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Audit Finds D.C. Grades Altered
A review of hundreds of student files at 16 D.C. public high schools found that student transcripts were in disarray and that in some cases students received a higher grade than teachers had originally recorded.
The study, commissioned by the school system and conducted by the accounting firm of Gardiner Kamya & Associates, was based on a random sample of 59 student files at each of the 16 schools.
The report, released yesterday, found an array of problems at all of the schools and concluded that their grading records generally were "incomplete, inconsistent and unreliable." It said that "tampering with respect to student grades may have occurred . . . and may in fact be undetectable" because of the disorganized state of the records.
In addition to the cases in which the grades recorded by teachers were later inflated, teachers' grades were lowered without explanation in some instances. In some cases, records contained conflicting information about how many credits students had earned toward graduation. The report also said there were many instances in which the accuracy of grades could not be checked because paperwork was missing. In a few cases, entire files were unavailable.
"What's crystal clear is that the high schools haven't been doing their jobs in terms of student records at all," said school board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz. "It's rampant throughout the system."
The review was requested by then-Superintendent Paul L. Vance following complaints last year from Wilson Senior High teachers that the grades they had entered for some students were later boosted without their knowledge, allowing students to receive diplomas when they otherwise would not have had enough credits to graduate.
The accountants reviewed the files of 15 Wilson students, in response to the teachers' complaints, and concluded that 12 of them had not met academic requirements to graduate in 2002. However, school officials said yesterday that they located records -- independently of the private firm's review -- showing that all of those students met graduation requirements.
The report was submitted to the school system Sept. 22 but was not released by school officials until a news conference yesterday. The school board was briefed behind closed doors about the findings Monday night, and some board members questioned why it took more than a year to complete the report. School officials said yesterday that the report was in a draft stage until last week.
School officials said that steps are being taken to improve record-keeping, including more training of records maintenance staff and development of a Web-based database, and that parents should not worry. "The key here is that we're putting in these safeguards," said Johnnie Fairfax, a program officer for the 65,000-student school system.
At each of the 16 high schools, the accounting firm looked at forms on which teachers fill in bubbles to record students' grades. Those forms then are fed into computers. In a number of cases, there were disparities between the grades shown on the teachers' forms and the grades printed on students' report cards and listed on the transcripts sent to colleges.
In many other cases, the forms filled out by teachers -- or other key records -- were not available. At Ballou Senior High in Southeast, the school refused to provide the bubble sheets, the report said. Ballou Principal Art Bridges yesterday said he was told by school officials that he could not talk about the report until tomorrow. Fairfax said there was no reason for Bridges to withhold the paperwork but declined to say whether personnel action has been taken against him.
The report documented specific cases of grades that were changed. An Anacostia Senior High student had received an F in health from his previous school, for example, but the grade was listed in the Anacostia transcript as a D. Another student at Anacostia, in Southeast, earned a D+ in biology from a previous school, but the Anacostia transcript reported the grade as a C+.
From the sample of 59 student files at Bell Multicultural High School in Northwest, the accountants found only 32 files in which teachers' grading sheets were available. In 12 of those cases, the grades recorded in student records did not match what appeared on the teachers' sheets. In cases where grades appeared on both the teachers' sheets and the students records, the grades in the students' records were higher. Bell's principal, Maria Tukeva, did not return phone calls yesterday.
Cafritz said the school board will consider a series of new policies next month designed to improve record-keeping.
— Justin Blum
Audit Finds D.C. Grades Altered
Washington Post
2003-12-10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50880-2003Dec9.html
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