Letters: When a charter cheats
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 Two separate investigations into the cheating scandal blamed Crescendo founder and chief executive John Allen, who was driven, as one official said, by a desire to be “better, better, better, best." (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times / March 4, 2011) |
Re "How charter schools' cheating scandal began," Aug. 18
As a former high school teacher, I am outraged at the cheating apparently engineered by Crescendo charter schools founder John Allen. His practice of giving the real test to the teachers and principals ahead of time gives new meaning to "teaching to the test."
Through this sordid story, all the persons in authority — the principals who passed out the tests, then-L.A. Unified School District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, school board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte — let Allen off the hook with their personal rationalizations. The heroes in the story are the teachers who stood up to authority despite the chance that they would lose their jobs: Lisa Sims, Sandra Kim and
