State auditor: Local schools 'clean', no enrollment issues

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The interim report on student attendance data and accountability system in the state of Ohio was released Thursday morning. State Auditor Dave Yost's comments were less than approving.

"We do not always get the truth about what is going on with our kids, from the grade cards, from the reporting system," said Yost. "We need to do a better job. There needs to be better accountability so we can measure how well we're doing with the progress of educating our kids."

The point of the report was to show where "scrubbing" was taking place. The report defined the term as "the practice of removing students from enrollment without lawful reason, regardless of the purported motivation. The term scrubbing does not necessarily imply malcontent."

"[We] initially looked at the percentage of students who took the achievement test and who also showed a break in enrollment."

There were five districts that used scrubbing according to the report: Columbus City, Cleveland Municipal, Toledo City, Marion City and Campbell City Schools.
    
No schools in Hamilton, Warren or Clermont counties were listed as applying "scrubbing." Instead, Mt. Healthy Junior High School, North College Hill High School, Winton Woods Elementary School, Indian Hill EVSD, and Madeira CSD were all listed as "clean." That means there were no enrollment issues found.

"Our report should not be construed as, to point the finger at anyone to establish wrongdoing," said Yost.

There was one more reporting factor: indeterminate. This mean that the reports were not finished as of yet, however, Yost said that those schools would be released on Oct. 23. In the southwestern part of Ohio, those schools are:

Cincinnati City
-George Hays-Jennie Porter Elementary
-Chase Elementary School
-Oyler School
-Quebec heights Elementary
-South Avondale Elementary School
-Hamilton City's Hamilton Education Center, and Hamilton High School
-Princeton City's Princeton High School

The 49 page report plus charts cost $284,150 and the Office of the Auditor has used 6,930 man hours. That means it would have taken one person three years to compile, sort, and report all the data.

Read the full report here: http://www.ohioauditor.gov/auditsearch/detail.aspx?ReportID=97685 .