Alleged PACT Scammer Placed On Leave
The FITS gals were halfway up the road to Halifax County, N.C. today to conduct an exclusive interview with MiShawna Moore – the former S.C. elementary school principal who is at the center of a growing academic fraud investigation in this state – when news broke that the embattled educrat had been placed on administrative leave by her new employer.
“She’s not here and she will not be here,†a Halifax County Schools spokeswoman told FITSNews on Friday morning. “She is on leave and is not answering any questions. No one here is answering any questions.â€
Asked if the district was aware of the scandal engulfing Moore here in South Carolina, the spokeswoman responded by hanging up the phone.
Moore, whose Charleston students showed suspiciously-high improvements on state-administered standardized tests in recent years, resigned from her position as principal of two Lowcountry, S.C. schools earlier this year.
Her resignation – which came as a surprise to a community that had previously hailed her as a “miracle worker†– was followed by the release of new test results (this time monitored by district officials) which showed dramatic declines in her students’ performance.
South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) is currently investigating multiple allegations of academic fraud after the State Department of Education found serious discrepancies in the tests beginning in 2006 but chose not to take any action.
Moore is categorically denying any wrongdoing, blaming her students’ academic free-fall on the “disruptive†presence of district observers during the administration of this year’s exams.
This excuse, however, doesn’t mesh with multiple reports from fellow educators indicating that Moore’s students showed up in their classrooms lacking basic proficiency in subjects they were supposed to have mastered under Moore’s tutelage.
Several lawmakers we’ve spoken with are already looking at strengthening South Carolina’s laws against academic fraud in the wake of the scandal, a story we’ll have more on in the coming days.
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