Robert Treat Academy

“Department of Education Cheating Investigation Implicates Two More Schools - Report claims that improvements in test scores at Robert Treat Academy, a high-profile charter, defy all odds.” NJSpotlight, 11/14/2012 

The state Department of Education’s year-long investigation into testing irregularities in a handful of public schools in 2010 and 2011 has leveled serious accusations against two more institutions, including a Newark charter founded by one of the state’s preeminent power brokers.

Late yesterday the department released critical investigative reports of the Robert Treat Academy Charter School in Newark...

Investigators cited testing and security breaches by administrators and teachers at both schools during the 2010 and 2011 cycles of the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK). The department claims that staff members coached students to correct wrong answers and allowed for security lapses with answer sheets.

State officials last night added nothing to the late afternoon release, saying they would let the reports speak for themselves...

Robert Treat has been among the high fliers in the state’s charter school movement, one of the original 13 approved under former Gov. Christie Whitman and making headlines ever since.

It has consistently posted well-above-average scores both in Newark’s mostly Hispanic North Ward and in the state itself -- some of the highest...

In each case, scanning analysis revealed that an inordinate number of student had erased wrong answers, changing them to correct ones. The state first asked the schools to look into the issue and then sent in their own investigators. Erasure analyses are now common in testing security...

Among the evidence gathered by the DOE were numbers of correct answers that did not make statistical sense, investigators said. Erasure rates were six or seven times the averages of other schools. Nine of 24 students got perfect scores on the math test. And the rate of improvement for students in the sixth grade over previous scores defied all odds.

“The odds of 64.0 percent of sixth-grade students having a higher MATH score in 2011 compared to their scores in 2009 [fourth grade] and 2010 [fifth grade is less than one out of one million,” the report said...

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Read the NJDOE report @. http://www.njspotlight.com/assets/12/1113/2158 (235KBpdf)

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Robert Russa Moton Charter School

"New Orleans charter school is accused of cheating to help 4th-graders pass LEAP tests.” The Times-Picayune (LA), 8/26/2012

Staff at the Robert Russa Moton Charter School, one of the highest-ranked open-enrollment schools in New Orleans, violated state testing policy to help fourth-grade students pass standardized exams last year, a district investigation found. The school denies any cheating took place.

Correspondence among school, district and state officials obtained through a public records request detail allegations brought by anonymous whistle-blowers, among them a charge -- apparently substantiated -- that fourth-graders were shown writing prompts for the state's LEAP exam ahead of time to give them a leg up.


In response to the district's findings, the independent charter board that governs Moton hired the law firm Adams and Reese to conduct a separate investigation, which turned up no evidence of wrongdoing.

Nevertheless, officials for the Orleans Parish School Board sent Moton's board a letter this spring listing five "non-negotiable" steps the school must take or risk losing its contract to run the campus. Portions of the letter were heavily redacted by district staff before they were made public to protect the identity of Moton employees. But the list of "corrective actions" includes a demand that Moton fire at least one staff member and take "disciplinary action" with others...

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Improbable test scores twice as likely to appear in charter schools

“Cheating our children: Suspicious school test scores across the nation.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA), 3/25/2012

Suspicious test scores in roughly 200 school districts resemble those that entangled Atlanta in the biggest cheating scandal in American history, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows.

The newspaper analyzed test results for 69,000 public schools and found high concentrations of suspect math or reading scores in school systems from coast to coast. The findings represent an unprecedented examination of the integrity of school testing...

Improbable scores were twice as likely to appear in charter schools as regular schools. Charters, which receive public money, can face intense pressure as supposed laboratories of innovation that, in theory, live or die by their academic performance...

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Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School

“Tribal school test scores invalidated.” Warren Record (NC), 8/17/2011

As a result of an investigation into testing irregularities in the 2010-11 academic year at Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School, a public charter school, biology test scores for nine students have been invalidated.

The school board for the tribal school, which has been investigating the matter, held a special meeting earlier this month during which they voted to place Principal Chenoa Davis on a three-month probationary period and directed her to terminate the contract of Assistant Principal Thomas Buchanan in response to reports of testing irregularities...

The report states that during the 2009-10 school year, a teacher downloaded from a computer end-of-course test review questions and pasted them into topic groups for use during test preparation for that year.

According to the report, the teacher did not collect the review materials afterward, and a student kept a copy and shared it with others in the 2010-11 school year. A copy was also shared with a student at Rocky Mount Preparatory School, another charter school...

