ATLANTA -- A key witness in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating trial testified on Monday that he orchestrated cheating at Parks Middle School.
When Christopher Waller became principal of Parks in 2005, it was on the state needs improvement list. He said he began complaining that 6th graders coming from feeder elementary schools,such as Gideons Elementary, didn't perform at the level they showed on the CRCT.
"It wasn't the children's fault that they were so far behind," Waller said. "Some of them didn't know that they were so far behind."
Waller said that he told his area supervisor at the time, defendant Michael Pitts, what he suspected. Waller said Pitts told him, "You can't go around accusing people. Keep your mouth shut."
Waller said he then joined in. He recruited several educators to help with cheating. He told jurors they illegally obtained answers to the CRCT and then either gave students' the answers ahead of time, or changed wrong answers to correct ones after the students finished the tests.
Cheating went so far that in 2008, every 7th grader at Parks made a perfect score on the CRCT in science, and Waller testified Pitts called him and said, "Looks like y'all cheating over there."
Waller insisted it became well-known within APS that cheating took place, but he said it wasn't something they discussed.
"Principals didn't get together and sit around a table and talk about what we're going to do to make target and how we were going to cheat," he said.
Cross examination for Waller began Monday beginning with Pitts' lawyer. With 12 defense attorneys, he could be on a stand several days.
