An Atlanta school cheating scandal is raising questions nationally about high-pressure testing and heightening concern about new exams Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is crafting to judge teacher effectiveness.

Georgia officials made national news last week by unveiling results of a state investigation that found widespread cheating on tests in Atlanta public schools. Dozens of principals and top administrators - including a former national superintendent of the year - were implicated, and at least 82 educators confessed to various forms of cheating, including erasing wrong answers.

"It can happen anywhere," said Claudia Flowers, a UNC Charlotte education professor who has served on state testing advisory boards for North Carolina and Georgia. "It seems to happen in places where there's a lot of pressure" to raise scores.

That could easily describe CMS, where teachers have been chafing at the prospect of hundreds of new tests their bosses want to use to determine teacher effectiveness and perhaps their pay as well.

CMS this spring rolled out 75 of the new tests, including about 30 tied to Advanced Placement classes and courses for students with special needs. Hundreds more are planned.

Teachers, concerned about the impact on their performance ratings and pay, have called the tests unnecessary, expensive, and a distraction from real teaching and learning.

Chris Cobitz, CMS' top testing official, doubts a scandal like Atlanta's could happen here, even with the controversial new tests coming on line over the next three years.

He said educators in CMS have little tolerance for cheating and are quick to report violations - so much so that his office usually gets alerted long before the compromised tests are scored.

"It's hard to imagine we could have anything like that going on in CMS without someone noticing," he said. "The culture of CMS is such that ... it's very hard to keep a secret like that."

Nancy Guzman, principal of Sterling Elementary, expressed similar thoughts. She added, however, that with so much riding on the new tests, they could generate more test security violations.

"I hate to say it, but we just need to be more vigilant to make sure things are done with integrity," she said.

Cobitz said his office conducted 11 investigations last school year; six turned out to be violations of CMS' testing code of ethics. (He couldn't immediately say whether that was more than in previous years.)

Citing personnel confidentiality rules, he declined to name the schools involved, type of staff involved or the punishments given.

In most cases, he said, his office was alerted by tipsters. Some were CMS staffers.

Cobitz said CMS schools adhere to state guidelines requiring tests to be kept under lock and key, and that call for a proctor in every classroom during testing. Each school has a staffer trained to act as testing coordinator, responsible for test security.

In Atlanta, authorities said some principals were tampering with the tests after students had completed them. Cobitz said principals are selected because officials believe they can protect not only tests, but hundreds of children as well.

"At some level, we have to trust our staff," he said.

Judy Kidd, head of the Classroom Teachers' Association, said teachers she knows are too ethical to cheat. Besides, she added, they can lose their jobs and teaching licenses if caught.

"Let's face it, it's not exactly the type of thing you'd want your name associated with."