"DPI determined that (the study questions) were secure items," she said. "Once they were discovered, we had to backtrack and found that they came from Haliwa-Saponi (Tribal School)."

The Rev. Ronald Richardson, tribal chief, said that the tribe should work out its own problems without newspaper publicity...

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Animo Leadership Charter High School

“Cheating on state tests found at two Los Angeles schools.” Los Angeles Times (CA), 9/5/2011

The state has thrown out the test scores of a top-performing Los Angeles school and of the highest-scoring campus in the nationally known Green Dot charter group after cheating was uncovered involving several teachers.

Short Avenue Elementary in Del Rey and Animo Leadership Charter High School in Inglewood were barred from receiving academic rankings released last week by the California Department of Education. That action deprived the schools of the state rating that has become the key figure used by parents and officials to judge campuses in California.

At Short, three teachers are accused of changing answers or coaching students to the correct answers or both. At Animo Leadership, a science teacher is accused of fixing wrong answers...

Locally, at six charter schools operated by Crescendo, principals were ordered last year to require teachers to review the state tests in advance and then use that material to prepare students. L.A. Unified recently closed those schools in the aftermath of the scandal...

At Animo Leadership, students alerted adults of possible cheating.

When students received their booklets to resume testing, at least two 11th-graders noticed that their answers to the physics test appeared to have been changed since the previous day, said Marco Petruzzi, Green Dot's chief executive...

State records indicate that a staff member is suspected of "accessing 11th-grade answer documents and altering answers" on the physics exam, said John Boivin, administrator for the testing office at the California Department of Education. As many as 148 students out of 604 could have been affected...

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Miller-McCoy Academy

“New Orleans charter testing drama casts light on how cheating allegations are handled.” The Times-Picayune, 08/19/2011

Last year, several teachers at Miller-McCoy Academy in eastern New Orleans told Recovery School District officials they feared someone on the school's staff had opened high-stakes exams in advance so students could be prepped on a few actual test questions.

An RSD investigation concluded some kind of cheating had likely occurred at the all-boys middle and high school. Then, Miller-McCoy's board of directors conducted its own investigation, which found no evidence of wrongdoing. In the end, the conflicting findings of the two probes were never fully reconciled.

The handling of the matter raises important questions about how cheating allegations are investigated. In most Louisiana school districts, central office personnel handle the task and report the results to state officials, often with a recommendation about whether to void scores.

There's a natural conflict there, experts say, in that most school districts are less than eager to announce they've found corruption in their midst.

At charter schools, the conflict might be more acute, some say, because charter boards play a role in investigations. Board members can be recruited by a school's administrators, which might make it even more difficult for them to take a hard look at allegations.

"If you are committed to finding out the truth, you need individuals who are not connected in any way to the individuals involved," said Robert Schaeffer, public education director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing.

In Louisiana's current setup, there is "a conflict of interest all the way up the line," and not just as it relates to charter schools, said Gregory Cizek, a professor of educational measurement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "No one has a really strong interest in investigating in a really searching manner," he said.

That's why some states have started putting such investigations under the jurisdiction of the state attorney general's office or another independent entity, he said...

The Miller-McCoy investigation began in the spring of 2010 when several staff members alleged that, just days before students were to take high-stakes tests, school administrators had given teachers math questions or essay topics that were uncannily similar to those that appeared on the state exam days later. Three staff members came in to meet with RSD personnel, while two others provided interviews; all told, nearly 20 percent of the school's teachers raised concerns. The administrators asked teachers to use the questions to prepare students for the exam, according to the RSD report on the matter and interviews with three of the teachers...

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Chester Newton/Sunnyside Charter and Montessori School

“AIMS tests invalidated at Camp Verde charter school; State investigated 'inappropriate' procedures in April.” The Bugle (AZ), 5/7/2011

CAMP VERDE - While area schools are waiting for official notification of their latest state testing results, one charter school has had to face serious cheating allegations.

Parents of children at Chester Newton/Sunnyside Charter and Montessori School contacted the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) with concerns over the way the AIMS test was administered. During an investigation by the ADE and the State Board for Charter Schools on April 19, all of the tests were confiscated.

On April 26, school Director Betty Chester received a letter from ADE with its conclusions about irregularities in the testing procedures and inappropriate assistance. Most of the tests in grades 3 through 8 were invalidated...

In her letter to students, Chester stated the ADE had concluded that [Principal Shirley] Sullivan "established a climate where cheating on the AIMS test, either between students or by adults offering inappropriate assistance to students, was both acceptable and expected. This occurred notwithstanding the fact Ms. Sullivan attended ADE training for test administrators."...

