Beverly Hall, Cheating, and Ruling By Fear
4 min read
When Beverly Hall ran the Atlanta public school system, she oversaw gains on student test scores on standardized tests throughout the city. These gains resulted in her being named the 2009 Superintendent of the Year, and collecting $580,000 in performance bonuses over 10 years.
According to an indictment handed down on Friday, Beverly Hall and 35 other people within the Atlanta school system conspired to cheat. The cheating consisted of people changing student answers on standardized tests. The gains in Atlanta - based largely in improved test scores on standardized tests - are likely not real.
While the cheating in Atlanta - and the level of cheating - is horriffic, it's not new - and there are some indicators that it could be widespread. With that in mind, it's worthwhile to look at the conditions that existed under Dr. Hall's leadership that are cited in the indictment as contributing to the scandal.
The cheating scandal also has implications for the integrity of data collected on students. Given the push to collect more data, and to use that data more widely, the actual quality and accuracy of data needs to be unquestioned. Cheating scandals like this make that seem like an unreachable goal.
The quotations in A, B, and C are from the New York Times. The quotation in section D is from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A. Merit Pay, and Fear of Job Security
Teachers and principals whose students had high test scores received tenure and thousands of dollars in performance bonuses. Otherwise, as one teacher explained, it was “low score out the door.â€
Ms. Parks, a 17-year veteran, said a reason she had kept silent so long was that as a single mother, she could not afford to lose her job.
B. No Excuses Mentality
Her (Hall's) focus on test scores made her a favorite of the national education reform movement, nearly as prominent as the schools chancellors Joel I. Klein of New York City and Michelle Rhee of Washington. Like them, she was a fearsome presence who would accept no excuses when it came to educating poor children. She held yearly rallies at the Georgia Dome, rewarding principals and teachers from schools with high test scores by seating them up front, close to her, while low scorers were shunted aside to the bleachers.
C. Ruling By Fear, and Job Security
Dr. Hall was known to rule by fear. She gave principals three years to meet their testing goals. Few did; in her decade as superintendent, she replaced 90 percent of the principals.
Teachers and principals whose students had high test scores received tenure and thousands of dollars in performance bonuses. Otherwise, as one teacher explained, it was “low score out the door.â€
D. Retribution Against People Who Spoke Out
When a teacher at C.W. Hill Elementary complained about cheating by a colleague in 2005, Hall suspended the accused educator for 20 days. As for the whistle-blower, Hall fired her.
Closing Thoughts
Richard Hyde, one of the investigators whose work led to the indictment, made the following observation after listening to secretly taped recordings of the people cheating:
As he listened to the hours of secretly recorded conversations of cheating teachers and principals, he was surprised. “I heard them in unguarded moments,†Mr. Hyde said. “You listen, they’re good people. Their tone was of men and women who cared about kids.â€
When we talk about improving our educational system, how do we ensure that the structure around teachers and students support and reward our best work? How many more cheating scandals do our students need to endure before we begin to look at - and jettison - the failed experiments of merit pay, no excuses, and ruling by fear?
Image Credit: Picture of Beverly Hall and Arne Duncan at the White House found at
