Stan Heffner involved in major ethics violantions

The head of ODE and State Superintendent Stan Heffner, has been found in violation of state ethic laws according to an Inspector General report issued today. This investigation was prompted by Plunderbund reporting.

CONCLUSION TO THE INITIAL ALLEGATION At the time of his testimony before the Ohio Senate Finance Committee, Heffner had already interviewed and secured a position at Educational Testing Service (ETS). Heffner negotiated the conditions of his employment with ETS, signed an offer, and began the process of transitioning from Ohio to San Antonio, Texas. He had met with ETS officials out of state and allowed them to pay for his travel; he took time from attending an out-of-state conference on behalf of ODE to meet with ETS officials. Heffner’s testimony supported legislation which would result in an increase of testing for Ohio’s school teachers. Based on the prior relationship between ODE and ETS, it was inappropriate for Heffner to give testimony in support of this bill given the strong likelihood that ETS could stand to profit.

Ohio Revised Code Section 121.41 defines at division (G): “Wrongful act or omission” means an act or omission, committed in the course of office holding or employment, that is not in accordance with the requirements of law or such standards of proper governmental conduct as are commonly accepted in the community and thereby subverts, or tends to subvert, the process of government.

By providing testimony to the legislature as the state’s principal employee for leadership in education, in support of a bill that could and ultimately did benefit a corporation with which he had entered into an agreement of employment, Heffner failed to meet the standards of proper governmental conduct as are commonly accepted in the community and subverts the process of government.

Accordingly, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General finds reasonable cause to believe wrongful acts or omissions occurred in these instances.

The report further details other violations uncovered during their investigation, including the misuse of state time and resources.

ADDITIONAL ISSUES DISCOVERED DURING THE INVESTIGATION
While investigating the initial allegations, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General found during the course of negotiating the employment agreement between Heffner and ETS, Heffner advised associates at ETS to use both his state-issued cell phone and his state email account as the preferred method of contact to conduct non-state business arrangements.

Further evidence has Heffner directing state employees to make personal arrangement for him, as he was looking for a new job. Here's just one of many examples uncovered

In addition, Heffner’s former executive secretary also provided documentation of email instructions addressed to her by Heffner for preparing an envelope to send an employment application to USD. (Exhibit 13) She also stated that Heffner instructed her to coordinate a flight to Washington, D.C., for a meeting between Heffner and ETS. She stated that though ETS scheduled the flight, she was instructed to convey the details of the flight to ETS’s executive search company, JRS.

He directed his assistant to prepare and coordinate his move to Texas and the subsequent mortgage arrangements

Heffner’s executive assistant recalled on one particular day, Heffner brought in a brief case full of personal documents which were related to the potential purchase of a home in San Antonio, and for the sale of his home in Westerville. The new executive assistant explained Heffner instructed her to organize the documents and assist in getting the process “finalized” for the mortgage company. She described the documents as Heffner’s personal records such as tax returns, bank statements, letters of financial debt, and anything you would need for a mortgage company. She stated that from the personal documents given to her by Heffner, as mortgage companies would contact her, she would provide whatever documentation they were seeking and would utilize whatever state equipment was necessary to send or transmit them. Occasionally, she stated, Heffner would inquire as to how the process of his home purchase was proceeding and would want to know about “timelines.”
[...]
When asked if she believed that she had an option to refuse to perform this work she replied, “. . . and keep my job? Probably not.” She stated she was in “disbelief” that Heffner was instructing her to perform these personal tasks. She said, “My only option was to do what he needed and try to do it well so he, you know, so he would, so he would keep me.”

The Office of the Ohio Inspector General asks the State Board of Education of Ohio to consider whether administrative action is warranted and respond within 60 days detailing its decision.

The full IG report can be read here.
Exhibits from the investigation can be found here.

UPDATE

According to a Dispatch Report, the Superintendent is appologizing but refusing to resign

Ohio schools Superintendent Stan Heffner quickly apologized for ethics allegations outlined in a state watchdog investigation released today but stopped short of stepping down from the post he has held for a year.