[Andrew LeFevre, director of Public Relations for the Department of Education] said it is rare to see an entire school come under investigation...

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Howard Road Academy Public Charter School

“Cheating on DC-CAS Costs Charter School.” Washington Post (DC), 8/12/2009

The teacher at Howard Road Academy Public Charter School suspected something was seriously amiss in April when a student taking the math portion of the DC-CAS standardized test announced that she was finished -- way early.

"You can't be finished. Go back and check your work," the teacher said.

"We did this yesterday. I know all of the answers," the student said.

The scene comes from a report by school officials detailing the investigation of a cheating scandal at their G Street campus in Southeast D.C. When the probe was done, an administrator and two teachers were dismissed and 27 fourth- and sixth-graders had their test scores invalidated...

When the teacher looked at the student's exam, she found that the problems were identical to those in a packet of practice questions distributed to students a few days earlier. A colleague had a similar experience, and they shared their concern with the school's leadership.

According to a statement from an unnamed school official, copies of the test were "distributed strategically to two new teachers who have never administered a DC-CAS before and didn't know what they looked like. The pages were copied without covers and distributed to them as extra practice for the kids."

Security was also lax, according to another staff member's statement. Copies of the exams were sitting in an unlocked cabinet for three weeks prior to testing week.

The administrator who leaked the test, and two teachers who knew of the cheating but did not report it, were dismissed, according to the report.

The report also strongly suggests that school politics may have helped create an envionment [sic] in which cheating could take root. It includes a letter of "reprimand" and another of "admonishment" to two unnamed Howard Road employees from Mosaica Education Inc., the company that operates Howard Road and charter schools in eight states.

One of them, who was apparently in a senior position, was cited for a failure of leadership because the teachers who suspected the cheating "did not feel comfortable" coming to him/her. "Had they not seen you as so personally close to [name redacted] they would have brought this issue directly to your attention."

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Abramson Science and Technology Charter School

“State board of education votes to revoke Abramson's charter.” The Times-Picayune, 8/3/2011

The state board of education voted to revoke its contract with Abramson Science and Technology Charter School in eastern New Orleans on Wednesday, a step that could mean new management for the school and a potential legal battle with the nonprofit group that has run the campus until now.

The Pelican Educational Foundation, which founded the charter school in 2007, lost its right to operate the school by a vote of six to one at the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE...

...BESE decided to vote with the recommendation of acting State Superintendent Ollie Tyler, who told the board that early findings of a state investigation launched last month showed "a threat to the safety, health and welfare of students at Abramson."

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The exhibits from the preliminary investigation are @ http://www.louisianaschools.net/lde/uploads/18613.pdf

Sample excerpt from Exhibit 5, pg. 45 of pdf

False College Admittances:

"Near the end of the year many students who had not previously been accepted into any college began announcing they had been accepted into North American College. Surprisingly, students who were failing their English and Math classes and who would not graduate from Abramson on time were still being accepted to North American College. The principal used these acceptances as proof that Abramson was successful. The school that accepted these seniors who did not graduate from high school, North American College, is where Mr. Dokmen will be working this fall."

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"Records show glaring faults at school with ties to Turkish charter network.” Times-Picayune (LA) 7/15/2011 

Inci Akpinar, the vice president of a company called Atlas Texas Construction & Trading, sat down with an official from the Louisiana Department of Education a little more than a year ago and made him an offer.

..."I have twenty-five thousand dollars to fix this problem: twenty thousand for you and five for me."

At the time, Dunbar was investigating numerous complaints against Abramson Science & Technology Charter School in eastern New Orleans...

Dunbar -- having declined to take money from Akpinar -- recommended more than a year ago that the state board of education yank Abramson's charter...

But after questioning by the The Times-Picayune, acting State Superintendent of Education Ollie Tyler late Friday wrote to the state board asking it to prevent the school from opening in the fall, citing problems discovered during the original investigation and a new information about an incident between two young students that was possibly sexual in nature...

That an executive from Atlas Texas, a Houston-based contractor, would speak on the school's behalf points to the somewhat opaque connections that link Abramson with other schools and businesses founded by Turkish expatriates. Atlas has won numerous contracts in the past from a Texas-based school operator called the Cosmos Foundation...

Similar allegations have cropped up in other states where the Cosmos Foundation operates. The group runs a charter network called the Harmony Schools in Texas, where they've encountered unfounded accusations that they somehow promote Islamic extremism, largely because of an interest by some of the group's leaders in the movement begun by a Turkish religious scholar named Fethullah Gulen.

