Former Atlanta Superintendent and Dozens Others Indicted in School Cheating Scandal?? Really???

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Hello All:  

Okay, let me see if I've got this right:  The former Atlanta, GA superintendent of schools,  Dr. Beverly Hall, and some 30 or more teachers made some corrections on the tests of poor, disadvantaged African American students, thereby making it possible for them to participate in more advanced programs that they otherwise would  not have had a snowball's chance in hell of being a part of.  At least that's what the article in the current edition of YOUR BLACK WORLD is alleging.

 

My question is this:  As a result of this "leg up" have any of these kids committed crimes? Have they gone on to better educational opportunities? Was the effort an abysmal failure because they just didn't have the moxie even after the help?  What happened to and for these kids?  Are they doing better, or are they underperforming?  If they are doing better - cool! 

Also, did they pay the teachers to do this? Were there any bribes exchanged?  Was the effort so heinous that whites were deprived of their precious advantageous places in these classrooms because Black kids were somehow illicitly assisted in breathing the rare air of better education?  Was she dealing drugs?  Was she assaulting the kids? Did she kill, maim, or shoot someone?  You mean you can get 45 years in jail in Atlanta for helping a kid get a better score?  Really - then there are probably a bunch of Atlantans running around right now ducking for cover, hoping no one finds out how really behind the times they are - and how much they have to hide.

What's the racketeering charge about?  'splain - as Ricky Ricardo used to say.  I just want to know what was the real harm here?  When I was a kid in Oklahoma,  in the third grade our teachers taught us how to take the I.Q., CAT and other exams that whites frequently used to prove they had "superior" intelligence - and guess what, folks - not only did we score high on the tests, but we became test savvy and it boosted our confidence so much that we went on to do well on all the future tests - ACT, SAT, CEEB, etc.  You feeling me?  We had a 92% success rate in graduating, going to college, with at least 85% of us graduating, and going on to bigger and better things.

Remember, Atlanta is riddled with rep-ugh-blicans - the way so many slums are inundated with roaches - and they will do anything to denigrate any advances we have made.  It's their raison d'etre. 

Now, 'splain the "theft" allegation.  What did she steal - actually?  She stole those kids away from a lifetime of servitude and ignorance?  Oh, my gee - tuff noogies!   Of course, if it turns out that the kids are really dumb as a box of rocks, and what she did (if she did it) did them no good anyway - then it's a net sum gain of zero.

However, if it helped just one of those kids out of the pit of despair, and motivated him or her to achieve even higher, then I say more power to her. 

One can only wonder what kinds of veiled threats were leveled against the stoolie instructor,  who according to the article:  "It all began when Georgia state investigator Richard Hyde convinced teacher Jackie Parks to wear a wire and turn state’s evidence."  He probably made her an offer she didn't dare refuse.   Don't forget, folks, Atlanta is still the deep south -  I know a lot of us New Yorkers are running down there from salvation from the decadent Norht, but don't get it twisted.  Them  slavery roots still run pretty deep - and you still don't have any rights that a white man is bound to respect - unless you make him.   (Even Hyde's name is suspicious  - "Hyde" as in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. ----? Ya feelin' me?)
Atlanta is  also the place that  a certain voting population deliberately switched from Democrat to Republican to vote a Black Congresswoman out of office because she wouldn't go along with the Bush okie doke of 911.  So of course, if there is a way to cast aspersions on the capacity of "poorer" Black students to excel above wealthy white ones, they will go to extreme lengths.  I mean, after all, who would ever believe that there are really Black people smarter than whites, any way - right?  Because they certainly don't.  The only way those kids could have possibly passed any test was for the teachers to have cheated, right? 

That also means that there is no such thing as a smart Black man or woman, right?  So people like Frederick Douglass, Maya Angelou, Carter G. Woodson, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, President Barack H. Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Ambassador Andrew (Andy) Young, Julian Bond, Paul Robeson, Julianne Malveaux, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jay-Z, Shonda Rhimes, Maynard Jackson - and you know I could go on and on here - but you're getting the picture - these people are just flukes, aberations, not like regular Black people - they're the exception, not the norm to hear them tell it.

