Ten defendants taken into custody right away as long-running test cheating conspiracy case concludes

Eleven former Atlanta public schools teachers accused of participating in a test cheating conspiracy that drew nationwide attention have been convicted of racketeering charges.

The verdicts in the case were announced Wednesday in a Georgia courtroom. Only one of the 12 educators on trial, Dessa Curb, was acquitted of the racketeering charge.

“I knew God had my back,” Curb told the reporters after the verdict was announced.

Eleven of the dozen accused educators were found guilty of conspiracy charges. One of the defendants, Angela Williams - who was found guilty of conspiracy, two counts of false statements and two counts of false swearing, which is lying under oath - may face the longest sentence.

Why the Atlanta cheating scandal failed to bring about national reform Read more

Ten of the defendants were taken into the custody right away.

Shani Robinson, who is pregnant and close to her delivery date, was allowed to remain out on bond.

“They have made their bed and they’re going to have to lie in it and it starts today,” said judge Jerry Baxter.

A grand jury indicted 35 educators in March 2013. Many reached plea agreements with prosecutors. The educators said they faced pressure from supervisors including former superintendent Beverly Hall to inflate students’ scores to show gains in student achievement.

Hall was supposed to be tried along with the others, but her lawyers successfully argued she was too sick to help her own defense. She died last month from complications of breast cancer.

The long-awaited verdict comes six years after the allegations first became public, when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution raised questions about altered answers on standardized tests at number of Atlanta public schools. After six months of testimony from 164 witnesses, jury deliberations began on 19 March.

The Atlanta case is one of the largest school cheating scandals in US history. Two years ago, in March 2013, 35 people were indicted. Since then 21 have made plea agreements and two have died of cancer. By the end of this month, a dozen remained awaiting the verdict from the jury.

“They cheated. They lied. And they stole,” John Floyd, the prosecutor, told the jurors in his closing statement. One teacher was acquitted.

Asked if he thought his office did the right thing in accepting plea deals from other 21 of the 35 indicted educators, Paul Howard, Fulton County district attorney, said: “Oh yeah. We absolutely did the right thing.”

The 21 plea deals helped make it clear that the accusations of racketeering were “not some fantasy created by the DA’s office” and “made it easy for people to recognize that something bad happened,” he said.

A 2011 report by two special investigators found that 178 teachers and principals at 44 schools had cheated. The 800-page report found that teachers at some Atlanta schools were erasing wrong answers and replacing them with correct ones. Better test scores on state tests resulted in performance bonuses for teachers and principals.

“The cheating had been going on so long, we considered it part of our jobs,” Jackie Parks, a former third grade teacher at Venetian Hills elementary school and witness for the prosecution, told the New York Times in 2013. According to her, cheating had been going on since at least 2004. The 2011 report found that cheating might have occurred as early as 2001.

In 2013, racketeering and corruption charges were filed.

Since the investigations began, Parks and other teachers have resigned or lost their teaching licenses; 82 have confessed to cheating.

Hall, the former superintendent at the heart of the case, passed away on 2 March. Hall, diagnosed with breast cancer and considered too ill to stand trial, maintained that she was innocent till the very end.

“Even after millions of dollars, hundreds of witnesses and interviews, and a review of thousands upon thousands of emails, not a single witness has said, nor a single email demonstrated, that Dr Hall ordered, directed or participated in cheating,” read a statement released by Hall’s lawyers on the day she passed away.

While serving as superintendent, Hall gave principals three years to meet their testing goals. Those who didn’t were replaced. During the 10 years that she served as superintendent, she replaced 90% of the principals, reported New York Times. Hall had received $500,000 in performance bonuses.

“Dr Hall knew,” Clinton Rucker, another prosecutor, told jurors in his closing arguments. He said that other defendants in the case should have complied with testing standards. “They were cheating, and it’s not right. And I am asking you all to do something about it.”

As the seven-months-long trial came to an end, Baxter thanked the jury and said that he would miss them.

“I can’t tell you how impressed I am with your service,” he told the six men and six women. He went on to say that if any of them even received another jury summons, he would excuse them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report