Georgia Professional Standards Commission

Code of Ethics Presentation for RESA

Gary Walker

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New and Improved Gary Walker

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Old News

Abandonment of Contracts Confidential Information Remuneration of Funds

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Routine News

Testing is a huge issue Inappropriate relationships with

students is a great concern Honesty infractions are on the rise Mandated reporting is required

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Georgia Not Only State With

Questionable Test Scores

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Nationwide Problem

Over 196 of the largest 3,125 school systems in the United States has suspect test score improvement

Odds of obtaining these reported results by chance alone is over 1000 to 1

In 33 of these school systems, the odds were worse than 1,000,000 to 1

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Testing United States spends $760,000,000 a

year on testing required by NCLB States are left to their own in

monitoring the testing Most states do not have resources to

conduct investigations of this magnitude

One graduate student, in her dissertation, surveyed teachers in her state and found that 50% of teachers either had cheated or knew a colleague who had cheated

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New We have moved! Twin Towers-West

200 Piedmont Avenue-Suite 1702 Three new commissioners began in

September-Scott Justus (Hall County), Kami Luigs (GE), Sheryl Stalvey (Colquitt County).

School Systems are aware of Code of Ethics-in the last 4 years only 5 school systems have not reported a violation

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New (cont’d)

Unsatisfactory Evaluation-required reporting and superintendent signs off on assurance form-due no later than June 15 of each year

Technology Baiting, Sexting, and Access

Task Force Initiative

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New (cont’d)

Clearance Certificates People holding a Clearance

Certificate: 56,434 People who hold only a Clearance

Certificate: 29 Are Charter schools in

compliance with O.C.G.A. 20-2-211.1?

Professional Standards Commission and Clearance Certificates - Present

218 Approved Charter schools 92% of Georgia students attend the

public schools of Georgia - 1,673,740 students

Private Schools - 107,509 students Home School - 42,474 students

Gary Walker

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Branding is the key to sales…. Chateau Traileur Parc White Trashfindel World Championship Riesling NASCARbernet Chef Boyardeaux Peanut Noir Grape Expectations Nasti Spumante 14

Information and Data

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Status of APS Cases

185 educators were reported to the PSC

144 case summaries have been presented to the PSC for probable cause determination

41 cases are still under investigation 13 will go to Commission this month The PSC is waiting for the Fulton

County DA to release their investigative files

Status of Dougherty County Cases

The PSC has received approximately 47 cases from the Governor’s Special Investigators

The PSC voted to investigate the allegations at the September meeting.

The staff is working to present the Dougherty Co. cases to the PSC in January and February

Probable Cause Results Year Denied Revoked Voluntary

Total Surrender

FY 2001 15 58 14 87FY 2002 20 44 16 80FY 2003 31 62 21 114FY 2004 26 57 20 103FY 2005 25 93 22 140FY 2006 42 72 17 131FY 2007 23 76 26 125FY 2008 33 54 16 103FY 2009 25 71 27 123FY 2010 13 67 28 108FY 2011 18 58 20 96FY 2012 18 92 25 135

January, 2012-January, 2013

Legal compliance-48 Conduct with Students-52 Alcohol and Drugs-21 Honesty-62 Public Funds and Property-23 Remunerative Conduct-1 Confidential Information-0

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Sanctions

Abandonment of Contract-2 Required Reports-13 Professional Conduct-31 Testing-195 Total-448

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Sanction

Should a certificate be revoked, it is the responsibility of the Superintendent that the Educator not be allowed on a school campus or work with students for the duration of the sanction.

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West Georgia RESA

FY 2011 Carroll County-6 Carrollton City-0 Coweta County-5 Harris County-3 Heard County-0 Meriwether County-9 Troup County-8 Total-31 RESAs avg-61

FY 2012 Carroll County-3 Carrollton City-6 Coweta County-10 Harris County-2 Heard County-2 Meriwether County-2 Troup County-5 Total-30 RESAs avg-64

Regional Ethics Case RatesRESA 2011 Cases 2011 # Certified

Educators per Case

2012 Cases 2012 # Certified Educators per

Case

CSRA 34 178 35 173

Chatt-Flint 63 72 51 88

Coastal Plains 32 134 35 123

First District 71 146 50 207

Griffin 56 146 64 128

Heart of Georgia 9 204 9 204

Metro 426 120 505 101

Middle Georgia 55 103 47 120

North Georgia 23 255 21 279

Northeast Georgia

29 214 40 155

Northwest Georgia

44 203 47 190

Oconee 14 91 24 53

Okefenokee 12 184 12 184

Pioneer 15 377 21 270

Southwest Georgia

58 76 34 130

West Georgia 31 162 30 167

State Totals/Average

974 / 61 132 1025 / 64 129Number of Certified Educators based on 2011 System Report Card, Georgia Department of Education

Gary Walker

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Interesting Cases

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Standard # 1-Legal Compliance

School system reported that an educator had been arrested for Forgery/Obtaining Dangerous Drugs by Fraud.

Upon investigation, it was noted that the educator had been arrested 3 times during the last 9 months on similar charges and admitted to having an addiction.

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Standard # 2-Conduct with Students

The Educator was arrested and charged with a criminal offense-cruelty to children.

The charge was dismissed in exchange for the educator’s testimony against her spouse.

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Standard #2-Conduct with Students

Two school system employees reported that the educator admitted to them that he engaged in sexual activity with a female student while he was her coach.

System investigated Educator resigned

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Conduct with Students The Educator began an inappropriate

relationship with a student during the school year and continued after graduation

Student moved in with Educator He said nothing physical happened

until after graduation-student said otherwise. Eventually she moved out.

Educator admitted to currently dating another student but said it was ok since he was no longer a teacher.

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Standard # 3-Alcohol and Drugs

Educator was behaving in an unusual manner and smelled of alcohol.

Teacher reported suspicion to principal

Educator admitted to consuming approximately 6 beers between 5:00 a. m. and 7:00 a.m.

He said he was drinking because it was just Field Day

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Standard # 5-Public Funds and Property

Educator used school computer to access and store inappropriate material

Students observed at least one inappropriate image

Educator said he had an addiction to pornography.

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Contact information

Paul A. Shaw paul.shaw@gapsc.com 404-232-2635

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