For years, the Atlanta Public Schools system had been plagued by low standardized
test scores at the city’s elementary schools. Following the departure of a previous
superintendent, the APS Board of Education hired (the now late) Dr. Beverly Hall to
overhaul the system and fix its issues with low test scores. The scores had been so low
for so long that a state takeover of the system was a very real possibility. After just a
few years on the job, the system’s test scores had improved dramatically. Dr. Hall
attributed this to hiring better teachers and focusing more resources on test
preparation. She also believed that for many years, the community just had low
expectations for lower income students and no one ever challenged these students.
Following one year’s round of tests at the city’s elementary schools, graders at the
Georgia Department of Education noticed an unusually high number of erased and
changed answers on tests from APS schools. After several weeks of news reports and
public pressure, the governor hired a former state Attorney General to head up an
investigation into the matter. After an investigation lasting several months, former AG
Michael Bowers released a final report indicating that the answers had been changed
by teachers in an effort to inflate students’ scores. “Erasure parties” at one APS
employee’s home in suburban Atlanta had also taken place, where teachers spent an
entire weekend correcting answer sheets.
District Attorney Paul Howard charged a number of APS teachers with racketeering and
tampering with official documents. Dr. Hall died of cancer prior to the trial and was
never charged. The trial, which lasted seven months, is now in the sentencing phase
for a principal considered to be one of the scandal’s ringleaders. Her defense attorney
has hired you as an expert witness to explain any potential scientific explanations
for why the principal participated. Their working theory is that the principal was
threatened with termination by APS administrators if she did not help with changing
answers.
Explain what theories apply to this scenario, why those apply, and whether or not
and why the presiding judge should consider them in sentencing the principal.
