It's no wonder that student performance in the Fresno Unified School District is so uneven. Some schools do well by their students and other schools do poorly. At Edison High School, and some other schools, students can have excessive absences and still get top grades.That practice smells.
This came to light in the grade-change scandal involving a star athlete who missed 66 classes at Edison and still got an A. The grade was just enough to make the athlete eligible for this football season. It's all a coincidence, of course.
The teacher, Jeff Powell, says he gave the athlete and F in math but the grade was changed to an A by someone above him. Superintendent Michael Hanson, based on a $50,000 outside investigation, has concluded that the teacher changed the grade himself.
But the problems at Fresno Unified are much bigger than this one student's grades.
Here's our editorial from today explaining The Bee editorial board's take on the scandal.
This is from the editorial:
The report is an indictment of the district's ability to offer every student the support needed to graduate from high school. That's very troubling, especially considering that the district has made the improvement of student performance a key objective.In announcing the results of the investigation Tuesday, Hanson vowed to fix policy questions raised in the report. That's good because the grade-changing allegations have seriously hurt the school system's credibility, as well as splitting the Edison community.
Grades and attendance data are easily quantifiable.The district must ensure that procedures are in place to maintain the integrity of these measurable standards.
Hanson acknowledged that there is "significant disparity in our practices and procedures across the district." He wants to create a position to deal with "major deficiencies" in keeping students on target to graduate. He also wants a districtwide tutoring and support system for students involved in co-curricular and athletic programs.
This is from Bee reporter Kerri Ginis' story on the case:
On Tuesday, Hanson outlined the evidence collected by outside investigators who looked into Powell's claim. He said they found Powell made changes to the athlete's record in the last days of the spring semester that resulted in his receiving an A.Powell also made changes to the grades of 27 other students in his spring math classes, most of whom were not athletes. On Wednesday, Hanson said that most of those changes improved their grades as well. But in a couple of cases, the grades went down.
He also questioned why Powell complained of a grade change only for the athlete, not the 27 other students.
Powell on Wednesday said the answer is simple: Those students turned in make-up work that resulted in higher grades. Powell said he entered make-up work into his computer in the days before grades were due on June 12. In some cases, that bumped up those students' grades.
But in the case of the athlete, he said, there was no make-up work to enter because the student didn't turn any in. "He never even showed up to the final and he got a 97 on the final. How did that happen?"
CYA, CYA! Is the whole education establishment over at Edison corrupt? Or crazy? 50 G’s & 500 hours over a grade?
If the grade was "doubtful," it seems to me that the whole mess could be resolved simply by letting "that" kid take a few tests over again. If he earns an "A" give it to him! If he flunks, let him abide by the consequences of his actions.
This is not a big deal and certainly didn’t deserve a headline on the front page of the Bee.
For years, Edison has been two schools on one campus. There is the highly regarded Computech program for smart, motivated kids from all over the district. And then there is the regular school for the rest of the kids. The latter group has always been mostly ignored by the school site administrators, who rely on the Computech students to make them look good. That's one reason why they are in Program Improvement under the NCLB this year - you have to show improvement in all categories of students under the NCLB, not just the top students.
One change that should come out of this is to put some separation between the site adminstrators and the athletic programs. There is no way a relative of the vice principal should be the head football coach, with the vice principal serving as assistant coach. That has conflict of interest written all over it (besides the fact that we don't pay administrators their handsome salaries to help run a football program).
I sincerely hope this scandal results in some real change at Edison (and throughout the district), rather than just more window-dressing. Maybe they should bring in someone from the outside to take a look at it, since the administrators seem a little bit too clubby to honestly evaluate themselves.
They will never admit to any wrong doing on this grade issue. I agree they should have made the young man take the final and some other tests which he would have been unable to pass if he missed that much school. A teacher should not have a password to the system given to him by someone else without a second step of personalizing it himself to proteect a breach. There is just too much emphasis on Sports in school anyway. The teacher has been so disrepected by the district. 50K should not have been used. They could have done lie detectors on the teacher and the student fot alot less. The student knew he didn't get an A. TAis is a terrible injustice to the teacher and the student.
MOI is gobsmacked! $50,000.00 for a report. OR should MOI not be surprised? Fresno is the same place where folks on the City Council feel right comfy funding a $155,000.00 report to tell what is already known.
What a lot of 'education' could be bought for $50,000.00 in these hard economic times.
The story in newspaper, column by Bill McEwen and the Fresno Bee Editorial point out one sure thing, there are no winners, everyone is the poorer for this tale.
They didn't answer too many questions with that $50,000 investigation, did they? I'll bet most of that was spent trying to find out who wrote that anonymous letter to the CIF.
We only scratched the surface on how our tax dollars are spent on crime in this Country.
Who is policing the police in Fresno, the police?
Wow....I agree with TC in his first post up there. I think I need a cold compress and go lie down.