Miles Elementary School Teacher Cleared in APS Cheating Scandal

A former Miles Elementary teacher is one of two Atlanta Public Schools teachers cleared to return to the the classroom, according to local news reports.

Kiatonya Wormley of Miles Elementary and Lori Dewberry of Jackson Elementary were allowed to return to work after state investigators notified the district there was not enough evidence to punish them for academic fraud, a story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Dewberry returned to Jackson, while Wormley was transferred to Kimberly Elementary, school officials said.

Special Investigator Bob Wilson told WSB-TV why he and fellow special investigators Mike Bowers and Richard Hyde have removed the two teachers from the list of implicated educators after they reviewed the evidence again.

“Two teachers that we had implicated, we felt like the evidence wasn’t there and should be removed from that list and allowed to go back to work,” Wilson said, according to the report on the WSB-TV website.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, investigators do not expect more educators to be added or removed from the list. But they have said all along their investigation didn't capture every instance of cheating, which reportedly went on as long as a decade in the district. The investigation came after a series of stories in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution raised questions about improbable gains in test scores.

The state of Georgia's 2009 CRCT cheating report said cheating took place in 44 schools. More than 80 educators confessed. All of those named in the report were placed on paid administrative leave by the district.

A July 18 Cascade Patch review of a state investigation and school district records found that almost two-thirds of the schools implicated in the scandal are in southwest Atlanta.