PURE GOLD VALLEY

Bice: MPS grade inquiry may be quick

The Alabama State Department of Education?s investigation into grade-changing allegations made by teachers who worked at three Montgomery high schools is well under way, and could be concluded in a relatively short time, state superintendent Tommy Bice said.

The three-person team is currently sorting through computer data, and several Montgomery Public Schools employees have contacted the ALSDE to provide more information relevant to the case, he said.

During a phone interview this week with the Montgomery Advertiser, Bice said he believes the background and expertise of the three investigators working the case, combined with the details collected by the school system?s computerized grading system, will allow ALSDE to conclude its investigation relatively quickly.

?The system tracks changes made to students? grades and it makes it easier to go through the system and determine if changes were made that should not have been,? Bice said. ?There will be a log of activity. Currently, we are doing random sampling throughout the four (traditional) public high schools in Montgomery to see if we can spot any odd activity ? grades that were changed for no reason or grades that were altered drastically.

?I believe the three individuals we selected for this team provides us with a broad lens through which to view this investigation. Their expertise in these areas will be very beneficial.?

The team includes Dr. Terry Jenkins, former Auburn City Schools superintendent, Larry Raines, a former high school principal and ACCESS (Internet-only recovery classes) administrator at ALSDE and A.J. Price, the former technology coordinator and INOW contract specialist for ALSDE. INOW is the state-mandated student records system that tracks changes in grades.

The investigation is focused on allegations of mass grade changes first reported by the Montgomery Advertiser earlier this month. Nearly 30 current and former MPS teachers alleged witnessing or participating in improper grade changes.

Bice said that the ALSDE investigation will pivot into in-person interviews of ?numerous? teachers and MPS employees, including the teachers named in the stories who are willing to talk. In addition, Bice said he has been contacted by five MPS employees in the two weeks since announcing the ALSDE investigation and those employees will also be interviewed.

?They said they had information that was very beneficial to the investigation,? Bice said. ?These people contacted us and they were willing to put their name on the piece of paper and pass along what they knew. We are happy to speak to anyone who has information. We will interview a number of people for this.?

Bice said it was possible that additional MPS employees have contacted the three investigators.

Because of the expertise of Jenkins, Raines and Price, Bice said he believes ALSDE?s investigation will not stretch past a few weeks.

?I think their expertise will allow us to move much more quickly than maybe someone who isn?t as familiar with the school system and the computer system,? Bice said. ?It would be much more difficult for someone coming in cold.?

Former FBI agent John Mulligan is doing just that as he conducts a second investigation for MPS. Mulligan, who investigated white collar crime for the FBI, will be paid $80 per hour and will have his pay capped at $10,000. At 40 hours per week, that gives Mulligan just over three weeks to complete his investigation.

That?s left some questioning if he?ll have time, given the complexity of the system, to dig very deep.

?I think it will be very hard, if not impossible, for someone who doesn?t know this system to come in here and learn it and then spot the errors or problems in that time frame,? said Tina Fleming, who worked at R.E. Lee High School as a data entry specialist for 10 years. Fleming told the Advertiser that she witnessed the school?s credit recovery courses being mishandled.

As a data entry specialist, Fleming dealt with the INOW computer grading system on a daily basis, and she, along with other data entry specialists at schools across the state, was considered a sort of on-campus computer tech, often assisting teachers and administrators with problems and complex processes.

?Not many people on a school campus understand how the system works from top to bottom,? she said. ?They have their tasks that they perform and they know those tasks, but not many people learn things outside of that. It?s a very complex system with a variety of rules and regulations involved. I just don?t think it?s very likely that someone will be able to first learn this system and then conduct an investigation in such a short time.?

Asked specifically about Fleming?s comments, Bice agreed that it would be difficult and very time consuming for someone unfamiliar with the system to start from scratch.

?Not being familiar with how the system operates would put someone at a disadvantage in terms of time,? Bice said.

MPS officials were asked to provide an update on Mulligan?s investigation but declined to do so. MPS spokesman Tom Salter said in an email that ?Mr. Mulligan won?t be releasing any information until he finishes his work.?

Bice said one of the primary focuses of ALSDE?s investigation will be the grade recovery courses that many teachers, along with Fleming and another data entry specialist, said were being abused by administrators. The teachers claimed school officials had disregarded state guidelines, and documents provided to the Advertiser show the high schools in Montgomery were operating their grade recovery programs differently.

?(Credit recovery) is one of the most important pieces of this,? Bice said. ?The credit recovery guidelines are very specific from a state level. (MPS?s) credit recovery is very clear. We?ll learn quickly if those were followed.?

Bice ultimately wouldn?t put a timeframe on when he expected the investigation to be complete, saying only that he expected it to be ?weeks, not months.?

He also said that if anyone suspects that he will cover for school officials who possibly violated rules, and maybe even laws, they?re mistaken.

?If people think that, they don?t know me very well,? Bice said. ?We?ve put some pretty serious stakes in the ground at other places around the state. We won?t hesitate to do the same thing here.?

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This post was written by: Franklin Manuel

Franklin Manuel is a professional blogger, web designer and front end web developer. Follow him on Twitter