“I accept the findings of the Inspector General’s report. I was wrong and I’m sorry for my lack of judgment,” Heffner said in a statement released by the Ohio Department of Education.

“I’ve apologized to my staff, my friends and colleagues at the department, and the board. I have learned from my mistakes, and I will work with the board to take whatever steps they feel are necessary to resolve this matter and move forward.”

Education News for 08-01-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Districts already holding back students in advance of new state law (Dispatch)

At Hamilton Elementary, repeating a grade is a matter of playing catch-up. “The old thinking was, ‘Yes, some of these kids weren’t at grade level, but we’re not going to hold them back,’ ” said Susan Witten, Hamilton schools’ director of teaching and learning. “It was seen pretty much as a punishment, as a negative. We’ve reversed the way we thought about it.” This fall, a new state law takes effect, requiring school districts to hold back students who aren’t reading proficiently by third grade. Hamilton schools already are holding back more young students. Read more...

• Living in district tougher nowadays for superintendents (Dispatch)

The desire of some school districts to have their superintendents live within district boundaries is often at odds with the realities of today’s tough housing market. The Worthington school board voted last week to tack an extra year onto Superintendent Thomas Tucker’s grace period for moving into the district because he hasn’t been able to sell his home in Columbus. “The whole issue is the economy right now,” Tucker said. “I actually live only 5 miles from the district office, but it’s outside of the district.” Read more...

Local Issues

• Police officer stashed school-attendance records (Dispatch)

When district auditors began asking questions about student-data changes at Whetstone High School, the police officer stationed there hauled boxes of documents home with her, records show. Officer Nanci A. Ferguson, who inexplicably was responsible for attendance and data at the school, handed over a single notebook belonging to the former principal in response to a request from Columbus’ internal auditor. “I hauled the rest of the boxes out of here (and) stashed them at home in my garage,” Ferguson told the newly appointed Whetstone principal. Read more...

• Charter school rejected (Blade)

Toledo City Council on Tuesday narrowly turned down a national charter-school company's request to open up shop in the heart of downtown. Connections Education had planned to open a site on the fourth floor of One Lake Erie Center, 600 Jefferson Ave. Connections typically runs online charter and private schools; the new site would be a high school called Nexus Academy of Toledo and would provide a blended school, with students using online curriculum at home and spending part of the day at the site. Council voted 6-4 on a special-use permit. Read more...

• Cleveland school board OKs resolution for 15-mill levy, vows accountability (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND - Cleveland school board members voted unanimously Tuesday night to put a 15-mill levy on the Nov. 6 ballot. The board voted 9-0 to put the issue to voters, drawing mixed reactions from about 40 people who attended the meeting. The tax is estimated to cost the average Cleveland homeowner with a $64,000 home an additional $294 a year for the next four years. Cleveland voters last passed an operating tax in 1996, and they approved a $335 million bond issue in 2001 for school construction. Resident Donna Brown told the board she will not vote for the levy. Read more...

• Lakota restructures athletics to save $315K (Journal-News)

LIBERTY TWP. — To help quell budget constraints at Lakota Local Schools, the district’s athletic department is being restructured with $315,000 in reductions. A major change is the switch to a district-wide athletic director and the elimination of associate athletic directors at the freshman schools, said Chris Passarge, executive director of business operations. Rich Bryant, 35, is taking on that role of athletic director effective Aug. 1. Bryant, a West Chester Twp. resident, had been serving as athletic director at Lakota East High School since August 2009. Read more...

Editorial

• Find the truth (Dispatch)

If substantiated, the attendance-rigging by Columbus City Schools officials is staggering in its scope. Not just the sheer size of the numbers involved — 2.8 million student absences allegedly erased over 51/2 years — but in the betrayal of district taxpayers, voters, parents and students. Such a scheme would artificially inflate the district’s academic rating, thus deceiving school-levy voters and parents, and allow the district to collect more in state financial aid than it should have. State Superintendent Stan Heffner has said that if the allegations are proved true. Read more...

