An audit by the Rochester City School District’s Auditor General finds the district has been using outdated curriculum and grading practices to report its graduation rates, effectively inflating student performance.
The audit covered the 2015 through 2017 graduating classes from the RCSD. It found the district was using an unweighted GPA scale that starts at 4.5 instead of 4.0, which is more common. The report says starting at 4.5 appears to inflate students Grade Point Averages. The report recommends adopting the 4.0 scale.
School Board President Cyntha Elliot said at a recent meeting on the issue that “Someone needs to go to jail for this.” She said families were led to believe their children were achieving more and the district has lied to them.
The report shows the district also gave students added GPA points for things like regents, honors and advanced placement classes.