Both Cosmos and Pelican have disavowed any official religious links, though Abramson teachers on a school-sponsored trip to Turkey received pamphlets on the Gulen movement...

In an email dated Feb. 2, 2010, and signed by [four teachers] to head of the state's charter office: "Though we are fully aware of the significant amount of autonomy given to charter schools, we are now concerned that this autonomy is being abused to the point that students are being forced to engage in unethical acts."

They also reported a "general feeling of fear" among the school's staff because of what appeared to be retaliation against teachers, parents and students who had spoken up about the school's practices in the past...

But the state investigation appeared to back up much of what the teachers had written in their note...

...several students confirmed they had done little or none of the work that went into their science projects...

...[students] described practice on items that were very close to the items on the test."...

The state audit also turned up a significant lack of resources for special-needs students...

There were also complaints from teachers and students about the difficulty of communicating with some of the foreign staff...

Still, Dunbar, the state's academic advisor for charter schools, described a series of bizarre encounters as he and others carried out the audit that suggest a network of associations at Abramson extending beyond Louisiana...

Dunbar concluded in the same memo that the state board of education should revoke school's the charter...

Ultimately, the state decided to renew Abramson's charter for one year, contingent on the school carrying out a detailed corrective action plan...

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“Abramson Charter in eastern New Orleans shut down amid TP investigation into startlingmisconduct.” Times-Picayune (LA) 7/15/2011

The state's sudden shutdown of Abramson Science and Technology Charter School over revelations of a potential bribery attempt and other incidents came in part because of inquiries made by The Times-Picayune over the past few weeks.

Penny Dastugue, president of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, wrote to the head of the nonprofit that runs Abramson on Friday evening to say the board will close the school until the state can complete an investigation. The move came just a few hours after acting State Superintendent Ollie Tyler contacted board members to recommend that they shutter the school in eastern New Orleans while the state looks into the allegations...

Both incidents have come to light as a result of interviews and public information requests made by newspaper.

Several board members expressed alarm on Friday that information about the state's audit last year did not come before BESE ahead of a vote the board took last summer to renew Abramson's charter. The state education department recommended that BESE give the school a one-year renewal with a "corrective action plan" to address deficiencies in special education services. But the board had not seen [a] memo about the offer of money. And they hadn't seen records that provide accounts of classrooms going unstaffed for weeks at a time and potential cheating in science fair competitions...

[BESE member Louella Givens] and Linda Johnson, a BESE member from Plaquemine, also traveled to Turkey this spring at the invitation of the Pelican Foundation before the full findings of the state audit came to light.

Tevfik Eski, Pelican's CEO, denied inviting BESE members on the trip. But a copy of the invitation obtained by The Times-Picayune shows that it was signed by Eski...

Johnson said that she paid for her own flight but that some of her hotel expenses were picked up by the Texas Turkish American Chamber of Commerce...

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Details about active and attempted Gulen charter schools in Louisiana.
• News story about Harmony Public Schools, AKA Harmony Science Academy schools / CosmosFoundation. 
• Information about Gulen charter schools’ H1B visa applications.

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Public Safety Academy (San Bernardino)

“Controversial figure trying to start new charter school in High Desert.”The Sun News (CA), 5/10/2012 

The founder and former CEO of the Public Safety Academy in San Bernardino, who was fired last year over allegations of fiscal mismanagement, is attempting to start another charter school in Apple Valley...

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“Another Safety Academy Faux Pas.” San Bernardino County Sentinel (CA), 2/26/2012 

Even as its board members undertook to redress serious shortcomings and challenges that are threatening to bring the Public Safety Academy to ruin, the headlong rush to institute reforms at the school resulted in yet another wave of adverse publicity last week.

In this case, the controversy arose out of the charter school board’s failure to conduct a fully open public venue in choosing a new administrator... And as word of the matter spread, there were suggestions that there was a conflict of interest inherent in a board member being appointed by the board to a paying position with the charter school. That fed recurrent charges that the Public Safety Academy, like some other charter schools in California, is more focused on enriching its operators than educating students...

The Public Safety Academy fell short of both educational and accounting goals over the several years of its operation, then plunged into chaos last year, resulting in lawsuits that now may end up costing its sponsoring district hundreds of thousands or perhaps even millions of dollars...

What was to become the Public Safety Academy was founded as an unaccredited educational seminar in 2000 by Michael Dickinson, a one-time arson investigator...

