Former principal pleads guilty to falsifying test answers at Atherton Elementary
- 12/17/09
- Categorized in: DeKalb News, Education
Former Atherton Elementary School Principal James Berry pleaded guilty to falsifying state documents – his students’ state-standardized tests, more specifically – this month and received two years probation and a fine, officials said.
The final year of Berry’s probation is suspended, his attorney, Jackie Patterson, said. He must also pay a $1,000 fine. Under the state’s First Offender Act, Berry will also be able to say he’s never been charged with a felony provided he complies with the terms of his probation, Patterson said. The law allows the court to decide when the act is applicable.
Berry was charged with a felony and could have received up to 10 years in prison, according to a statement from the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
Through Patterson, Berry declined comment.
“He is of the opinion that this matter is closed, and he doesn’t want to do any speaking at all,” Patterson said. “He’s ready to move on with his life.”
Berry and an assistant principal at the school, Doretha Alexander, were arrested and charged in June following a state investigation into four Atlanta-area schools suspected of changing scores on the state CRCT test to meet federal school improvement standards. Alexander was also charged with falsifying state documents.
Berry resigned on June 11, and Alexander was fired. But both educators lost their state teaching licenses in September after they were temporarily banned by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission. Berry is banned from teaching for two years, and Alexander is banned for one. Both rulings were considered harsh, according to some education officials.
Patterson said he expects Alexander – who he does not represent – to enter a plea shortly.
The state probe, performed by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, looked at the number of times a wrong answer on a math test scorecard was erased and replaced with the right one. The CRCT test is given to students in grades one through eight statewide and designed to measure how well students at each grade level have learned the state curriculum.
The governor’s office looked at a summer retest of the exam’s math section in 2008 – the first year schools were allowed to use their retest scores to determine whether they would make Adequate Yearly Progress, a federal designation under the No Child Left Behind Act.
The state looked at 32 students’ tests and determined someone changed wrong answers on an Atherton student’s test to the right one an average number of 15.19 times, according to the state report. Atlanta’s Deerwood Academy had a 3.44 average number of changes.
No teachers or students were involved in test tampering, deputy superintendent Robert Moseley said.
Banish — my mandolin
Strikes true within —
Slay — and my Soul shall rise
Chanting to Paradise —
Still thine Emily Dickinson
Look at your toddler, a healthy, well adjusted child. Perhaps, he or she is gifted musically. He/she may be the child that has the desire to please everyone they meet.
As the toddler begins to thin and grow tall, with more pronounced features, he/she notices pleasing others gets positive reactions.
When your child looks in the mirror, what does the child see? When the child looks at you, what does the child see? He/she may not reflect the portrait that media and local peers consider shining beautiful. It is possible that, the shining will manifests as the comedian, over-achiever, or local hero, within the child.
When John Q Public picks up a newspaper; he sees the portrait that is painted by the media. This is not the same picture that parents see of their little boy or girl through years of cooing, cuddling, learning to clumsily take a first step, first tooth or band recital. If your child looks like Marilyn Monroe, lives the life of Mother Theresa, and the media paints an ugly portrait, it’s not so easy for the public to react to the story. If your child looks like the average fellow, who has worked hard, as an over-achiever, developed a few wrinkles, belly-fat, due to stress, and a bald head, the portrait can be quite distorted. Funny thing about those who go out of our way to please others, they also go out of their way to protect others.
James Berry hales from a small community, mostly composed of his relatives, in Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi. He was an over-achiever, musically gifted, little boy. James was obedient, loving, Christian, concerned about his community.
His glowing personality and musical abilities led him to be the Head Drum Major at Jackson State University, Jackson, MS
If you ever met James on the street, and recognized him as that high-stepping, impeccably dressed, rhythmic dancer leading the Sonic Boom in parades, and on the field, you might have been a little shy about speaking to him. No worries! James was everybody’s friend. In the small community that James was from, it was not common for individuals to be as gifted and determined toward success as James. Yet he never became pumped up or passed anyone on the street without speaking. He thought of any Christian as his sister or brother. He was willing to teach his skills to any child who asked, “How do you do that”?
After being given a prestigious position in the GA School System, everyone back home was proud of him. That pride came with some reservations for some of us who knew something about DeKalb County.
As blacks began to challenge the legal system during the late 1960s, using the Brown v. Board of Education decision as a stepping-stone, they were able to experience the first signs of desegregation. The only problem was that the Brown decision had been ruled fifteen years earlier. The DeKalb County schools repeatedly, used the issue of overcrowding as an excuse for not having the resources available to de-segregate.
Even today, as non-white baby boomers sit and watch their grandchildren run into a predominantly white restaurant, laugh, and play as they eat, then leave half their food on the table, that grandparent knows that 75 years ago, in America, the atmosphere and the faces in the restaurant would be quite different. The economically depressed southern black man did not take a good meal for granted in those days.
As a young adolescent James was a gem in a dark cave waiting for his talents to be noticed. After entering Jackson State University, the community and the world started to notice his special abilities. His infectious smile won the hearts of all lookers-on as he paraded down Capitol Street, in Jackson, MS leading the blue and gold, Sonic Boom, (JSU marching band) in the Christmas parade. This is the portrait that the children he cares so much for, saw as they screamed out from the side lines, “show out, James”. Show out, he would, to please them. I can’t believe that there is a mean bone in his body. That’s why it hurts to see him treated with such callous by the media and community in his school district. In light of the fact that every parent, teacher, and administrator in America has complained and petitioned against ‘No Child Left Behind’, since it was enacted, I thought at least one parent would paint him as a modern day Robin Hood.
Come back to Mi – crooked letter, crooked letter – I – crooked letter, crooked letter – I – ppi. We love you James.
The superintendent made an incredible error in judgement supporting these two criminals. But he has made a lot of errors in judgement. And he's been with the school system for over 36 years. It's well past time for a change.