But, as they say in Atlanta - "That dog won't hunt."  Because we know that our children are born smart and made ignorant by this backwards educational system that is set to be slanted in the favor of our detractors (if you don't understand that, re-read  - or read - Carter G. Woodson's "The MisEducation of the Negro."  What they call education is somewhere between propaganda and regimentation.  Half of the stuff has little relevance to the knowable real world in which we live; and half of it isn't applicable on this plane of action.  So if someone found a way to get around regurgitation of an ongoing diatribe that more resembles the TV commercials that are constantly washing our brains, so be it.

Frankly, I'm banking on the sister.  Follow the racism - it will lead you to the real truth every time. 

I truly hope our Black organizations - NAACP, SCLC, Urban League, Nation of Islam - are also taking a good, hard, incisive look at the merit of these allegations, so the sister does not get hung out to dry - like another Black woman almost did over alleged statements she supposedly made while serving with the Department of Agriculture (Ms. Sherrod, fyi).

Oh, by the way, as far as reporting to the Sheriffs department on April 2, my advice is, don't do it.  Get you a New York lawyer with a southern experience. If this is the only crime Atlanta has to investigate - and I'm sure that's not the case - then I applaud them.  However, I know there have to be much more serious, life threatening issues you guys can be doing down there.  Think about it (where is Mr. Tibbs when you need him?)

My motto is ALWAYS BET ON BLACK.

 Oh, by the way, an excerpt from the article is below.  See what you make of it. 

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson

This is the Article from YOUR BLACK WORLD:

Ex-Atlanta Superintendent and Dozens Others Indicted in School Cheating Scandal 

by Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times

 At least 35 people have been indicted in the Atlanta Public School cheating scandal and must report to Fulton County jail by April 2nd.

 

 

 

Dr. Beverly Hall, former superintendent for APS, is charged with racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements. On Friday, an Atlanta grand jury returned indictments containing 65 counts against the defendants accused of cheating on CRCT (Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests) standardized tests. Among those listed in the indictment were teachers, principals, executive directives, and other APS personnel.

It all began when Georgia state investigator Richard Hyde (?) convinced teacher Jackie Parks to wear a wire and turn state’s evidence. The New York Times reports:

In the fall of 2010, Ms. Parks, a third-grade teacher at Venetian Hills Elementary School in southwest Atlanta, agreed to become Witness No. 1 for Mr. Hyde, in what would develop into the most widespread public school cheating scandal in memory.
Ms. Parks admitted to Mr. Hyde that she was one of seven teachers — nicknamed “the chosen” — who sat in a locked windowless room every afternoon during the week of state testing, raising students’ scores by erasing wrong answers and making them right. She then agreed to wear a hidden electronic wire to school, and for weeks she secretly recorded the conversations of her fellow teachers for Mr. Hyde.

During the time Hall led APS, her school district, which is disproportionately poor and African-American, often scored well above wealthier school districts. Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, even had Hall at the White House.  If found guilty, Dr. Hall could face up to 45 years in jail.

After a 2½-year investigation, Beverly L. Hall, a former district superintendent who won fame and fortune for her performance, was charged with racketeering, theft and other crimes in the doctoring of students' test answers.

One more note here - I am assuming with a name like Kendrick, our writer is probably either African American or Caribbean - it's a big deal writing for the New York Times.  More power to him.  It's hard for me to write a story of this nature with a straight face, and without putting my little commentaries in it, because it's so ludicrous.  Yet it made the New York Times.  Kudos to the brother.  We understand your constraints.  I guess that's why I prefer to write for the Black press. Because we can call a spade a spade.  Of course, if I'm wrong in my assumption, so be it.  Again, The Case Against the Sister is Without Merit. GDW