Criminal charges could follow scathing CRCT report

ATLANTA -- There has been a major development in the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) cheating scandal inside the Atlanta Public School District.

The Atlanta Joual-Constitution got an advanced look at an investigative report the goveor is set to release later Tuesday moing.

The CRCT report details potentially criminal acts by school district officials after state investigators uncovered a decade’s worth of cheating at Atlanta Public Schools.

The Atlanta Joual-Constitution is reporting what Reed suspected two weeks ago.

"I think that the cheating scandal, the ultimate investigation is just going to be extremely bad," Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said.

Investigators collected hundreds of pages documenting a cheating scandal where teachers and administrators allegedly erased and changed answers on the CRCT tests.

Channel 2’s John Bachman asked Reed, "Do you think the cheating scandal goes all the way to the stop?"

Reed said, "My sense is that it does -- my sense is that there is a -- there are not many individuals at the top of the system that were not aware of this in some form or fashion to varying degrees."

And according to the Atlanta Joual-Constitution, the report concludes that Superintendent Beverly Hall, who stepped down last week, knew or should have known about the cheating scandal.

The report also names nearly 180 educators, including more than three dozen principals, as participants in cheating on the state curriculum tests.

The Atlanta Joual-Constitution also reports that investigators got dozens of confessions.

Officials who have seen the report briefed the Atlanta Joual-Constitution on its contents.

The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information.

To read the Atlanta Joual-Constitution's story, click here.