?

Is it not ludicrous that the taxpayers of Philadelphia would still be helping to buy out her contract? To make matters worse, the district had to cut $629 million from its 2011-2012 budget, and has $35 million more to cut.

But wait! Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it was reported today that Ackerman has applied for unemployment!

No way, you say? Oh, yes! A spokesman from the district confirmed yesterday that she applied for jobless benefits and is eligible for $573 a week, the state maximum, based on her former salary.

Ackerman’s attorney claims that she qualifies for unemployment because she is now jobless and she wasn’t fired for cause. And apparently, as part of her separation agreement, the School Reform Commission agreed not to contest any future unemployment claims she might decide to file.

But many aren’t taking the news very well. One of these is Michael Lodise who is the head of the school police officer’s union. Lodise explained that he fought for months to get unemployment compensation for 120 school police officers who were laid off from their jobs in June. He eventually succeeded in getting them compensation.

Of Ackerman’s bid for unemployment, Lodise said, “These people were really hurting, really needed it. And here’s a woman with almost a million dollars, and she wants unemployment besides.  I just don’t understand it.”

I don’t understand it either. Here is a woman who claims to have been standing up for children, yet she has helped rob that district of much-needed money to provide adequate services for the children whose lives she claims to have touched. Oh, she touched them all right; while the district was entrenched in a cheating scandal and she robbed them blind! And now, she plans to pillage the unemployment agency.

It is up to the state employment compensation board to decide whether it will uphold Ackerman’s claim. Please, do the right thing and tell this woman that enough is enough!

low-performing schools, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog Arlene C. Ackerman, cheating scandal, Philadelphia schools, unemployment claims

Recent reports out of Atlanta concerning the teachers and administrators found guilty in our nation’s biggest school cheating scandal ever hit the news yesterday. And while it was the news most of us were probably hoping to hear, it couldn’t have been worse news for those who were involved.

If you recall, it was The Atlanta Journal-Constitution which first drew attention to statistically improbable test scores by students who attend Atlanta Public Schools last year. Its claims led to the state releasing audits of test results after the newspaper published its own analysis. This launched an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation which determined that at least 178 teachers and administrators were involved in this mammoth cheating scandal.

The GBI reported that under a cloud of “fear and intimidation” educators gave answers to students on their state achievement tests, changed the answers on tests, used nonverbal cues to get students to change wrong answers, and so on. Principals in these schools were usually the ones who encouraged and even orchestrated the cheating. Teachers who were not involved and tried to report the cheating faced retaliation and punishment. Some even lost their jobs.

Yesterday, a Georgia state commission voted to revoke the teaching licenses of eight of these teachers and three school administrators, implementing the first round of sanctions in what has been a horrific educational travesty.

The Georgia Professional Standards Commission voted on this, the first batch of cases that stem from the GBI probe which was released in July. This probe revealed that widespread cheating had occurred in almost half of the district’s 100 public schools dating back as far as 2001. By the end of the year, it is expected that the commission will rule on all 180 teachers and administrators who were involved in the cheating scandal.

The eight teachers who lost their licenses can reapply for licensure in two years, if they choose to do so, but the administrators’ revocations are permanent. The ruling can be appealed up through state administrative and the Fulton County Superior Courts in the Atlanta area, and some of these cases may take years to be finally resolved under the appeals process.

Kelly Henson, head of the licensing agency, said, “These are 11 cases we felt like had compelling evidence to give to the commission. Education is the most honorable profession, and part of our job is to protect not only the students, but the integrity of the institution.”

Names of the educators who were sanctioned were not released by the commission, as it was noted that they have 30 days to appeal the commission’s decision.

Educators who have been named by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation could also face criminal charges as investigations continue in Fulton and DeKalb counties in the greater Atlanta area.

The state probe led to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General and the Georgia Department of Education. They say that the district may owe thousands in federal money for low-income schools that have high test scores.

And investigators for the state also concluded that the superintendent at the time of the cheating scandal, Beverly Hall, who just happened to retire right before the results of the probe were released (does anyone think that was a coincidence?) either knew that cheating was going on or at least should have known what was happening in the district she was hired to serve. From the start, Hall has denied any allegations of involvement and apologized for not doing more to prevent what was happening.

Finally, as if all of this isn’t bad enough, the district is awaiting a decision regarding the possibility that it may lose its accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and School over issues with its school board. The national agency had placed the district on probation in January due to these problems and is expected to rule on whether to revoke their accreditation completely in the coming weeks.

With all of the turmoil this district continues to face, I want to send out a heartfelt message to those who work in these shell-shocked schools to hang in there, and show a watching nation what truly dedicated teachers and administrators can do under extreme pressure.

low-performing schools, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog accreditation, Atlanta Public Schools, cheating scandal, Georgia Bureau of Investigations, Georgia Professional Standards Commisssion, licenses revoked, state achievement tests