D.C. Public Schools officials are examining whether grade-doctoring to boost graduation rates and inflate student performance is a citywide problem and not just an issue at McKinley Technology High School. School officials are interviewing former school employees who have contacted the administration with accusations of wrongdoing at their own schools.
“If there is evidence to warrant an investigation, we will investigate,” said Fred Lewis, a spokesman for acting Chancellor Kaya Henderson.
Multiple former school employees have come forward since The Washington Examiner reported that DCPS is investigating McKinley Tech. Principal David Pinder, who was listed on students’ transcripts as the instructor of courses he never taught, was removed from McKinley and placed on paid administrative leave while city officials investigate the charges against him. Current and former McKinley employees told The Washington Examiner that Pinder directed the school’s data clerks to alter the transcripts.
Lewis said the Office of School Security is taking statements from every person bearing charges and will decide what next steps to take.
In an email addressed to Mayor Vincent Gray and sent to multiple school officials including Henderson, a former teacher at one D.C. school accused her principal of asking her to assign grades to students who were not in her class. “This grade falsification could easily be an approved[standard operating procedure] within the DCPS system evidencing why students are illiterate in their high school years,” she said.
A current teacher at Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School told The Examiner the McKinley reports “could be from any of many DCPS high schools.”
“What is surprising is the boldness of the principal’s alleged actions: telling subordinates to make changes. Most do it much more secretly,” he said.
Former DCPS investigator Eastern Stewart learned of allegations of grade falsifying at McKinley while investigating a $100,000 award that the school received from AARP but did not appear to have spent on students. D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan handed the case over to federal investigators on March 16, saying “these funds may have been mishandled.”
Stewart continued to investigate charges of fraudulent grades at McKinley until he was fired last week for telling interviewees that DCPS Chief of Staff Lisa Ruda was trying to make the probe disappear. Stewart admitted this was false: “I had to know who I could and couldn’t trust,” he told The Washington Examiner.
DCPS referred the investigation to the Office of the Inspector General following Stewart’s termination.
McKinley Assistant Principal Michael Moss is leading the school while Pinder is on leave; the amount of time has not been specified, Lewis said.
