State school board members have voted to delay the release of Ohio's annual school report cards pending an investigation of questionable attendance numbers in Columbus, Toledo and other districts by the state auditor’s office

1. Fraud Allegations Cause
Delay in Ohio State
School Report Cards
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2. Summary: State school board members have voted
to delay the release of Ohio's annual school report
cards pending an investigation of questionable
attendance numbers in Columbus, Toledo and other
districts by the state auditor’s office
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3. (August 22, 2012) – The Ohio State Board of Education has voted unanimously to
postpone the release of the 2011-2012 Ohio school report cards until the
accuracy of attendance data reported by local school districts has been
investigated. The annual report cards, which offer a detailed view of how
students in grades 3 to 10 scored on state tests, as well as attendance and
graduation rates, had been scheduled to be released Aug. 29, 2012.
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4. Ohio Auditor Dave Yost's investigation into the accuracy of the data provided by
the school districts began after a report in the Columbus Dispatch which alleged
that Columbus district administrators had selectively withdrawn and then re-
enrolled students that had a high number of absences. By manipulating the
student's enrollment periods so that the students were not enrolled during the
bulk of the school year, the district prevented those students’ state test scores
and their absences from lowering the district's report card.
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5. Unfortunately there are signs that the Columbus incident is not an isolated
case. The Ohio Department of Education recently investigated the Lockland
district near Cincinnati and decided to lower that district’s state rating because
of findings that low-performing students were being improperly removed from
attendance rolls to improve school performance rankings. Meanwhile the
superintendent of the Toledo district told the Toledo Blade that administrators
there had made questionable withdrawals of low-performing students from
the school registers before he stopped the practice.
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6. Given these widespread allegations of fraud, in July 2012 Auditor Yost
decided to expand his enquiry to include all Ohio districts and charter
schools. Given the sheer number of schools involved, it is unclear how long
this investigation will take. Yost has only said that he hopes to present his
findings sometime in the fall, even though Federal officials had originally
required Ohio to issue the local report cards during August 2012 as a
condition for having certain requirements of federal No Child Left Behind Act
waived.
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7. However, Acting Ohio Superintendent Michael Sawyers has reported that
because of the ongoing investigation by the Auditor's Office, federal
education officials agree that questions about the integrity of the underlying
data need to be answered before the reports can be issued. As a
result, Sawyers said the U.S. Department of Education has authorized a
temporary delay in issuing the school report cards until the Ohio State Board
of Education meets again in September.
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8. The US Department of Education is not the only one waiting for the school
district report cards. These ratings, which range from Excellent with
Distinction down to Academic Emergency, are widely used by everyone from
parents to homebuyers to taxpayers to make decisions about where to live
or how to best educate their child. Teachers and principals are frequently
judged by the data that goes into the calculations as well, and schools that
receive poor ratings face repercussions from both the state and federal
government.
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9. More information about the current state of the Auditor's
investigation and the status of the school report cards can
be found at Ohio State Board of Education website
www.ode.state.oh.us/
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10. In addition to OBE's official site, a number of other websites are helping to
spread awareness about the possible manipulation of school district data.
Among these is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Proud-to-be-from-
Ohio/273000622813440 ,
a Facebook fanpage that offers an online community where people can share
their thoughts and comments about the latest Ohio news and events.
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11. "We feel it is very important to get the news out about how student
enrollment manipulation can falsely raise the ratings of a school and
prevent parents from making the best choice for their child," notes page
administrator S.S. Ober-Lehn. "And Facebook's international appeal makes
the Proud to be from Ohio fanpage a natural place for anyone who is
concerned about this issue to come together to discuss the situation and
help spread awareness about it."
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12. To find out more about current news and events
in Ohio, please visit
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Proud-to-be-from-
Ohio/273000622813440
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Proud-to-be-from-Ohio/273000622813440