Before APS Cheating Scandal, One Agency Sounded Alarm

While the news of the verdicts in the APS cheating trial are making headlines, “A Closer Look” turned back to the state agency that sounded the alarm on cheating in Atlanta Schools system.

In 2009, Kathleen Mathers was the Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. During the trial she showed the court specific schools that showed significant changes on the Criterion Reference Competency Test, or CRCT. Mathers testified that, after the school board’s Blue Ribbon Commission failed to meet the state’s standard, the state began its own investigation.