State releases final report cards; attendance investigation continues


Miami Valley school districts found with “errors” in their attendance data reporting

and the number of errors.

Hamilton City Schools, 81

Trotwood-Madison, 16

Centerville, 11

Dayton Public, 11

Jefferson Twp. Local, 6

West Carrollton, 1

Springfield, 1

Bradford, 1

Source: Ohio Auditor’s Office

The Ohio Department of Education on Wednesday released final 2011-12 state report card data amid its continuing investigation into Northridge Local Schools and eight other districts that showed evidence of scrubbing student attendance data.

ODE has marked the 2011-12 ratings for Northridge and the eight other “scrubbing” districts as under review and subject to change. Their 2010-11 ratings also could change, said ODE spokesman John Charlton. The ratings for all other Miami Valley districts are unchanged since the fall when ODE released preliminary report card data.

Northridge saw its report card rating climb from Academic Emergency in 2001-02 to Excellent in 2010-11. The district slipped back to Effective on the latest report card.

“We’re hopeful these record-keeping errors won’t cause a change in our report cards but, at this point, I have no control over that piece,” Northridge Superintendent Dave Jackson said Wednesday. He said his district is doing its own internal review and preparing to file with ODE a detailed response to the auditor’s findings by March 15.

Michael Sawyers, Ohio’s acting superintendent of public instruction, gave that deadline in a letter he sent to those nine districts last week.

The letter warned Jackson and the eight other superintendents of possible sanctions, including the “revocation of state funds and professional conduct sanctions up to and including revocation of educator certification or licensure for any/all persons involved, as applicable.”

Jackson said no disciplinary action has been taken by the district at this time.

Sawyers also sent letters to 52 other districts, including eight in the Miami Valley, where auditors found errors in data reporting involving 74 schools. They must submit corrective action plans for any school identified by March 15.

“The error districts will get a second look as well,” Charlton said. “Their report card ratings could change as well, but it is unlikely.”

The Dayton Daily News ran four in-depth reports on the performance of Miami Valley school districts, individual schools and charter schools based on 2011-12 preliminary report card data released last fall.

The ODE’s final report card release was delayed until after Ohio Auditor Dave Yost completed his statewide investigation into allegations of districts manipulating data, possibly to improve their report card ratings. Yost released the final report on Feb. 11 and turned it over to the ODE to determine what action should be taken.

In a statement released Wednesday, Yost called the corrective plans the right first step but said “this will do nothing to fix the weak, ‘just trust me’ system of self-reporting that opened the door to these practices in the first place.” Yost called on ODE to design a new system that would include external accountability and validation of the data.

According to the final audit, Northridge officials did not have documentation to explain the transfers, expulsions and other breaks in enrollment for 43 students at Northridge High School and 16 students at Esther Dennis Middle School.

Nineteen of the records cited show Northridge High School had withdrawal forms on file, with notes to re-enroll those students. Twenty-three of the 59 total exceptions were coded as being withdrawn to home schooling. The Montgomery County Educational Service Center must approve all home-schooling requests, but none of those 23 reportedly made it on the approval list and were entered retroactively.

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