... Four years ago a financial review revealed the school had not kept accurate payroll and accounting records, and had spent $164,000 that was not budgeted for. There were also questions about $20,000 worth of expenditures for laptops that were either never delivered, misappropriated or stolen...

Last spring, Michael Dickinson’s wife who served as a principal at one of the school’s campuses, Susan Dickinson, fell under the charter school board’s focus after a report surfaced that she had crossed the line in prepping her students for questions contained in the state’s Standardized Testing and Reporting exam...

The charter school’s principal, Kathy Toy, had recommended that the board of trustees terminate Susan Dickinson. Before that vote took place, Michael Dickinson sacked the board of trustees.

On June 20, 2011 the Public Safety Academy board, led by Hazlett, filed suit against Public Safety Academy Inc., an adjunct to the academy which was set up and controlled by Michael Dickinson, who received $121,000 per year in salary for his services. That suit sought to restore the authority of the board that Michael Dickinson had terminated. In July, the court ruled that the board had legal authority to run the charter academy, and the contracts of Michael Dickinson, as the chief executive officer, and Dickinson’s hand-picked chief financial officer, Mike Davis, who was paid $120,000 per year, were terminated.

Subsequently, the district was sued by the parents of one of its students, a 16-year-old girl. In that suit, it is alleged that the girl, who was then 15 years old, had repeated sexual encounters with San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy Nathan Gastineau, who was the girl’s mentor in her Police Explorer Scout activity coordinated at the academy...

In recent months, the Public Safety Academy has scrambled to maintain its existence...

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“School leader's new woe: No records found to validate education claims of CEO.” Redlands Daily Facts (CA), 7/2/2011

SAN BERNARDINO - As CEO of the Public Safety Academy, Michael Dickinson often boasted to others at the charter school about his degrees from various colleges, according to current and former academy staff.

Dickinson claimed to have earned a doctorate from the University of Phoenix, a master's degree from the University of La Verne and a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley.

And he is alleged to have used his reported doctorate as leverage against any teacher or staff member who dared question his choices or tactics...

The three colleges where Dickinson has claimed to have earned undergraduate or advanced degrees, however, have no record of him ever attending or being awarded degrees.

A search at each school's registrar's office turned up no record of Dickinson, officials at all three schools said...

On at least three professional networking or people directory websites, including Linked-In and XING, Dickinson indicated he attended the University of Phoenix from 2004 to 2007 and had earned a doctorate in education from the school. He also said he attended the University of La Verne from 2007 until 2009, earning a master's degree in "leadership."

In the hierarchy of higher learning, one typically has to have a master's degree before qualifying for a doctorate program.

Dickinson did not respond to multiple telephone calls and emails asking he clarify his educational background. But within two hours of the first email inquiry, all the educational background information Dickinson had posted on the websites had been removed...

The news comes at a time when the Public Safety Academy has fallen into a crisis of leadership. Allegations of fiscal mismanagement and a hostile work environment have culminated in a legal battle between Dickinson and the charter school's board of trustees over control of the academy and its finances.

Dickinson and the academy's corporate board of directors took action to dissolve the board of trustees on May 26, alleging members of the board of trustees were attempting to destroy the reputation of the charter school and its leaders.

The action came one week before the board of trustees was set to vote on a recommendation to fire Dickinson's wife, Susan Dickinson, a teacher who, it was determined, cheated on a state standardized test, and hiring an outside company to manage the charter school's finances...

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"Public Safety Academy Board Sues Founder.” San Bernardino County Sentinel (CA), 6/27/2011 

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Theresa B. Lee Academy

STATE THREATENS TO HALT FUNDING FOR FORT WORTH'S THERESA B. LEE ACADEMYCHARTER SCHOOL; August 15, 2009; wfaa.com via Dallas Morning News (TX)

AUSTIN - State education officials have threatened to cut off funding for a troubled Fort Worth charter school unless its owner submits a detailed financial audit within 30 days.

The letter warning of the possible loss of state funding is the latest problem for Theresa B. Lee Academy of Fort Worth, a charter school already under state oversight because of poor performance ratings and cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

The latest warning also applies to a sister campus in Houston, Jesse Jackson Academy. Funding will be suspended if the independent audit for both schools is not delivered to the Texas Education Agency this month by the owner and superintendent of the two schools, Jesse W. Jackson of Houston…

"We have to be able to ensure that state funds are being spent appropriately, and we have given them a very reasonable amount of time to produce this audit," said Debbie Ratcliffe of the TEA. She said the audit was originally due on Jan. 28 and that three notices have been sent.

