District of Columbia Public Schools
News Release
Dr. Paul L. Vance, Superintendent
Office of
Communications and Public Information
825 North Capitol Street. NE • 7th Floor • Washington. DC 20002 •
Tel: (202) 442-5635 • Fax: (202) 442-5418 • www.k12.dc.us
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 9, 2003 |
CONTACT: Linda Wharton Boyd, 202-442-5635
Eves/Weekends
(202) 727- 6161 |
DC PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO IMPLEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS FROM REVIEW OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT RECORDS REPORTS
“Outside Consultants and Internal Management Review Taskforce Produce
Reports After Concluding Study of District’s Management of Student Records”
Washington, DC – District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS)
officials received preliminary reports on the findings of the recent
study of the school system’s student records management and reporting
policies. School officials plan to address the findings and have
indicated their intention to expeditiously implement the
recommendations.
DCPS has already begun implementing recommendations which
include:
- Principal Orientation and Training;
- Review of School System policies and
directives for granting Carnegie Credits
- Review of Superintendent directives
and Board Policy and the development of a Records Procedures Manual;
- System-wide training for Records
Maintenance staff
- Initiation of a web-based electronic
student data base.
The Superintendent of Schools initiated two internal
reviews and one external review after allegations about grade
mismanagement surfaced in May 2002 when a social studies teacher
complained about improper grade changes and other inaccuracies in
student records at his school.
Following the allegations, former Superintendent Dr. Paul
L. Vance assembled an investigation team to examine each allegation and
appointed an external independent consultant to review the reported
allegations and the findings of the team.
The independent consultant, Gardiner, Kamya &
Associates, P.C. (GKA), performed certain agreed-upon procedures to
determine:
Whether the student records at 16
DCPS senior high schools were complete, accurate, secure and
confidentially maintained;
Whether the 15 students identified
by school officials who graduated from Wilson Senior High School Class of 2002 met the DCPS graduation requirements prior
to graduation; and
Whether the grades reported by the
DCPS Office of Information Technology (OIT) were consistent with the grades maintained in the student records at each
school.
The consultants reviewed the written policies and
procedures of each school, interviewed school staff, including
principals, assistant principals and employees who maintained student
records. They also randomly selected 59 students from grades 10 through
12 to get a snapshot of records and grading procedures. The team
conducted tests to determine the completeness, consistency, accuracy and
reliability of these students’ records. The investigation team
assessed the security of records and the controls implemented to prevent
tampering and scrutinized the records of the 15 Wilson Senior High
School students to determine whether they met established graduation
criteria.
The Gardiner, Kamya & Associates team found that
there was no overall consistency in policies and procedures resulting in
different policies and procedures governing each school with respect to
student grades and maintenance of student records.
In addition, the team discovered among other things,
that:
- Most schools’ policies and
procedures did not address the issue of physical and electronic access
to student records;
- The grading and grade verification
process was not addressed by some schools’ policies and procedures;
- Criteria for grading differed among
schools. For example, some schools had a grade system of A through F
with plusses or minuses, while others included +/-.
- Internal controls were not operating
effectively at any of the 16 high schools/sites resulting in
unauthorized access to student records;
- Student records were incomplete in
all 16 schools;
- Student records made available to
the team were inconsistent, inaccurate and unreliable at all 16 high
schools/sites;
- Some schools did not address
independent studies of their policies and procedures, while those who
did were not clear on how independent studies should be handled.
The team found that there were problems in OIT with
regards to tracking student grades, student records were disorganized,
and conditions existed where tampering with student grades may have
occurred undetected.
The DCPS team and GKA found that while there were serious
concerns about student records management and evidence of discrepancies,
there is no evidence of deliberate tampering.
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