The Atlanta public school system is casting a wide net to help prosecutors search for any scrap of information in their investigation into alleged cheating on tests.
All 3,000 teachers in the system were under orders Monday to sign a document in connection with a recent subpoena issued by a Fulton County grand jury.
The subpoena demands, among other things, copies of "any document, communication or complaint made by any person" concerning scores on Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests going back to 1999.
Investigators appointed by the Georgia governor's office issued a report in July that accused 178 Atlanta school employees of cheating on the 2009 CRCT. The special investigators then handed the case to Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard, who declined to comment Monday.
The school system says the order to all teachers was necessary to comply with the subpoena issued Aug. 12, but a lawyer for several employees named in the July report said teachers need not comply.
The subpoena seeks information about teacher transfers and demotions, bonuses paid to employees for improved test scores and copies of complaints from parents, teachers or students of possible improprieties related to the tests. The school system boiled it down to a one-page document submitted to all certified employees, including teachers.
The "collection certification" asks them to review all "records, data and other material" in their control, then check one of two lines: one says they found nothing pertinent to the subpoena; the other says they found relevant records. If they found something useful to the investigation, they're supposed to describe the record and indicate to whom they gave it.
"As any teacher may potentially have the requested documents and records in their possession, all are being asked to review their files and records and sign it," said Keith Bromery, a spokesman for the school system.
Bruce Harvey, a lawyer for several accused educators, said the school system's order was"overreaching and ludicrous."
Harvey said the subpoena was issued to the school system and not to teachers and that he would be counseling his clients to ignore it.
"Teachers have no responsibility to do anything or gather any documents," he said.
The subpoena seeks any manner of records, whether on paper or on a computer hard drive. Investigators want anything from spreadsheets to lists that describe complaints about testing improprieties and how they were handled.
Atlanta schools superintendent Erroll Davis issued a memo dated Friday to all employees advising them to cooperate with the investigation. He warned them that they could be fired if they did not.
Ramon Reeves, president of the Atlanta Association of Educators, said the group's attorneys determined the request is legal.
But Reeves said the APS teachers he has spoken with are nervous about the request and the short turn around to comply.
"Nobody wants to do the wrong thing," Reeves said.
Staff writer Steve Visser contributed to this report.
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