article_snippet.sent: eight teachers and administrators who stood trial and were convicted of racketeering'd been accused of taking part in an effort to raise tests scores at struggling schools by erasing wrong answers and putting in correct answers.
article_snippet.sent: These kids can't read.
article_snippet.sent: I'm not a racketeer," said Diane Buckner-Webb, a former elementary teacher.
article_snippet.sent: Prosecutors said the cheating is believed to date back to 2001, when scores on statewide aptitude tests improved greatly, according to a 2013 indictment.
article_snippet.sent: a 2013 indictment also states that for at least four years, between 2005 and 2009, test answers were altered, fabricated or falsely certified.
article_snippet.sent: Michael Bowers, a former Georgia attorney general who investigated the cheating scandal, said in 2013 that there were "cheating parties," erasures in and out of classrooms, and teachers were told to make changes to student answers on tests.
article_snippet.sent: Bowers said Bowers heard that educators cheated out of pride, to earn bonuses, to enhance educators careers or to keep educators jobs.