Lee Academy, located in a gray storefront building in East Fort Worth, has had a state conservator overseeing its operations since the fall of 2007 after the school was cited for cheating on the TAKS and hit with an "academically unacceptable" rating from the state…

A financial report earlier this year found that the charter school owes the state more than $500,000 for overstating its student enrollment last year and for collecting state money for special education services that students never received…

Some teachers at the school were not paid at the end of the last school year in June and were told to file for unemployment benefits, she said. Even a check the school sent to Dr. Francois as payment for her services bounced.

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THERESA B. LEE ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL ORDERED CLOSED; November 12, 2008; Fort Worth Star Telegram (TX) 

FORT WORTH — State officials ordered Theresa B. Lee Academy charter school to close by tomorrow, state officials said. The charter school, located on East Lancaster Avenue, failed to submit required financial audits and been monitored by the state for cheating on state tests in 2005.

Earlier this month, the school lost state funding for failure to submit financial audits, which public schools are required to do annually.

Officials said representatives from the Region XI Education Service Center, which serves and helps monitor Tarrant County area schools, arrived at the school Nov. 7 to find that the school was not in session.

“That was unacceptable to the commissioner,” TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said.

Jesse Jackson, who also oversees Lee’s parent company Youth for Education and Success, based in Houston, could not be reached for comment. He has not returned media calls in recent months. Lee academy was receiving funding for about 112 students.

The state asked YES officials to submit a 2005-06 by Sept. 29 and failed to do so. The state has revoked or removed 41 charters since allowing such schools in 1995.

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FORT WORTH CHARTER SCHOOL IN DISARRAY, BUT STATE KEEPS IT OPEN; June 14, 2008; Dallas Morning News (TX) 

An inexperienced science teacher with no textbooks or lab equipment. Special education students who get no special attention. Bills paid late or not at all.

Theresa B. Lee Academy, a Fort Worth charter school discovered cheating on 2005 TAKS tests, is failing in virtually every regard, according to state records.

Yet it remains open…

"This school is woefully inadequate to provide even a marginal education," the conservator, Carol Francois, concluded in one report. "The staff, for the most part, is poorly qualified, poorly trained, and poorly managed."

Jesse W. Jackson, the school's superintendent and owner, did not respond to requests for comment this week.

What does it take to shut down a school like this? Some critics say TEA needs tougher state laws to make it easier to sever the contract between a failing charter school and the state.

Some state efforts to shut down charters languish in court for years.

"I think it's very obvious that the bad charters need to be closed down and the good charters need to be emulated, and it's not as easy as it sounds," said state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano…

The audit, released last month, found that Lee didn't keep required attendance records for most of the 2006-07 school year and collected state money for special education services that students never received. The state says Lee must repay $516,388…

…monthly reports to TEA describe a school where teachers drilled students in how to take tests, but spent little time teaching the subject matter.

One report mentions three learning-disabled students who said they didn't receive extra academic help the law allows for them. They didn't even know they're supposed to get it.

Another report documents an untrained but eager science teacher begging for biology textbooks and lab equipment only to have her bosses tell her to find and use whatever her predecessor left behind.

Teachers haven't been paid for May, Dr. Francois said. Special education consultants said their invoices were paid late, if at all. A $3,446 check to Dr. Francois bounced…

In 2006, Dr. Jackson received $144,000 as superintendent of Lee and Jackson academies. Arthurlene Jackson, his wife and assistant superintendent, received $125,000, according to IRS records…

PROBLEMS:

•A state investigation found that educators helped students cheat on 2005 TAKS tests.

•An audit of the 2006-07 school year found that Lee failed to keep required attendance records and collected state money for special education and other services students never received. Lee must repay the state $516,388.

•In 2006-07, Lee reported an average attendance of 252 students. In 2007-08, with a state conservator in charge, attendance dropped to 115 students. Because schools receive state dollars based largely on attendance, Lee's annual state funding dropped from about $1.6 million to about $750,000.

•Students taking different electives, from social studies to physical education, were put in the same class with the same teacher.

•Classroom activities often consisted mostly of rote drills, reading aloud and filling out worksheets.

•A special education teacher did not always show up when she was supposed to.

•Only four students in the entire school passed the math TAKS and only three passed the science TAKS, based on preliminary 2008 scores.

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FW CHARTER SCHOOL GETS CHEATING PENALTY / State officials will overseeTAKS testing on three campuses; September 12, 2007; Dallas Morning News (TX) 

State officials announced punishments for three schools Tuesday, including a Fort Worth charter school that cheated on TAKS tests and may have inflated attendance figures.

