A new study commissioned by the Atlanta public schools found that the district’s test-cheating scandal disproportionately affected black students and sparked an increase in charter school enrollment in the city.
The researchers from Georgia State University, in Atlanta, found little evidence that the cheating had a significant effect on student attendance or behavior. But evidence of negative effects in math was mixed, according to the report, and the damage to students’ performance in reading and English language arts was significant.
The report used test-erasure-analysis data to conclude that about 7,000 students likely had their answers manipulated more than half of whom were still enrolled in the Atlanta school system in 2014-15. A Fulton County, Ga., judge last month sentenced eight of the 11 former Atlanta schools employees convicted in the test-cheating scandal to prison.
