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Houston Now Admits Records on Drop Out Rates Were Altered
An internal investigation has found that a computer specialist at Sharpstown High School knowingly filed fraudulent reports last fall, marking the first acknowledgement by HISD that records were intentionally altered to show a low dropout rate.
The actions of 29-year-old Kenneth Cuadra and the contents of a folder found in his desk have sparked internal and state-level inquiries that could lead to Houston Independent School District losing its acceptable accountability rating.
A report by HISD's professional standards department, claiming Cuadra falsified dropout reports at Sharpstown, is expected to be released today. A summary obtained by the Houston Chronicle contains paraphrased testimony from school officials that says Cuadra, a computer network specialist, changed the records of 30 dropouts.
Cuadra has admitted changing the records, claiming he was directed to do so by Associate Principal Marmion Dambrino, the report said. He originally had said he had nothing to do with altered records. Later, he said a data-entry clerk changed them. Cuadra is scheduled for a hearing this morning to determine his fate with HISD.
Cuadra's attorney, James Fallon, said the computer clerk may have altered student records but changed them back to avoid breaking laws. Fallon said Cuadra would have no financial motive to change the records because he would not receive bonus pay based on HISD's performance.
"In the caste system of HISD, he is a clerk whose only concern is in keeping his job," Fallon said. "He is a noncontract employee in a position where he is expected to do what he is told and not to question it."
Insiders and observers agree that HISD has mishandled its accounting of students who left before graduating. The Texas Education Agency on Friday proposed dropping HISD's accountability rating from acceptable to academically unacceptable for the district's failure to properly count about 3,000 students who may have dropped out in 2001.
The district has blamed its inaccuracies on clerical slip-ups and poor training for office workers who deal with the state's complex "leaver codes" to describe dropouts. The allegations against Cuadra, a nine-year district employee, are HISD's first acknowledgment that an employee deliberately tampered with records.
"Kenneth Cuadra knowingly changed the student leaver codes of 30 students ... and he was not authorized to do so," investigator Bill Aldrich wrote in his report dated June 2.
Some co-workers said they consider Cuadra a scapegoat. They said higher-level district officials are pawning Cuadra off as the culprit to cover up districtwide, Fastow-esque accounting in the game of education numbers, where good-looking statistics mean high ratings and bonus pay for employees.
Assistant principals and other office workers told investigators that in late October, Cuadra presented contradictory reports. On Oct. 22, his records showed 30 dropouts. A day later, they showed zero. By November, they were changed back to 30.
The altered reports drew little attention until Feb. 10, when Channel 11 broadcast a story about dropout fraud at Sharpstown. The next day, West District Superintendent Anne Patterson called for an investigation.
Assistant Principal Jane Lozano said that she, Dambrino, Principal Carol Wichmann and Principal Intern Merrie Bonnette entered Cuadra's office on the night of Feb. 18. There, in Cuadra's bottom left drawer, the women found a folder marked "Dropout Information," she said. Inside, they found two computer printouts -- one showing 30 dropouts, the other showing none.
Assistant Principal Robert Kimball is one of the Sharpstown employees who believes Cuadra was set up. Kimball sent e-mails to Wichmann in November, telling her that the dropout numbers had been changed on campus computers. Kimball said Cuadra told him a month earlier that Dambrino wanted him to delete the dropouts.
Kimball was reassigned to the west district office during the Sharpstown investigation and has been told he will be reassigned to another school.
When pressure mounted on Cuadra, Kimball asked state Rep. Rick Noriega to call TEA. Consequently, a TEA investigation found that inaccurate dropout figures were reported at 14 of 16 schools studied. That investigation turned up 2,999 student files that were inaccurate.
Internal, external and TEA audits all have shown that the majority of HISD high schools have too many mistakes in records for their information to be credible.
Cuadra's supporters say it is unfair that he may be punished for what seems to be a districtwide problem. More than 50 teachers signed a petition lauding his professionalism and integrity.
"If he did it, he was told to do it," said Loretta Ghandehari, a teacher who coordinates bilingual programs at Sharpstown.
Other teachers, who asked that their names not be used because they fear retaliation, concurred.
"Kenny is pure," said one department head. "He's being completely railroaded. If he changed the numbers and changed them back, it was because his conscience wouldn't allow him to do what they told him to do."
Teachers said employees who received less than $500 in bonus pay this year would have less incentive to falsify records than administrators who receive thousands of dollars.
— Zanto Peabody
HISD acknowledges records on dropout rate were altered
Houston Chronicle
June 16, 2003
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1954015
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