At Theresa B. Lee Academy in Fort Worth, the Texas Education Agency will assign an official to oversee student testing and to help with a state audit of the school's attendance records, among other duties. Those steps allow the school to stay open this year…

 [Robert Scott, the TEA's acting commissioner] said the punishment Theresa B. Lee received is about as severe as possible. The state reported in June that investigators had found that school officials doctored student answer sheets, gave students answers and claimed to have lost key records in a "flood" that never happened.

Investigators had wanted to interview students who were listed on the attendance rolls but, according to Lee officials, were absent or had withdrawn from school.

Those aren't Lee's only troubles. The school has also received the state's lowest academic rating of "unacceptable" the last two years. If that pattern continues, Mr. Scott said, he'll consider closing the school next year…

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George Washington Carver Academy

EX-TREASURER OF HIGHLAND PARK CHARTER SCHOOL CHARGED WITH EMBEZZLEMENT; March 11, 2011; The Detroit News (MI) 

Highland Park— The former treasurer of a charter school has been charged with embezzlement for allegedly writing herself a $25,000 check on behalf of the school to buy a house in Detroit.

Attorney General Bill Schuette announced today the felony embezzlement charge was filed against Shantell Bell, formerly of George Washington Carver Academy, which has 527 students.

A Michigan State Police investigation revealed Bell allegedly wrote the check to an Ohio title company and recorded the expense as "textbooks" for the kindergarten through eighth-grade school. She was arraigned Friday in Highland Park's 30th District Court on one count of embezzlement over $20,000. The crime is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $75,000 fine…

According to Schuette, Bell had said Platinum Title Services was a textbook company. In reality, it was the company used to complete the real estate transaction.

Bell's former boyfriend reported the theft to authorities and the investigation began, Schuette said…

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AFTER CHEATING SCANDAL, SCHOOL LEARNS LESSONS IN TAKING TESTS; March 10, 2011; USA Today, 

HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. — The teachers and principal at George Washington Carver Academy, a charter school here, have learned firsthand what happens when an official probe concludes that the staff cheated on a standardized test.

Monitors sent by the Michigan Department of Education have watched over teachers here for the past two years as state tests have been administered. As a group, teachers have been forced to review, line by line, all of the state's testing rules…

Educators at Carver cheated on the tests in many ways, stopping just short of giving students the answers, the state investigation found. Plastic-wrapped exams were opened days before the state allowed, so students could be coached. Teachers gave students hints during the exams in classrooms where interior windows were covered with paper to keep anyone from looking inside. And when students asked questions, teachers showed them how to get the right answer, the state said…

"We had the test booklet," a fifth-grader told investigators about the writing test. The teacher "was teaching us how to do it. It was nice and clear."

A fourth-grader called the test "pretty easy" because the teacher "gave us ideas for the topic sentence and the ending sentence. ... She was trying to help us do our best."…

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Sojourner Truth Learning Academy

SOJOURNER CHARTER SCHOOL CLOSES DOORS- TRUSTEES DENY RENEWAL REQUEST; June 12, 2004; San Diego Union-Tribune (CA) 

The Sojourner Truth Learning Academy, a charter school under scrutiny for alleged financial improprieties, closed for the school year yesterday and will not reopen.

The San Diego Unified School District board voted 4-1 this week to deny the school's application for a five-year charter renewal after being told by district staffers that Sojourner, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade campus, faces a $200,000 deficit…

Located in St. Stephens Cathedral Church of God in Christ on Imperial Avenue in Encanto, Sojourner had an enrollment of 144 and served a predominantly black and Latino student base.

Parents said many of the students who attend the school come from broken homes and have a history of academic and disciplinary troubles, but that at Sojourner they have found a nurturing environment…

According to district reports, the school fared poorly both financially and academically, failing to meet the goals of its charter…

An internal audit the district completed in February said Sojourner paid employees' salaries with money orders and cash in violation of state law and district procedures.

The school wrote checks totaling more than $22,000 to the principal and former and current employees without documenting why the payments were made.

When examining invoices for services rendered to the school, district officials who conducted the review were unable to locate some of the vendors. Out of 25 vendors contacted, 11 could not be reached because their telephone numbers had changed, were incorrect or were answering machines.

The review also said the school received $37,464 in state funding last school year that was not supported by its attendance records. The school's monthly attendance reports failed to account for 1,002 absences marked by teachers.