• Cheating is unfair to students (Tribune Chronicle)

School administrators have an advantage their students don't: In effect, they grade some of the tests used to determine how well they are performing. Some of them are cheating, according to the Ohio Department of Education. Much of the data used by the state - as well as taxpayers and students' parents - to learn whether schools are doing a good job is prepared by school district administrators. Information on matters such as student attendance is submitted to the state, which posts it online. It is in school district officials' best interests for the numbers to look good, of course. Read more...

High stakes failure

It might be becoming apparent to any rational observer that high stakes corporate education policies are failing catastrophically. Where once various data and tests were used to inform educators and provide diagnostic feedback, they are increasingly being used to rank, grade, and even punish.

This is leading to the inevitable behaviors that are always present when such systems are created - whether it was in the world of energy companies such as Enron, or other accounting scandals including those affecting Tyco International, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems and WorldCom, to the more recent scandals involving Lehman Brothers, JPM or Barclays bank.

Here's another example, in news from Pennsylvania

After authorities imposed unprecedented security measures on the 2012 statewide exams, test scores tumbled across Pennsylvania, The Inquirer has learned.

At some schools, Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Ronald Tomalis said, the drops are "noticeable" - 25 percent or more.

In some school systems, investigators have found evidence of outright doctoring of previous years' tests - and systemic fraud that took place across multiple grades and subjects.

In Philadelphia and elsewhere, some educators have already confessed to cheating, and investigators have found violations ranging from "overcoaching" to pausing a test to reteach material covered in the exam, according to people familiar with the investigations.

When trillions of dollars of the world's money is at stake, investing in tight oversight and regulation is imperative, but when it comes to evaluating the progress of a 3rd grader, do we really want to spend valuable education dollars measuring the measurers?

The question becomes even more pertinent when one considers that the the efficacy of many of the measures is questionable at best. Article after article, study after study, places significant questions at the feet of value add proponents, and now a new study even places questions at the feet of the tests themselves

Now, in studies that threaten to shake the foundation of high-stakes test-based accountability, Mr. Stroup and two other researchers said they believe they have found the reason: a glitch embedded in the DNA of the state exams that, as a result of a statistical method used to assemble them, suggests they are virtually useless at measuring the effects of classroom instruction.

Pearson, which has a five-year, $468 million contract to create the state’s tests through 2015, uses “item response theory” to devise standardized exams, as other testing companies do. Using I.R.T., developers select questions based on a model that correlates students’ ability with the probability that they will get a question right.

That produces a test that Mr. Stroup said is more sensitive to how it ranks students than to measuring what they have learned. That design flaw also explains why Richardson students’ scores on the previous year’s TAKS test were a better predictor of performance on the next year’s TAKS test than the benchmark exams were, he said. The benchmark exams were developed by the district, the TAKS by the testing company.

We have built a high stakes system on questionable tests, measured using questionable statistical models, subject to gaming and cheating, and further goosed by the scrubbing of other student data. We've seen widespread evidence of it in New York, California, Washington DC, Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and now Ohio.

Policymakers are either going to have to spend more and more money developing better tests, better models, tighter security and more bureaucratic data handling policies, or return to thinking about the core mission of providing a quality education to all students. Either way, when you have reached the point where the State Superintendent talks of criminalizing the corporate education system, things have obviously gone seriously awry.

State Superintendent Stan Heffner, who leads the department, has launched his own investigation and has said the probe could lead to criminal charges against educators who committed fraud.

Education News for 07-31-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• State probe doesn't worry school chiefs (Courier)

Area superintendents said Monday they are not worried about their districts as Ohio's auditor expands an investigation into schools falsifying attendance records to improve their state report cards. "We're not concerned at all," Findlay Superintendent Dean Wittwer said. "We work extremely hard on our practices." The statewide review by Auditor Dave Yost comes after reports recently surfaced that staff, first at Columbus and Toledo schools, then at a suburban Cincinnati school, falsified attendance records. Read more...

• State TPS investigation update (WTVG 13 ABC)

Dr. Jerome Pecko was on vacation when new developments broke in the State investigation into whether TPS tweaked attendance numbers on the state tests. The Auditor's office has announced it will investigate ODE, since several school districts may have violated state regulations. Dr. Pecko tells 13abc, "I am pleased that the auditor is going to take a look at not only what the school districts are doing but also what is going on down in Columbus." TPS has hired a legal team to look into the case. TPS leaders believe the law is unclear on whether districts can throw out data. Read more...

