Atlanta's school cheating scandal: 6 takeaways

The city's public schools have been rocked by revelations of dishonesty on standardized tests. What does this teach us about the education system?

Pressured to meet testing targets, teachers and school officials in Atlanta reportedly cheated on student achievement tests to skew scores.
(Image credit: Simon Jarratt/Corbis)

Last week, a report released by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal detailed widespread cheating on standardized tests throughout the Atlanta school system. Close to 80 percent of the 56 elementary and middle school teachers examined in the report had cheated on yearly student-performance tests. The revelations have sent officials and education advocates reeling, and six senior educators have been stripped of their duties. The former superintendent, Dr. Beverly Hall, has been accused of threatening teachers' jobs if they didn't meet certain achievement standards on these tests. Here, six takeaways from the scandal:

1. We need to manage our expectations

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