Columbus, Ohio's Largest School District

Background

MANDEL NGAN / AFP/Getty Images

President Barack Obama tours a graphic design classroom at Columbus's Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School in September 2011.

The Columbus school district is Ohio’s largest school district and enrolled about 50,000 students in 2010-11.

About 80 percent of its students are from low-income families.

Looking at graduation rates, 72 percent of Columbus’s class of 2010 graduated from high school within four years.

In the 2010-11 school year, 55 percent of Columbus fifth graders could demonstrate basic, grade-level reading skills and 44 percent could demonstrate basic, grade-level math skills, according to the district’s state report card. For eighth graders, those figures were 69 percent for reading and 48 percent for math.

Columbus received a rating of “continuous improvement” on its 2010-11 state report card, the equivalent of a “C.”

Gene Harris has served as Columbus’s superintendent since 2001.

The Columbus Education Association, an affiliate of the Ohio Education Association and the National Education Association, represents Columbus teachers. Rhonda Johnson is the Columbus union’s president.

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October 3, 2012

Ohio Data Rigging Investigation and the C-Word

Cassidy Curtis / Flickr There’s a state investigation of suspected “systemic cheating” in Ohio schools, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. “Cheating investigations” are underway in Toledo and Columbus, according to the Journal-Constitution. And the Ohio Auditor of State is investigating suspected “whether systemic cheating at three Ohio school districts was the result of lax oversight by the [...]

September 28, 2012

Report: Columbus School District Misused Seclusion Rooms

The Columbus school district has used its seclusion rooms — some as small as a closet, some reeking of urine or covered in spit — as a place to punish children with special needs, a state investigation has found. Some schools continue to use a type of physical restraint so dangerous that is banned in [...]

September 21, 2012

Reactions: Columbus Superintendent Gene Harris to Retire

On Thursday, Columbus school district Superintendent Gene Harris announced her plans to retire in July 2013. Ohio reacts: Columbus Dispatch Leaders in the business, education and nonprofit communities in central Ohio were quick to laud Columbus Superintendent Gene Harris’ accomplishments yesterday after she announced she will retire.

September 20, 2012

Columbus School Superintendent Gene Harris to Retire (Updated)

Columbus school district Superintendent Gene Harris will announce her retirement this afternoon, our partners at WOSU report: A source confirms Harris will retire following several months in the spotlight amid allegations of attendance rigging. The retirement will not be immediately, however. Harris will leave at the end of the school year. Her retirement comes as the [...]

August 20, 2012

Up to 100 Ohio Schools Are Potential Targets of Attendance Rigging Investigation

Up to 100 Ohio schools — less than 3 percent of all charter and traditional public schools in the state — may have improperly changed student attendance data to make the school’s state report card look better, an Ohio Department of Education official said yesterday. Acting state Superintendent Michael Sawyers said department staff helped investigators [...]

August 13, 2012

School Administrators Got Bonuses for Deleting Attendance Data

Some Columbus City Schools administrators who deleted student attendance records to boost their schools’ test scores were rewarded with bonuses, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The Dispatch reports that the district has a “gainsharing” program that rewards school administrators and teachers for boosting attendance and graduation rates as well as test scores. Deleting student absences may boost [...]

August 10, 2012

State Auditor Dave Yost Tells Columbus School District Employees, “Call Me Maybe”

Ohio Auditor of State Dave Yost has released a video asking Columbus school district employees to call him, maybe, with any information related to falsifying student records, WOSU reports. Maybe you know something about people tampering with student attendance records but don’t know where to turn, Yost suggests. “You haven’t known what to do, who [...]

July 30, 2012

Three Things to Read About the Ohio School Attendance Data Investigation

Ohio’s state auditor is investigating whether Ohio schools throughout Ohio may be changing student attendance data to prevent students who should be counting towards schools’ state ratings from actually counting. It’s a big deal. Here are three things you should read about it.

Grades Could Retroactively Drop For Districts Caught Fudging Data

Much like Olympic athletes caught doping whose gold medals are rescinded, the Ohio Department of Education says schools caught rigging their attendance data could see their report card grades drop retroactively. John Charlton, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education, says, “one of the things that ODE has said already and is willing to do [...]

July 26, 2012

Ohio State Auditor: School Cheating on Student Data May Be Statewide Problem

Schools throughout Ohio may be changing student attendance and enrollment data in ways that prevent students who should be counting towards schools’ state ratings from actually counting, Ohio Auditor of State Dave Yost wrote in a letter to the president of the state Board of Education today. The scattered accusations and admissions of changing student data [...]