• Kasich wants answers from inquiry into data manipulation at schools (Blade)

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said on Monday that he wants answers on the investigation into school-data manipulation at two of the state's largest school systems — with one being Toledo Public Schools — as well as the Ohio Department of Education. "I know there are things in the paper now about the data affecting our schools. Got to get to the bottom of it," the governor told an audience of more than 200 people at the Toledo Rotary Club meeting in the ballroom of the downtown Park Inn. Read more...

• Teachers Retiring In Greater Numbers As Pensions Change (WBNS 10 CBS)

COLUMBUS - Some local school districts are seeing two or three times the usual number of teacher retirements. Cathy Williams said that she is one of many giving up her post. “I am retiring before I lose most of my pension," Williams said. Williams spent 35 years teaching, much of it at Champion Middle School in Columbus. She taught students who have special needs. "I am a caretaker. I am a nurse. I am a doctor, a lawyer, a judge,” Williams said. “I make sure that my students are protected.” Read more...

Local Issues

• Opposing sides debate how to solve Monroe fiscal emergency (Middletown Journal)

Both sides agree the Monroe School District has to deal with its financial issues. Why the problem exists and how it should be fixed appears to be where the two sides part. Placed in “fiscal emergency” by the state auditor’s office in May, and facing a $2.2 million operating deficit and a bond retirement debt of $3.1 million, Monroe schools will ask voters to approve a five year, 7.05-mill emergency property tax levy during the Aug. 7 special election. The levy will raise $2.5 million a year for the district. Read more...

• DPS to provide busing to fewer students (Dayton Daily News)

Dayton — Dayton Public Schools will bus about 3,000 fewer students this year than last under a plan district officials say should eliminate transportation problems, including late or sporadic bus service, that have plagued the district. That means more students will be walking to school after the district tightened eligibility requirements for bus service. The changes take effect with the start of school on Aug. 15. Last year, the school district transported students who live farther than 1.5 miles from their school. Read more...

• At Crayons to Computers, teachers shop for free (Enquirer)

Carmie Boesch looks forward to the days she gets to shop at Crayons to Computers. Besides picking out supplies for her Woodford Paideia Academy students, Boesch gets ideas from other educators shopping at the free store for teachers. And it saves her money. In the past two years Boesch has shopped for supplies that would have cost $5,300, said Robbie Atkinson, Crayons to Computers’ director of operations. Because her school is one of 258 in a 16-county region where 60 percent or more of the students qualify for free or reduced meals, she shops for free. Read more...

Editorial

• Diving Into How Students Learn Best (Education Week)

In a fortunate turn, advances in research and theory are emerging at a long-awaited moment in U.S. education: the agreement of 46 states and the District of Columbia to adopt the Common Core State Standards. The standards were developed with the recognition that global socioeconomic imperatives, combined with the dizzying pace of technological innovation, create new urgency for the development of engaging and challenging ways to educate our nation’s young people. Read more...

ODE shifting rhetoric in wake of scandal

It's hard not to feel dizzy with all the spinning that is occurring in the wake of the brewing attendance scrubbing scandal ODE is embroiled in. Stan Heffner, the State Superintendent appears to have taken a new position, when the fallout from the high stakes are pointed at his department

With all the mania about improving student test scores, and now the apparent cheating on school-attendance reports, state schools Superintendent Stan Heffner says there’s too much emphasis on district report cards.

“If you focus on doing right by kids, you’ll do OK on your report card. But if you worry about doing well on your report card first, there is no guarantee that your kids are getting what they need,” Heffner said yesterday following remarks about Ohio’s education system before the Columbus Metropolitan Club.

“The report card over time has just taken on way too much importance.”

