What began as a fairly dry, routine item on the school board agenda became a heated discussion that included charges of data manipulation and discrepancies, and strong denials from the school superintendent.
Matt Lange of KSM Consulting presented a report to the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board last Wednesday night about how data is stored, retrieved and disseminated, with the goal of providing school principals and teachers real-time data to respond when subgroups of students are not performing well.
On Page 7 of the KSM report, board member Michelle Fullhart objected to two sentences in the report:
“In the past, the School Board has noted discrepancies between reports provided by Central Office and reports provided by the State of Indiana. They have a concern that some data may have been manipulated by the Central Office, and they would like a higher level of transparency and accountability in their relationship with the Central Office.”
Lange responded that board member Mike Bottorff wanted the language included. Amanda Shera and Bottorff were the two board representatives in the “discovery sessions” held by KSM.
“There’s an understanding, belief that some of the information that the school board is getting is couched in a certain way, before it gets to the school board,” Lange told the board. “As a result, the school board is going around to the state of Indiana, through some relationships there, to access some of that data.”
Fullhart argued the language in the report should not reflect the entire board, since only two board members were involved in this process. “It kind of sounds like there’s some fraud happening in our district the way this is working and I do not believe that,” said Fullhart.
Bottorff was out of town and did not attend the Wednesday board meeting.
Board President Matt Burke said, “Manipulation is a pretty strong word.” He added that he wants good data as a board member, but it’s much more important that good and timely data be in the hands of school principals and teachers.
“I know that is strong wording, but from my conversations with Mike [Bottorff], I actually thought that this deserves some strong wording,” Lange told the board. “And, it is around the example that you were talking about, with some of the demographic groups in terms of reporting for some standardized tests. From the conversation I had with Mike, he did feel what I have written. I fully understand where all of you are coming from – I’ve lumped you together. I am more than happy to change how I referred to the school board, but that is how (Mike) thought and that is how I took it.”
“I know the report [Mike Bottorff] is talking about and the report was correct,” said HSE superintendent Allen Bourff. “It wasn’t manipulated but it changed. Many times if you go to the state report, it will not be what we’ve reported because we’ve reported based on the first numbers that come through or based on state numbers as opposed to federal numbers or vice versa. So, it’s not uncommon for some of those numbers to be changed as they come through and they might appear to be manipulated, but they are actually some of the latest we have or the best we can do.”
Amanda Shera, who was the other HSE board member participating in putting this report together, maintains there was manipulation of data. “The numbers were put in wrong in the report that [the school board] had and some things were updated if they were favorable and some things were not,” said Shera.
“That’s not the way I remember it,” responded Bourff. “And there was no attempt to make anything look different.” Bourff also cited changes in the formula and metrics used by the Indiana State Board of Education.
The board took no action on the report Wednesday night, but Bourff told the board he will have an administration recommendation at the next regular board meeting.