According to The New York Times, the scandal goes beyond cheating.
Retired district superintendent Beverly L. Hall is among 35 Atlanta educators indicted by a Fulton County grand jury. Dr. Hall was charged with "racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements."
Hall reportedly earned more than $500,000 in performance bonuses. She faces up to 45 years in prison. Dr. Hall has received considerable recognition for her achievements, which later turned out to be counterfeit.
-Cal Thomas 
A grand jury has indicted 35 school administrators and teachers for their alleged part in the biggest standardized test cheating ring in our nation's history... according to Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard, Jr., who spoke at the press conference announcing the indictment, federal funds were used in bonuses awarded to schools and teachers based on the results of Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, and employees who didn't participate in the ring were fired.
A former fifth-grade teacher implicated in a cheating scandal reportedly gave students the illegal assistance because she thought they were “dumb as hell.”
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, math teacher Shayla Smith was accused of offering students the answers to a test they were taking at the time. She had reportedly been responsible for supervising them while the tests were being completed.
Crime, Government, Incompetence, Scandal, Oops, Education, Lie, Convict
Six more indicted Atlanta Public Schools educators have pleaded guilty to their involvement in a standardized test-cheating conspiracy... Thirty-five educators were indicted in the cheating scandal.
Crime, Incompetence, Character, Education
In what has been described as one of the largest cheating scandals to hit the nation's public education system, 35 Atlanta Public Schools educators and administrators were indicted Friday on charges of racketeering and corruption. The indictment is the bookend to a story that was once touted as a model for the nation's school districts after the district's test scores dramatically improved in some of its toughest urban schools.
Government, Character, Scandal, Fraud, Education
With Atlanta in the middle of an unprecedented teacher cheating scandal where at least 178 teachers and principals in more than half the city's elementary schools changed test answers in order to make themselves and the district look good, the looming question now is whether those educators could, or should, face jail time.
In reality, Beverly Hall’s Atlanta Public Schools system was in the child-abuse business: It violated the education of its students in order to improve its employees’ cozy sinecures. The whole rotten, stinking school system is systemically corrupt from the superintendent down. But what are the chances of APS being closed down? How many of those fraudulent non-teachers will waft on within the system until their lucrative retirements?
Government, Character, Scandal, Fraud, Education
Award-winning gains by Atlanta students were based on widespread cheating by 178 named teachers and principals, said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday. His office released a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that names 178 teachers and principals – 82 of whom confessed – in what's likely the biggest cheating scandal in US history.
Government, Fraud, Education
Today is a dark day for the Atlanta Public School system. The State of Georgia’s investigation into allegations of widespread cheating on the CRCT test confirms our worst fears. There is no doubt that systemic cheating occurred on a widespread basis in the school system. Further, there is no question that a complete failure of leadership in the AtlantaPublic School system hurt thousands of children who were promoted to the next grade without meeting basic academic standards.
Government, Character, Fraud, Education
Across Atlanta Public Schools, staff worked feverishly in secret to transform testing failures into successes. Teachers and principals erased and corrected mistakes on students’ answer sheets. Area superintendents silenced whistle-blowers and rewarded subordinates who met academic goals by any means possible. Superintendent Beverly Hall and her top aides ignored, buried, destroyed or altered complaints about misconduct, claimed ignorance of wrongdoing and accused naysayers of failing to believe in poor children’s ability to learn. For years — as long as a decade — this was how the Atlanta school district produced gains on state curriculum tests.
Atlanta Public Schools Teachers Guilty
After more than eight days of deliberation in a case that rattled the region and garnered unwanted national attention, a jury found 11 of 12 former Atlanta Public Schools teachers, principals and administrators guilty of conspiring to change student answers on standardized tests. A racketeering indictment could mean a 20-year prison sentence.
Hypocrisy, Crime, Government, Financial, Fraud, Education, Greed, Corruption, Convict
After more than eight days of deliberation in a case that rattled the region and garnered unwanted national attention, a jury found 11 of 12 former Atlanta Public Schools teachers, principals and administrators guilty of conspiring to change student answers on standardized tests. A racketeering indictment could mean a 20-year prison sentence. The other felonies carry prison sentences of as much as five and 10 years each... The former educators are accused of conspiring to change answers on the 2009 CRCT to artificially inflate scores to satisfy federal benchmarks. The prosecution said bonuses and raises were awarded based on test scores.