Just a little over 2 months ago, he had quite the opposite view, in testimony to the House education committee

We should not let the failure of Congress to reauthorize ESEA stop us from seizing the chance to secure a waiver to implement common sense reforms. The new system will change the standard by which schools are judged – moving from mere minimum competency to needed college and career readiness for all students. This means raising the bar, and some schools and districts may initially not look as high performing in the new system. Change can be difficult, especially when districts and schools have been told for years that they are "Excellent" or "Effective." Last year, over half of Ohio’s schools were rated "Excellent" or "Excellent with Distinction.” Yet, 40% of Ohio graduates entering our public universities required remediation before taking first-year, credit-bearing courses in English and mathematics.

It is unfair to students and their families not to provide them with a complete assessment of their academic progress. And, it is unfair to fault local educators who are working hard and have responded to the current system that the state has given them. When the new Local Report Cards are released, parents and the community will have a clearer and more comprehensive view of how their schools impact student performance.

Not a word uttered about the report card taking on too much importance, indeed, he was testifying in order for the report card to take on even more importance. Why the sudden change of heart? Toledo Public Schools might be hinting at the answer

When TPS officials first acknowledged the test score manipulation, they argued that state direction was unclear. Don Yates, president of the Toledo Association of Administrative Personnel, said Friday that the test reporting process has been confusing for years, with rules at times unclear or directions inconsistent.

"I don't have any indication that TPS has done anything that was not fully communicated back and forth with folks within ODE, and certainly internally," Mr. Yates said. "I don't think [ODE direction] has been clear, and I don't think it's been consistent."

District officials point to past publicity about removals of test scores, called scrubbing, that they say failed to produce inquiry or direction from the education department, as evidence the department never clearly opposed the practice.

Has ODE, yet again, been asleep at the switch when it came to oversight responsibilities, or worse still, allowing the scrubbing with a wink and a nod?

Whatever all the ongoing investigations discover, Stan Heffner is not the only one having second thoughts about the shift to high stakes, Rep Stabelton, the chair of the House education committee is too

Rep. Gerald Stebelton (R-Lancaster), who is leading the process to develop the report card change, said he agrees with Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner's comment earlier this week that the report card might be becoming too important and is pressuring districts to achieve a high ranking.

"I don't disagree with that," he said in an interview. "I think what we need to focus on is educating these children and educating them to the best of our ability using a maximum amount of school time to do that as opposed to, perhaps some districts are choosing to direct their focus primarily to achieving a good score on a test. That's probably not a good idea.

"I think if you're directing, especially in elementary grades, if you're directing your attention to achieving a passing grade on a test, you're probably losing the culture of an excellent classroom where the culture breeds creativity and breeds a desire for learning as opposed to repetition."

Every policy prescription being passed or proposed over the last two years has been focused on the high stakes need to pass one form of test or another. Whether it's for a 3rd grade reading guarantee or a teachers career impacting evaluation.

Now we need to wait and see whether this new change of heart when it comes to school ratings is going to be reflected in new legislature, or whether policy makers and their enablers are going to have short memories, and long brooms with which to sweep the current imbroglio under the rug.

Education News for 07-30-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Sending more money to classroom part of Ohio Gov. John Kasich's plan to revamp school funding (Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS — Jon Ritchie might just be the future of Ohio education. Since 2007, Ritchie has pulled double duty as superintendent of both the Orrville Local School District and the Rittman Local School District, a pair of rural districts in Wayne County connected by an 11-mile stretch of Ohio 57. This school year, Ritchie is adding Southeastern Local School District to his growing portfolio -- a move enlarging his fiefdom to 4,297 students spread across three Wayne County districts and his pay by $24,000, to $127,000. Read more...

• Auditors investigating how schools, ODE report attendance (Dayton Daily News)

The state auditor’s office is launching a statewide investigation into how school districts, charter schools and the Ohio Department of Education report student attendance data after questionable practices surfaced in three districts. “It appears that attendance report rigging is not a localized problem with Columbus Public Schools, but that it may be more systemic – and that raises the question of what role ODE played during the time that false reports were made by multiple schools,” Auditor Dave Yost wrote in a letter sent Thursday to the Ohio Board of Education. Read more...

• Students can choose when, where, how to learn (News-Sun)

Students will be able to customize their education through a new blended learning model that Springfield district officials think will attract more students and better prepare them for jobs and college. Blended learning allows students to choose from several available options — including the traditional high school classes, post-secondary college courses and the district’s online school — to complete their required courses and desired electives, said David Estrop, superintendent of the Springfield City School District. Read more...

