This Could Be The Largest Cheating Scandal in America

More than 130 Philly educators accused of manipulating standardized tests.

New SRC Chairman Bill Green may be stepping into a bigger mess than he bargained for. The Philadelphia Public School Notebook reports: “After more than two years of investigations by both the state and the School District, 138 Philadelphia educators have been implicated in test score cheating, according to information given to the School Reform Commission Thursday.”

The sheer numbers in Philadelphia alone make this one of the largest cheating scandals in the country. Some 178 educators were disciplined in Atlanta, 35 indicted on criminal charges, including the former superintendent.

In Philadelphia, the investigation of cheating on the state standardized test, the PSSA, was well underway when William Hite took over as superintendent in September, 2012. “Given the  serious nature of the allegations and their impact on students, I provided staff with my full support and was committed to ridding our system of adults who participated in this type of behavior,” Hite said. “Although investigations are now completed, the School District will continue to devote resources to the disciplinary process against those suspected of violating basic ethical standards.”

The apparent cheating occurred under then-Supt. Arlene Ackerman, who was later forced to resign. Ackerman died last February.