After a recent university audit uncovered multiple instances
of improper grade reporting and administrative mismanagement at UCSD’s
nationally recognized Preuss charter school, campus officials are preparing to
select an external consulting firm to conduct a comprehensive investigation
into the school’s operations.
UCSD’s Audit and Management Advisory Services released
results of the six-month-long audit in December, which stated that 144 of 190
student transcripts reviewed by auditors contained one or more inaccurate
grades. Approximately 72 percent of the 427 altered grades were found to have
improved the affected student’s academic standing. Investigators also concluded
that ex-Principal Doris Alvarez and a former counselor “likely had knowledge of
and/or directed inappropriate grade changes.”
In consultation with Preuss Board of Directors Chair Cecil
Lytle and other university personnel, Interim Vice Chancellor of Resource
Management and Planning Gary C. Matthews will soon begin interviewing various
advisory organizations with experience in charter school management. Chancellor
Marye Anne Fox assigned administrative oversight of all Preuss activities to
Matthews in the report, which recommended an independent analysis of the
school’s administrative practices. The upcoming review will mark the first
external programmatic investigation into school policies since its founding in
1999 as an educational gateway for underprivileged students. Preuss has since
been heralded as a model for charter schools, and was ranked the 10th best high
school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in 2007.
Representatives from the San Diego Unified School District,
which co-charters the Preuss School with UCSD, will also be involved in the
selection process, said Executive Director of University Communications Dolores
Davies.
Alvarez, who was placed on paid leave last September while
the audit was being conducted, continues to deny any involvement in changing
grades or pressuring teachers to evaluate students unfairly. She submitted her
resignation as principal on Dec. 18.
“I am not going to apologize for anything I did,” she said.
“I did nothing wrong.”
Senior counselor Phil Ensberg, Alvarez’s son-in-law, was
also placed on paid leave when the audit was initiated. He returned to work on
Dec. 17.
A 30-year veteran educator, Alvarez said that AMAS auditors
lacked sufficient credentials to properly analyze the school’s operations,
alleging that they sensationalized the number of altered grades to make the
situation seem worse than it really was.
“I believe the audit was biased and one-sided,” Alvarez
said. “My voice is not heard in there. There was never any explanation of how
these errors happened. There was no evidence.”
Davies said that the university stands by the audit, which
she called “very thorough and comprehensive.”
The audit report leveled several charges against Alvarez,
including that she ordered open access to grade recording software and
encouraged teachers to provide students with “extraordinary accommodations” to
improve their grades. Eleven of 21 current and former teachers interviewed by
the auditors said that Alvarez and the former counselor pressured them to
modify their grading options in a manner they would not have otherwise done.
Alvarez vehemently denied both allegations, saying that
auditors ignored her efforts to solve the grading problem immediately after it
was reported to her. She said the only person with authorization to change
grades was an unidentified former registrar, whom Alvarez terminated last April
for altering her son’s transcript while he was a Preuss student.
Most of the grade changes were probably due to incompatible
grade recording systems at Preuss and SDUSD, Alvarez said.
Auditors noted that they could not find any signed forms
reporting initial grade entries, signed grade authorization forms or signed
grade sheet printouts for most of the records they examined. However, they were
unable to determine whether the documents were misplaced, intentionally removed
or destroyed.
The records were kept in a locked storage room to which only
one person had access, Alvarez said, but she declined to identify the
individual.
“There were errors in maintaining those records, and I take
responsibility for those,” she said. “I’ll take responsibility, but I won’t
take the responsibility of being called dishonest.”
Additionally, Alvarez said the notion that she pressured
teachers into giving high grades is ridiculous.
“Nobody came to me and said they felt pressured,” she said.
“Good teachers don’t feel that kind of pressure.”
She argued that inflating students’ grades would violate
Preuss’ core educational mission.
“The goal is preparation, not inflation,” she said. “Why
would we want grades to be inflated and have students go to college and fail?”
However, former Preuss government teacher Greg Campbell
sided with the auditors’ assessment of Alvarez’s management, saying that she
frequently used weekly staff meetings to remind teachers that it was essential
for students to earn high grades.
“It was expected that [students] would all earn C’s or
better,” said Campbell, whose Preuss contract was not renewed following the
2003-04 school year. “If we weren’t up to the challenge, we should leave.”
Campbell said that Alvarez’s authority to renew teacher
contracts, which are evaluated on a year-to-year basis, contributed to an intimidating
environment in which staff members were afraid to approach her with concerns.
“[Alvarez] had tremendous control over hiring and firing,”
he said. “We were at-will employees. If we challenged certain concepts, we were
risking losing our jobs.”
The auditors recommended that a better-defined evaluation
process for teachers should be considered, along with a possible lengthening of
teacher contract periods.
In October, former history teacher Jennifer Howard filed a
legal claim against the school alleging that Alvarez terminated her for
complying with the auditors. In a formal complaint written to Lytle on July 7,
Howard said Alvarez rescinded her offer of employment after she approached her
about grade changes and inaccurate attendance figures.
In a July 23 e-mail obtained by the Guardian, Lytle told
Howard that her dismissal was not based on her involvement with the audit, but
“information that came to [Alvarez] while holding [Howard’s] contract for her
signature.” The response did not specify the nature or source of the
information, and Lytle did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Howard declined an interview at her attorney’s request, and
Alvarez said she could not speak about university-related personnel matters.
Alvarez said she suspects the audit’s timing — which she
claimed surfaced during a year where the university has been a frequent target
of media criticism — contributed to the severity of its response.
“It’s a sham that the university had to make a statement
about how strong and decisive they were,” she said. “At another time, this
probably wouldn’t have happened.”
Further disciplinary action against Preuss employees may be
taken as deemed appropriate, Davies said.
Acting Principal Scott Barton will continue his duties
throughout the remainder of the academic year. Alvarez will serve as an adviser
to Senior Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Paul Drake until she retires from
UCSD in June. Alvarez’s experience and leadership will benefit Drake in
handling Preuss-related matters, Davies said.
One of Alvarez’s primary responsibilities is working on the
continuation of the school’s charter, which will be up for renewal later this
year. Representatives from SDUSD’s Office of School Choice, which oversees
charter schools, could not be reached for comment.
It is too soon to tell whether the school’s recent accolades
are due in part to inflated grades, said Don Sorensen, Vice President of
Marketing at Caveon LLC, a security firm that has investigated school cheating
nationwide.
Sorensen said that in his experience, schools whose
performance was influenced by administrative tampering typically saw marks fall
when they were observed by an outside source.
“Scores generally went way up, the next year they were
monitored, and the score gain dramatically dropped because someone was
watching,” he said.
A.S. Council President Marco Murillo, a 2004 Preuss
graduate, said the controversy has not shaken his faith in the charter school’s
student body or its ability to perform academically.
“Changes are currently being made that will ensure proper
management and will ensure that mistakes as reported in the audit are not made
again,” Murillo said. “It is the students who make Preuss the great school it
has become, and I am sure that their success will continue.”
