State Report Card Release Delayed As Investigation Spreads To 100 Schools

Monday, August 20, 2012 at 6:17 PM

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The state is delaying by at least two more weeks the release of its annual school district report cards while an investigation into as many as 100 schools statewide continues. Both the Ohio Department of Education and state Auditor David Yost have been looking into allegations of so-called “attendance rigging” at charter and regular public schools.

The rigging involves artificially dumping kids who are likely to do poorly on state standardized tests, then re-enrolling them – so they don’t count against the school district’s report cards.

At a special meeting today (Monday) of the state Board of Education, acting Superintendent Michael Sawyers announced that the new report cards likely won’t be out before the next board meeting on Sept. 10th. That’s 10 days after the date required by law and by a waiver Ohio got from the federal No Child Left Behind act. But Sawyers says the feds understand.

“They’ve very interested in ensuring that the data that we produce has integrity and fidelity in reporting,” Sawyers says.  “So if we know that there’s currently a problem they would rather honor the fact that we are not going to meet that bench mark and then go through the process as necessary to fulfill it in the future.”

So far, one school district, Loveland outside Cincinnati, has been sanctioned for the attendance rigging. Two others that have publicly acknowledged they’re under investigation are Columbus and Toledo. 

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Education, Government/Politics