Testing Scandal: 11 of 12 Atlanta Educators Convicted

Eleven former Atlanta educators were charged on Wednesday with racketeering, among other crimes, in an alleged district-wide cheating scandal to inflate students’ standardized test scores.

"We've been fighting for the children in our community, particularly those children who were deprived by this cheating scandal," Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said, according to CNN.

Only one of 12 accused was acquitted of all charges, with the 11 convicted representing teachers, testing coordinators and an assortment other administrators accused of participating in the conspiracy dating back to 2005.

Ten of those defendants were taken into custody, while one woman – who is pregnant – is to remain out on bond until sentencing at a later date, CNN reports.

Racketeering was just one conviction in a mixture of other charges, including false statements.The scandal was “motivated by pressure to meet federal and local standards to receive bonuses or keep their jobs in the Atlanta Public Schools district of about 50,000 students,” CBS News reports.

A Fulton County grand jury indicted 35 educators from the district in 2013, prompting more than 20 former school system employees to take a plea deal.

“A state review had determined that some cheating had occurred in more than half the district's elementary and middle schools. About 180 teachers at 44 schools were implicated initially,” details CNN.“The cheating is believed to date back to early 2001, when scores on statewide skills tests began to turn around in the 50,000-student school district, according to the 2013 indictment.”

For at least four of those years – between 2005 and 2009 – it was discovered that test answers were “altered, fabricated and falsely certified,” the indictment reportedly said.

"Anything that you can imagine that could involve cheating -- it was done," Michael Bowers, a former Georgia attorney general who investigated the case, said when the scandal was uncovered.

Beverly Hall, the superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, resigned in 2010. Hall, who was too ill to go to trial and died this past March, consistently denied having knowledge of any misconduct. Abgoon