Troubled (charter) school's principal fired previously over testing scandal

[FBaggins]

The principal of STEAM Academy, a Winston-Salem charter school facing a do-or-die set of standardized tests this spring, was fired in 2009 after a Virginia state investigation blamed her in a testing scandal there.

Principal Susan Lawyer Willis, who joined STEAM Academy in December, has declared her innocence. Her attorney in Virginia told the local press at the time that she was set up.

Lawyer Willis declined to discuss the issue Monday with the Winston-Salem Journal, following a lengthy article Sunday on the school's financial problems and its need to pass state end-of-grade tests or face revocation of its charter, which would effectively close the school.

Lawyer Willis was accused of juggling class schedules for 31 students at Fleming High School in Roanoke, Va., so they wouldn't have to take end-of-year Standards of Learning tests, which are similar to North Carolina's end-of-grade tests. A Virginia Department of Education investigation found that she and other school administrators were "responsible for egregious violations" and that "course schedules were manipulated for the purpose of influencing (Fleming High School's) pass rates" in 2008 and 2009.

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2012/apr/09/1/troubled-schools-principal-fired-previously-over-t-ar-2143142/

[MrTeachbad]

1. Fired principal maybe OK

I worked at a DC school that had the best principal I've ever worked for. A few years after I left he resigned from his asst. superintendent position amid a cheating scandal at the school he was promoted from. I don't know if he did it, but I wouldn't respect him any less. It's a fairly rational, reasonable response to a corrupt, unreasonable and disingenuous system.

Mr. Teachbad
teachbad.com

[FBaggins]

2. I'm sorry... are you really saying that cheating is a reasonable response?

We teach our students with far more than our lesson plans. What does this teach them?

[MrTeachbad]

3. I don't know...

But don't get sanctimonious on me right away. I'm just saying that he is not a bad guy. He led the school through some very difficult times and he was then put in an unreasonable situation in the form of expectations that he dramatically raise scores in a school with 98% FRL that draws almost its entire population from two public housing projects. Most of us here keep saying that the tests are bad for kids and that the whole testing regime is wrongheaded if not immoral. I don't know if it happened, but if it did, maybe it was more like civil disobedience.

The world is a messy place.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Administrators are fired and then hired somewhere else all the time

Teachers' careers are over if they are fired.

So what's the story here?

[FBaggins]

5. I thought "the story" fit with other threads here.

"Charter school doesn't perform adequate background research on who they hire"

Or are you saying that a principal fired in a cheating scandal would be rehired in another public school?

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Yes that's what I'm saying.

Nothing shocks me anymore.