“These actions will be investigated and may result in professional conduct sanctions up to and including suspension or revocation of licensure,” Richard A. Ross, state superintendent of education said in a release.
The professional conduct investigation will determine if “any licensed professional participated in conduct unbecoming the teaching profession by contributing to submission of inaccurate data,” the release said.
David Jackson, superintendent of Northridge schools, said the district is continuing to cooperate fully with ODE.
“We’ll look to see exactly what comes of the investigation… We have done internal investigating and found that we did make errors, but don’t believe that we’ve made them purposely or in an attempt to be fradulent in any way,” Jackson said.
Northridge improperly withdrew 44 students from the attendance rolls, according to ODE.
Misrepresenting the attendance data may have “wrongfully benefited” the district, ODE said.
The state will recalculate and reissue Northridge schools’ 2010-2011 report cards incorporating the students who were improperly withdrawn. ODE also plans to investigate the district’s 2011-2012 school year attendance data to determine if improper reporting occurred during that period.
Northridge was rated Excellent on its 2010-11 report card. The district slipped back to Effective on the 2011-12 report card. On the most recent report card for which no overall grade was given as the state transitions to a new report card system, Northridge received mostly Cs and Fs.
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