The review also found that gains third-graders at Sojourner made on standardized language, spelling and reading tests in recent years are suspect. A former school employee declared in two sworn statements that there were unusual erasure marks found on test answer sheets, but that the principal took no action…

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Crescendo charter schools (six schools)

“Charter school group's chief blamed for 2010 cheating scandal.” Los Angeles Times (CA), 8/17/2012

The meeting at Crescendo Preparatory South was progressing as usual when the acting principal dropped a bombshell: She had been given copies of the upcoming standardized tests. The teachers were to study them, take notes — and make sure the kids got it.

Some of the eight instructors were troubled by what seemed to be an order to cheat. One burst into tears.

So began one of the most brazen cheating scandals in the nation. Ultimately, all of Crescendo's schools in South Los Angeles, Gardena and Hawthorne were shut down, its teachers let go and 1,400 students forced to find new schools.

Only the rough outlines of the 2010 scandal were made public, but dozens of interviews with former Crescendo employees and officials — as well as a review of previously unreleased documents — portray an environment so poisoned by demands to excel on state proficiency tests that many submitted to a plan to boost the scores of schools that were already doing well.

Two separate investigations blamed Crescendo's founder and chief executive, John Allen, who was driven, as one official said, by a desire to be "better, better, better, best." Allen has declined all interview requests and maintained his innocence in court documents.

Former Crescendo principals are still grappling with how they were drawn into violating a fundamental tenet of their profession, and teachers are left questioning their own actions and an educational mission in which they believed so deeply...

 

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“L.A. Unified board votes to shut down charter schools accused of cheating.” LA Times (CA), 3/1/2011

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted to shut down six charters schools that were accused of widespread cheating on last year's standardized tests.

The executive director of the six schools, operated by the Crescendo organization in South Los Angeles, Gardena and Hawthorne, had ordered principals and teachers to prepare students for the exams using the actual test questions. Several teachers at the schools had blown the whistle on the alleged cheating.

District staff had previously recommended re-authorizing the charter schools for another five years, citing the schools' strong test results, including on last year's tests, which the state has thrown out. District staff also cited actions taken by Crescendo's leadership to address the cheating allegations. On Monday, that recommendation was revised by incoming Supt. John Deasy, who asked the board to authorize an investigation, after which he would decide whether to ask for a one-year renewal…

The revocation process may take several months, likely allowing the school to continue operating through the end of the year…

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L.A. UNIFIED SET TO RENEW CHARTER CONTRACT DESPITE EVIDENCE OF CHEATING: The director of Crescendo charters, which operates six campuses south of downtown L.A., directed principals and teachers to let students study the actual exam questions on important standardized tests; February 28, 2011; LA Times (CA) 

The performance of Crescendo charter schools was nothing short of remarkable — annual gains on state tests that were sometimes 10 times what other schools would consider strong progress.

Too good, perhaps, to be true.

Last year, administrators and teachers at the six schools south of downtown Los Angeles were caught cheating: using the actual test questions to prepare students for the state exams by which schools are measured.

Nonetheless, on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Board of Education is scheduled to act on a staff recommendation to reauthorize Crescendo's charter, giving the organization another five years to operate. Senior L.A. Unified officials said they are satisfied that Crescendo's governing board took appropriate steps after the cheating was uncovered.

"We did feel when we raised the issues … that the board did respond appropriately and took some swift action," said Jose Cole-Gutierrez, the district's director of charter schools.

In the end, no one was fired, not even John Allen, the founder and executive director who orchestrated the cheating, then denied it had taken place until confronted with overwhelming evidence, according to district documents and officials…

The case underscores a periodic dilemma: What kind of transgression is egregious enough to shut down a charter school? Last June, the co-founders of Ivy Academia in the west San Fernando Valley were indicted on charges of stealing $200,000. They have denied wrongdoing. In December, the founding principal of NEW Academy Canoga Park pleaded guilty to embezzling at least $1.3 million and was sentenced to five years in state prison. Both schools remain open because of their apparent academic success and popularity…

At Crescendo, according to L.A. Unified's account, Allen ordered principals to have teachers break the seal on the state tests and let students practice with the actual test questions…

Allen received a six-month unpaid suspension, then returned to work, demoted to director of facilities. His salary as executive director had been $161,333…

Two of the six Crescendo charter schools are up for a five-year renewal at Tuesday's meeting: Crescendo Charter Academy in Gardena and Crescendo Conservatory in Hawthorne.

The district's recommendation is based largely on high test scores before 2010. Some teachers told district staff that they'd also heard of cheating in 2009, but the district could not confirm those allegations…

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