In 2009 President Obama’s Education Department named Atlanta’s Beverly Hall “School Superintendent of The Year”, the educational equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Ironically, that same year it was discovered that Mrs. Hall led the largest cheating scandal in public education history in order to achieve the remarkable educational results.
In 2011, facing a growing investigation, Mrs. Hall retired – and throughout 2011, 2012 and 2013 a Georgia Bureau of Investigation criminal inquiry took place. After two years 36 educators under the leadership of Beverly Hall were indicted for a massive institutional race-based cheating scandal.
Today the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports Mrs. Hall died – her legacy, her illegal legacy, her cheating legacy, remaining:
The AJC puts it too mildly.
[2013] The criminal investigation lasted 21 months and the allegations date back to 2005. In addition to Hall, 34 people were indicted: four high-level administrators, six principals; two assistant principals; six testing coordinators; 14 teachers; a school improvement specialist and a school secretary.
[from left: Millicent Few, Tamara Cotman, Dr. Kathy Augustine, Clarietta Davis, Armstead Salters, These were just a few people we outlined in the initial research / discovery (story here)]
Example: Principal Gwendolyn Benton, who has since left, obstructed the investigation, when she threatened teachers by saying she would “sue them out the ass” if they “slandered” her to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation
All of the people named in the indictment face conspiracy charges. Other charges in the 65-count indictment include false statements and writings, false swearing, theft and influencing witnesses.
The investigation involved at least 50 schools as well as hundreds of interviews with school administrators, staff, parents and students. The district has about 50,000 students.