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 Prosecutors allege that educators hungry for cash bonuses
participated in a "cleverly disguised conspiracy" in 2009 to erase
incorrect answers on standardized tests and instructed children in
some cases to change their answers.
Former educators who have pleaded guilty to charges in the case
being heard in Fulton County Superior Court have testified for the
prosecution that they prompted students during tests and changed
their answers, acting under heavy pressure from superiors to raise
scores.
Defense attorneys have said some prosecution witnesses changed their
statements after being offered immunity and plea deals and could not
be trusted.
 Annette Greene, attorney for former first-grade teacher Shani
Robinson, said in opening statements that her client innocently
erased students' stray marks on test booklets.
"This was not cheating," Greene said. "First-graders doodle all over
the exams."
In opening statements, prosecutor Fani Willis told the court there
had been almost 257 million "wrong-to-right erasures" in 2009. An
800-page state investigation in 2011 found that 38 principals and
140 teachers in the Atlanta school district were involved in
cheating on the 2009 standardized tests.
Trial testimony revealed how "a testing fixation had infected entire
schools," said Bob Schaeffer, education director for FairTest, a
nonprofit group that focuses on limiting the use and ending the
misuse of standardized tests.
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In the past five years, there have been confirmed cases of test
cheating in 43 states and the District of Columbia, Schaeffer said.
While it is clear that cheating took place in the Atlanta schools,
Schaeffer said it was uncertain whether the jury would convict the
educators of participating in a criminal conspiracy, which could
result in 20-year-prison sentences.
(Editing by David Adams and Peter Cooney)
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