• Lottery windfall won't appear in school budgets (News-Journal)

Higher-than-expected state lottery profits last year do not equal a windfall for Ohio's schools this year, according to three major public education associations. The Ohio Lottery Commission recently released results for the past fiscal year, which ended June 30. Sales surpassed $2.7 billion, and that led to a profit of $771 million, well above the $717.5 million that had been budgeted for schools. By law, all Ohio Lottery profits must be directed toward kindergarten through 12th grade public education, so Ohio's schools are looking at a bump of $50 million for the upcoming school year, right? Read more...

Local Issues

• Lakota recalls teachers for upcoming school year (Journal-News)

LIBERTY TWP. — Three months after their job cuts were approved, about 50 teachers within Lakota Local Schools are coming back for another year. Over recent months, the Lakota school board has approved to recall 53 teachers throughout the district — including on the early childhood, elementary, junior and high school levels — effective July 1, according to school board reports. Marla Niebling, Lakota’s assistant director of human resources, said the teachers were hired back at their same level of pay. Read more...

• TPS, state on opposite sides of data issue (Blade)

Finger-pointing has begun as the investigation into possible school data manipulation rapidly escalates. Officials within Toledo Public Schools say, both publicly and in private, that the Ohio Department of Education has never made it clear that the practice of retroactively withdrawing and re-enrolling habitually truant students was prohibited, and say the department seems to have condoned the practices by remaining silent during similar situations. Education department officials, meanwhile, say the law and their guidance couldn't have been more straightforward. Read more...

• Delphos adds online school option (Lima News)

DELPHOS — Nikki Fetzer watched her children's grades improve since enrolling in the online school Ohio Connections Academy. She no longer worried about bullies and always knew where her son and daughter were. It was perfect, except her son couldn't play football for his hometown school, Delphos Jefferson. Neither children could participate in other extras and would not receive a diploma from the school. Next month, the two will be Wildcats again, thanks to a new online option at the high school. Read more...

• Southern Ohio Academy open for student enrollment (Daily Times)

The Southern Ohio Academy is now accepting students in grades 7-12 to begin their first school year of online classes for non-traditional, at-risk students. The not-for-profit Academy is a collaborative effort of Bloom Vernon, Clay, Green, Manchester, Minford, Northwest, Oak Hill, Scioto County Career Technical Center, South Central Ohio Educational Service Center, Valley, Washington Nile, and Wheelersburg schools. Its curriculum is provided by the Virtual Community School of Ohio. Read more...

• Busing officials, school district ready for a better start (Middletown Journal)

MIDDLETOWN — Coming off a disastrous start to last school year, representatives of the Petermann Ltd. bus company and the Middletown City School District expect the second year of a five-year $15.1 million contract to be a lot better. Due to re-routing of the entire school district prior to the start of last school year and an addition of 130 school-of-choice students to the district within 36 hours of the first day of school, bus route delays of three or more hours occurred on the first day of school last year. Read more...

Editorial

• Perception of state lottery support hurts Ohio schools (Newark Advocate)

It's been a recurring theme as Ohio's new casinos are rolled out: Public officials are seeing significantly smaller-than-projected profits from voter-approved casinos. Promises and reality, so far, don't measure up. In Licking County, skeptical elected officials actually refrained from building promised casino revenues into their budgets, warily adopting a "let's see how this really sorts out" posture. Long before casinos were approved for the Buckeye State, taxpayers similarly were enticed with promises of school financial support from promised slices of the state lottery profits pie. Read more...

• State auditor's look at student scores is well deserved (Plain Dealer)

Ohio Auditor Dave Yost's launch of a statewide investigation into possibly fraudulent attendance reporting by a number of traditional and charter schools is both wise and timely. So is his decision to broaden that investigation to include whether lapses in Ohio Department of Education oversight allowed this practice -- first reported by The Plain Dealer nearly four years ago -- to persist. Ohioans need to know how many districts have gamed the system and why the state's education overseers seemingly turned a blind eye to the matter. Read more...