THE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 160 S. Hollywood Street • Memphis, TN 38112 • (901) 416-5300 • Fax (901) 416-5578 • www.scsk12.org Dorsey E. Hopson, II Superintendent January 11, 2018 Commissioner Candice McQueen Tennessee Department of Education Andrew Johnson Tower, 9th Floor 710 James Robertson Parkway Nashville, Tennessee 37243-0375 Commissioner McQueen: Thank you for your support as we continue to address grading issues in Shelby County Schools. This letter and the subsequent attachments are in response to the requests and questions posed in your December 20, 2017 letter following our call earlier that week. I have included those requests and questions below, along with a response to each one. All job classifications or positions within SCS containing job duties that include entering, editing or having access to student grades and/or the electronic grading system; All teachers in SCS use PowerTeacher Pro as their electronic gradebook. PowerTeacher Pro is the gradebook which is included with PowerSchool and is considered the official gradebook. Teachers are the only staff who can edit grades within the gradebook. Once grades from PowerTeacher Pro are stored within PowerSchool, the following positions have had the ability to edit final report card grades: School Administrators (e.g. principals, vice principals, assistant principals) School Counselors Records Secretaries General Office Secretaries Likewise, the above office positions have had the ability to edit transcripts. Shelby County Schools offers educational and employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, creed, ag e, disability, national origin, or genetic information. In addition, there are staff at the central office within the departments of Student Information Management and Information Technology whose roles require broad enough access to the student information system such that grade edits would be possible. In addition to the documented protocols in place requiring signed documentation for the approval of grade edits and training regarding these protocols, Shelby County Schools will now limit school-level access to grade edits beyond teachers to the Records Secretary and one other designee of the principal. This limitation will take place by the end of this month. All agendas from trainings that have been conducted on the practice of entering and editing grades after the grade changing was uncovered, including a list of employee classifications or positions that were required to attend; Every year the SCS Department of Student Information Management and the School Counseling Office provide training for school records secretaries and counselors on managing transcripts. These training sessions include protocols for report card and transcript edits including grade changes. All records secretaries are expected to attend along with at least the lead counselor. After the incident at Trezevant, special emphasis on documenting grade changes and TCA § 39-14-136, Falsifying of educational and academic records, were added. Sessions for the 16-17 and 17-18 school year were as follows. Further, training that was provided to school staff regarding graduation cohort tracking now also includes this information. Agendas, copies of the presentations, copies of the transcripts manual used as guidance in the training, and sample communication are attached. The appendix of the transcripts manual includes the forms to be used by schools to document grade changes. Transcript training dates and times announcements from 16-17 and 17-18: Mandatory Secondary Transcript Training: This session is designed to train High School Counselors and High School Clerical Staff on how to input transcript data, evaluate transcripts, and correct inaccurate transcripts in PowerSchool SMS. If possible, school staff should attend as a group. The group is only required to attend one session. Please bring copies of transcripts that need to be corrected. Registration will be available on PLZ in a few days. DAY DAY Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday DATE November 2, 2016 November 9, 2016 November 16, 2016 December 7, 2016 January 4, 2017 January 18, 2017 LOCATION Technology Training Ctr. Technology Training Ctr. Technology Training Ctr. Technology Training Ctr. Technology Training Ctr. Technology Training Ctr. TIME 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Mandatory PowerSchool Secondary Transcript Training (Course #: 14365) This session is designed to train High School Counselors and High School Clerical Staff on how to input historical data, evaluate, and correct inaccurate transcripts in new PowerSchool. NOTE: PowerSchool Basic Training is a prerequisite for this training. Please bring copies of transcripts that need to be corrected. Registration is available on PLZ. Shelby County Schools offers educational and employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, creed, ag e, disability, national origin, or genetic information. DAY DAY Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday DATE LOCATION August 16, 2017 Technology Training Ctr. August 23, 2017 Technology Training Ctr. August 30, 2017 Technology Training Ctr. September 6, 2017 Technology Training Ctr. September 13, 2017 Technology Training Ctr. September 20, 2017 Technology Training Ctr. October 4, 2017 Technology Training Ctr. TIME 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Specific training for all principals, assistant principals, and PLC coaches will be held next week (the week of January 14) regarding grading policies, practices, and procedures in order to ensure all administrators understand these expectations and handle them consistently. Further, training for all teachers is being developed and will be accomplished by the end of the month. The District will also develop a plan to include these staff in an annual training. All written policies and procedures, including the effective dates, regarding who has access to grades and/ or electronic grading systems, the protocol for entering grades, and the protocol for editing grades. Please include what policies and procedures are new and were adopted as a result of this issue. SCS Board Policies may be found at http://www.scsk12.org/policy/, and the online copies include the effective dates. Those most relevant to grading and credit acquisition are: Graduation Requirements (5004); Awarding of Credits (5006); Online Courses and Online Course-Credit Recovery (5007); and Grading System for Grades 6-12 (5015). Additional information regarding this request has been provided in the above responses. The transcripts training, manual, and the forms within the manual were adopted to address these concerns. Furthermore, an independent review of all policies and procedures by the accounting firm of Dixon Hughes Goodman LLC (DHG) is currently underway. Their work will