Yost Names Cincinnati, Canton, Northridge, Winton Woods To Final List Of ‘Scrubbers’
Gongwer Ohio, Volume #82, Report #28, February 11, 2013
Ohio State Auditor, David Yost, identified nine school districts found to have “scrubbed” student attendance data. Canton City Schools, Cincinnati Public Schools, Cleveland Municipal School District, Columbus City Schools and Toledo City Schools were all named in the statewide audit.
Mary Ronan, Superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools, responded to the allegations,
“Students who have been withdrawn occasionally reenroll in another CPS school, sometimes weeks or months after the student has stopped attending school,” she wrote. “We understand that ODE would prefer that CPS cancel the student’s withdrawal, and report that the student was ‘continuously enrolled.’ Without reporting a withdrawal, however, there is no way for CPS to reflect the period of time during which the student was not attending school.
“CPS has examined this matter internally and found no evidence that any of its employees intentionally manipulated student data in a manner in which they knew to be improper.”
Adrian Allison, Superintendent of Canton City Schools, defended his district and said that no data scrubbing had occurred,
“It is unfortunate that with such a complex data reporting system known as EMIS, little guidance from ODE and with the unique circumstances of these schools (the schools in the report are collaborative schools that include students from 5 districts), our district will be reported as intentionally manipulating data to improve the results on the report card,” he said in a statement.
“There are opportunities to ensure that the data is as accurate as possible and we take those opportunities, but ODE must do the same.”