The Atlanta school district has spent about $7.5 million so far to provide tutoring and services to students whose test answers were likely changed by educators during the districtwide cheating scandal that made headlines across the country. But a recent evaluation of the program’s first three semesters shows mixed results.
State investigators and a Fulton County jury found that teachers and administrators corrected wrong answers on a 2009 standardized test—cheating that led to criminal convictions and kept some students from receiving the help they could have received if the fake test scores hadn’t obscured their academic troubles.
After the school board hired Superintendent Meria Carstarphen in 2014, she set out to identify the likely victims and develop a program to help them inside and outside of class. Evaluation of the program shows that participants’ grade point average increased slightly, but they also missed an estimated 1.3 to 1.7 more days of school than the comparison group, among other findings.
