Allows student cheating to meet school goals A former Georgia elementary school teacher has become the first person to plead guilty in an Atlanta public schools test-cheating scandal. Lisa Terry pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction and was sentenced to 12 months probation, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday.
In a statement before Fulton County Superior Judge Jerry Baxter, Terry apologized for her actions and expressed regret for failing "to uphold the ethics and standards of the teaching profession."
Saying she was under "constant" pressure by administrators at her school, Terry admitted "it does not justify my choice to violate the trust of the parents and students that I served or the law."
In exchange for her plea, prosecutors dropped charges of racketeering and theft by taking.
Terry wrote she had not intended to harm her students when she instructed them to check their work on Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.
She said she acted out of fear she might not meet the school's progress goals or that she might get a poor job evaluation.
Source: UPI