Key cards show DeKalb educators could have accessed CRCTs

“There’s a chain of evidence that requires only certain people to have access to those tests,” schools’ spokesman Walter Woods said Friday. “There were several instances where employees accessed school over the weekend and those employees were flagged.”

School lawyers have refused to identify the nine schools impacted, citing the ongoing investigation.

The AJC has filed Open Records Requests for that information. However, school staff who are close to the individuals removed have identified the following schools as being among them: Rainbow, Shadow Rock, Cedar Grove, Glen Haven, Stoneview and Woodridge elementary schools, and Cedar Grove Middle School.

The Georgia Professional Standards Commission has an ongoing investigation into the employees' teaching certifications. Late Friday, the DeKalb County district attorney's office received information to launch its investigation.

School officials caution that staff moves are made every year, so if a teacher is removed from a school no inference can be made that testing irregularities occurred at that school.

The school district has spent more than $490,000 for substitutes to temporarily fill those vacancies. Many are retired educators who were willing to come back, Woods said.

DeKalb launched its internal investigation last year after the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement found a high number of erasures on the April 2009 CRCTs.

School leaders assembled three teams, each with four administrators, to try to uncover whether school employees cheated. The investigation did not add expenses since it was handled by staff, Woods said.

The teams, which included internal affairs investigators and curriculum staff, targeted 26 schools that were labeled to have had severe or moderate erasures. A statistical analysis of the 2009 and 2010 tests was performed, interviews were conducted and key cards were examined to see when staff entered and exited buildings.

In each school, the tests were locked in filing cabinets, closets or other locations that were secure from the public, custodians and other staff. But principals and some teachers had access to the secure locations, Woods said.

The teams conducted 280 interviews, including those with every employee who entered these secure areas and the schools during odd hours. These interviews were turned over to the state in May, school officials said.

The teams then narrowed the list of target schools to 11. Interviews were conducted with another 59 employees and those findings were turned over to the state in August, Woods said.

On Dec. 17,  the state agreed that nine of the 11 schools had problems, Woods said.

But just because employees accessed a secure office or a classroom on the weekend, doesn’t mean they cheated, said David Schutten, president of the Organization of DeKalb Educators.

“We have dedicated employees that go to the buildings and work,” said Schutten, who represents almost 5,000 employees in DeKalb. “It’s all circumstantial, indirect evidence. There is no evidence that DeKalb cheated. I went into the schools and told them [to] cooperate. It’s nothing like Atlanta where people didn’t talk or cooperate.”

In some cases, investigators found individuals who accessed the school on weekends had done so many other weekends through the years. In another case, an employee had to go to Glen Haven Elementary School to feed the fish.

“Glen Haven has a fish hatchery. Someone has to go feed the fish on the weekend,” Schutten said.

Olivia Ramsey, who has a second-grader at Glen Haven, said she had heard talk about cheating among teachers.

“It’s terrible when you can’t trust the students or the teachers,” she said.

School officials said they cannot identify the employees until the Georgia Professional Standards Commission completes its investigation.

The 24 educators, and five others who no longer work in DeKalb, were referred to the PSC. Its investigation will determine whether they can keep their teaching certifications.

Many of the 24 are reassigned to cataloging, distributing and ordering textbooks. Others are working on a special education research report, Woods said.

On Friday, Schutten and members of his executive board that lead the district’s largest union, helped the reassigned employees find lawyers.

“This is putting people through a lot of stress and embarrassment,” he said. “I was in one school and could see people had been crying that morning.”

Some of the employees are scared of being prosecuted, Schutten said.

School officials delivered their investigation to DeKalb District Attorney Robert James around 5:15 p.m. Friday. James said his office will perform a “thorough review of the internal investigation and determine if criminal charges should be filed or not.”

Interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson said she cried and prayed over the moves.

“I’m a 22-year veteran with DeKalb schools. I’ve been a colleague, subordinate and supervisor,” she told the AJC on Friday. “A lot of people who come through my office are people who I have grown with in [the] district, but I have to do what is best for children. Whatever those relationships may have been, they simply become a secondary focus when the priority is for children.”

School officials say some 1,400 students may not have accurate test results. That means these students could be below grade level, even though their scores showed otherwise. To try and address these students, the district is communicating with parents and intends to set up “learning support plans.”

School officials said 2010 tests were not compromised because they were stored elsewhere and state monitors were in place. This year’s tests will have even stricter security, Tyson said.

“We have done the due diligence in what is best for kids, but DeKalb still has work to do,” Tyson said. “We’re taking responsibility in completing this process that was initiated by GOSA. We followed the guidance of GOSA to ensure all of our people are trained for the next year, had onsite monitors, we put the proper protocols in place to ensure security. We did it in 2010 and will further that in 2011.”

Staff reporter Jaime Sarrio contributed to this report.