APS Officials Explain Involvement In CRCT Probe

By Rose Scott

Atlanta, GA –
What role did some Atlanta Public Schools officials have in investigating possible cheating, on the 2009 Criterion Referenced Competency Test?
And was it a conflict of interest?
WABE's Rose Scott reports:

KPMG and Caveon were the two firms hired by APS to conduct the probe.
That included analysis of the test erasures and conducting interviews.
However, APS management and other staff took part in the interviews.
District spokesperson Keith Bromery explains why:

BROMERY:
"the firm asked Dr. Hall if she would support the interview process and she agreed"

APS's involvement in the interviews has raised some concerns about the district's initial claim to remain independent of the investigation.
Barbara Payne is with the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation.
She says there's no way to prevent intimidation if an APS official was present:

PAYNE:
"if this report was about something else besides cheating but the fact we're talking about cheating, talking children's future children lives, nobody in APS should be involve, everybody in APS in my opinion is responsible"

When asked about the intimidation factor APS spokesperson Keith Bromery discredits that notion:

BROMERY:
"there wasn't a concern about intimidation of employees because again we only supplemented what the investigators from those two firms were doing anyway"

Bromery says APS officials were trained by the testing firms and given the questions to ask. He went on to say, if APS had not agreed to help, the investigation might have taken even longer than it already has.
This is the second concern regarding possible conflict of interest with the investigation.
APS Board chair LaChandra Bulter Burks is also on the commission overseeing the probe.