be used in part to test the District’s internal controls and to make recommendations for policy changes to our board and to improve processes and procedures. INITIAL RESPONSES TO ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS You are correct that SCS is still reviewing our processes – both internally and through the independent review of DHG – to further minimize risks of such actions reoccurring. However, our initial thoughts regarding your questions are below. Why does SCS leadership think the problem occurred? In the case of Trezevant High School, the employees who have been terminated were not following established protocols and procedures and clearly conspired to intentionally falsify transcripts. The staff member who made the changes had received training regarding appropriate processes and procedures. The circumstances surrounding Hamilton High School are still under investigation. Shelby County Schools offers educational and employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, creed, ag e, disability, national origin, or genetic information. Do employees understand their responsibilities regarding the duties of entering and editing grades but are failing to fulfill those responsibilities? Given the training we have conducted and the communication that has occurred, we believe employees who are responsible for managing student grades are aware of their responsibilities and proper procedures. However, we are in the process of developing additional steps to ensure these expectations are clear. Some of the actions under consideration include online training with electronic tracking and signatures to confirm participation, signed assurance statements completed each year, similar to what is in place for test security; and providing additional training to counselors on graduation requirements and graduation rosters which re-emphasizes transcript accuracy and accountability for graduation rosters. Again, improvements in our practices will also be guided by the DHG review. Are employees not aware of the proper procedures with regard to entering and editing grades? Please see the response above. Has training around the policies and procedures of entering and editing grades been clear and provided as often as necessary? We believe the training has been clear but will implement additional steps to confirm understanding. Such steps are those listed as being under consideration above, and recommendations for DHG will also be considered. Does SCS leadership think policies and procedures need to be developed or revised to address proper entering and editing of grades? Yes. Input from educators, other stakeholders, and DHG have been and are being collected in order to make recommendations to the school board at the appropriate time. Was SCS leadership already aware of the problem and been working on it? SCS leadership was not aware of the issues at Trezevant until they were brought to our attention. As other possible issues are being identified through the DHG analysis and through other means such as the reporting “hotline” we have put in place, we are working diligently to review and resolve them. Does SCS’s electronic grading system maintain an audit log of changes, and if so, does someone have the job of checking it regularly to minimize the risk of improper grade changes? The former student information system, PowerSchool SMS, which was used in 16-17 and earlier provided audit logs which were used to identify the users who made the inappropriate changes. Last year, a monthly review of the logs related to transcript changes was performed; however, the Hamilton case involved report card edits which can involve numerous legitimate changes as grades are being finalized for report card distribution. Therefore, the focus was on transcript edits. The current student information system, PowerSchool, also provides a similar audit log, but we are working with the vendor to have reports created which are more user friendly and easier to read. We will continue the monitoring of transcripts but will need to explore ways to more closely monitor report card edits. In order to assist with monitoring efforts, staff will be added to the Office of Academic Operations and School Support. These staff will visit schools on a regular basis to audit and provide support to schools regarding operational issues including processes that related to grading, report cards, and transcripts. Shelby County Schools offers educational and employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, creed, ag e, disability, national origin, or genetic information. What is SCS’s plan to review, on a case by case basis, the transcripts of students, still enrolled in SCS, whose grades were improperly changed, to ensure students are negatively impacted as little as possible by this issue? All transcripts of active students that had been edited at Trezevant High School were reviewed and corrected. Follow up was done by a team of educators to ensure any resulting needs of students were addressed. Steps including the repeat of needed courses, enrollment in credit recovery, or enrollment in online courses were taken. The report card changes for Hamilton students are still being reviewed to determine next steps, but any affected students will be provided opportunities to address any gaps through coursework similar to what was done at Trezevant. A team of school-level and central office educators will review each case and make determinations as to what is best for each student, using the appropriate avenues that are available (e.g. credit recovery). I am most grateful for the dialogue we have had regarding these unfortunate matters, and I look forward to continuing our discussions. Given the size of our district, the mobility of our students, and the movement or turnover of some of our staff, we are often faced with situations where a student’s education and academic progress are not as seamless as we would like. Such discontinuity can make grading a challenge as students move from school to school at inopportune times. While some incidents like the one at Trezevant are straightforward and clearly inappropriate, we sometimes have cases which require thoughtful deliberation to resolve in a manner which appropriately addresses student needs. While we will be more concerted in our efforts to have teams of Shelby County Schools educators address such issues, as opposed to staff making unilateral decisions, I trust that you and your staff will continue to be a resource for us should we have questions about specific issues. I hope these responses are helpful, and I will keep you informed as our work progresses. Sincerely, Dorsey E. Hopson, II Superintendent Shelby County Schools offers educational and employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, creed, ag e, disability, national origin, or genetic information.