State finishing Ohio school data-scrubbing review

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Department of Education says it’s almost done reviewing how altered attendance data affected state report cards for schools in eight districts, including Campbell.

Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo are among those that will get recalculated district and school report cards for the 2010-11 school year once the investigation is finished.

The other districts are Campbell, Marion, Northridge in Montgomery County and Winton Woods in Hamilton County.

In a Vindicator story in February this year, about 40 students at Campbell Memorial High and Campbell Middle schools did not have supporting documentation in student files about their withdrawals and/or withdrawals were made retroactively at the end of the school year after test scores were determined, Ohio Auditor Dave Yost’s office reported in October 2012.

Auditors identified 11 Campbell high-school and 28 middle-school students that didn’t have sufficient documentation to support the reasons noted by the district in the student’s withdrawal, Yost’s final report said.

Tom Robey, Campbell superintendent at that time, said, “From our investigation, we do not believe that anybody did this with purpose of bad intent.”

He added the district had implemented some changes as a result of Yost’s October findings to provide checks and balances. Robey is now a part-time consultant with the district. The new superintendent is Matthew Bowen.

It’s not clear how much the report cards might change once they’re updated with accurate data, especially for the larger districts.

A department official overseeing the review tells The Columbus Dispatch the public might not notice much difference.

The ODE also will review the Columbus district’s report card once the state auditor finishes an investigation about data-scrubbing there.