Attendance 'scrubbing' tempts low-ranked schools
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A former superintendent went to prison in Texas for conspiring to remove low-performing students from classrooms to boost average test scores. Principals in Oklahoma and Missouri are out of their jobs after attendance-related scandals.
In Ohio, a recent state audit uncovered nine districts that withdrew students retroactively or improperly reported they were attending alternative programs. In one instance, Auditor Dave Yost said, a district ignored state rules "because they didn't like them."
It's all part of a percolating national saga in which grown-ups - not kids - are the ones accused of cheating. Temptations to "scrubbing," the process of improperly fixing enrollment or attendance data to somehow improve a building's situation, can include rosier district report cards, added state or federal funding and employee bonuses.
"I think it is influenced by the high-stakes accountability environment that we're in right now. It's raised the stakes," said Gary Crow, a professor of educational leadership at Indiana University. "It used to be when you take a standardized test and your students did well or didn't do well, it influenced your teaching, of course, but it didn't get connected directly to your pay, or your job security, or those kinds of things. Well, now, in a lot of places it does."
More at http://www.caller.com/news/2013/feb/24/attendance-scrubbing-tempts-low-ranked-schools/ .
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