Scope of OSSE errors in Ellington case revealed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And, even if the total number of students initially identified were not all cheaters, their paperwork was dodgy enough to raise concerns, which overall indicates the registrar at Ellington is not doing due diligence. Just because those families proved residence, doesn’t mean the paperwork was proper up front.

This is what jumped out at me. Even if all the kids ultimately proved their residency, the fact that so many were enrolled with suspect paperwork is a problem. I can understand that a few students are going to have unusual living arrangements, but most people should be able to supply the requisite number of approved documents. The school needs to be vetting this stuff better.

We do not know what the paperwork problems were. If the registrar was sloppy, that does not mean that the paperwork was "dodgy" in a blame the parents way. I have filed residency paperwork every year for the past 9 years. This past year I forgot to sign in one spot and months later our school registrar caught it and reached out to me and I then signed correctly. She is a good registrar and I made an inadvertent mistake and she failed to catch it.

It is a really big deal that OSSE made such huge errors. It undermines the ability to rely on its work and public claims. Yes, cheating is bad, but so is bungled enforcement.

But it wasn't OSSE's error! It was a failure by the school to have appropriate paperwork for all families. At my child's HRC, which my child has attended for 6 years, every parent completes the residency paperwork every year. Even when the administrators know your family well. You meet with someone at the school to confirm it is all in order. And it is really simple. And at our school, which has a high percentage of low income families, they still find a way to get it done. Obviously, this was too much of a burden for Ellington's administration - perhaps they thought they were above the rules that apply to other schools and were too casual about the whole process, or perhaps they knew they had a significant number of nonresidents (15% is still a huge number) and didn't want to enforce rules that would have required them to take action against families. Either way, if Ellington failed to maintain the records appropriately, it is 100% Ellington's fault, not OSSE's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OSSE should outsource the residency fraud investigations and pay a bounty for every case of nonresidency that is sustained. Create an economic incentive for others to ferret out the cheaters and it will take care of a lot of the problem.

Unnecessary. The reality is that Ellington, as a school that accepts tuition actually allows people from DC and VA to attend. The cheating is in the saying you are from DC to escape tuition. So if Ellington is, for all practical purposes, a "regional" arts school, the solution is to make its funding regional. At the very least any one from MD or VA who wants to attend and cannot afford tuition should be able to apply to their state for tuition coverage for kids from that state. In fact, it should do away with tuition altogether and make MD and VA pay directly for any MD/VA student who attends Ellington in that 10% non-resident MOU the school operates by. That's only fair. No need to cheat if the states are in a regional agreement.

I think this is how Thomas Jefferson high school in NoVA works

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And, even if the total number of students initially identified were not all cheaters, their paperwork was dodgy enough to raise concerns, which overall indicates the registrar at Ellington is not doing due diligence. Just because those families proved residence, doesn’t mean the paperwork was proper up front.

This is what jumped out at me. Even if all the kids ultimately proved their residency, the fact that so many were enrolled with suspect paperwork is a problem. I can understand that a few students are going to have unusual living arrangements, but most people should be able to supply the requisite number of approved documents. The school needs to be vetting this stuff better.

We do not know what the paperwork problems were. If the registrar was sloppy, that does not mean that the paperwork was "dodgy" in a blame the parents way. I have filed residency paperwork every year for the past 9 years. This past year I forgot to sign in one spot and months later our school registrar caught it and reached out to me and I then signed correctly. She is a good registrar and I made an inadvertent mistake and she failed to catch it.

It is a really big deal that OSSE made such huge errors. It undermines the ability to rely on its work and public claims. Yes, cheating is bad, but so is bungled enforcement.

But it wasn't OSSE's error! It was a failure by the school to have appropriate paperwork for all families. At my child's HRC, which my child has attended for 6 years, every parent completes the residency paperwork every year. Even when the administrators know your family well. You meet with someone at the school to confirm it is all in order. And it is really simple. And at our school, which has a high percentage of low income families, they still find a way to get it done. Obviously, this was too much of a burden for Ellington's administration - perhaps they thought they were above the rules that apply to other schools and were too casual about the whole process, or perhaps they knew they had a significant number of nonresidents (15% is still a huge number) and didn't want to enforce rules that would have required them to take action against families. Either way, if Ellington failed to maintain the records appropriately, it is 100% Ellington's fault, not OSSE's.

I agree with this. Why was Ellington's paperwork so messed up in the first place? I think some of the notice procedures on OSSE's side could have been handled better, no doubt, but there are hundreds of other schools in the system working with students who have complicated circumstances who take this seriously and get it done.

[Anonymous]

This thread seems like damage control to spin over the real story. Non-paying, non-resident students were (are?) rampant at the school, and its front office records were so bad it took an OSSE investigation to figure out how bad it was. And the initial local news report focuses on how the parents were offended by OSSE...just crazy, literally, imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread seems like damage control to spin over the real story. Non-paying, non-resident students were (are?) rampant at the school, and its front office records were so bad it took an OSSE investigation to figure out how bad it was. And the initial local news report focuses on how the parents were offended by OSSE...just crazy, literally, imo.

Ten. Repeat --10, confessed to being non-residents. Hardly rampant. The other 22 or so "uncontested" includes people who did not get or respond to outreach. Doesn't make them non-residents.

But again let's stop playing games with the band aids. Let's get to the real issues. None of this would be an issue if DCPS provided strong enough arts education in middle schools so that Ellington never even think about letting someone in from MD or Va, tuition or otherwise. Some departments, such as Dance, need let in MD or Va people because there are enough dance training programs in DC that offer solid training. But strings? No way. Serious visual art? No way. Better arts training throughout the system and Ellington could function like all others schools, which is to only let in DC people unless they cannot fill a slot. Barring that MD and VA need to subsidize Ellington until such time as they create their own arts high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread seems like damage control to spin over the real story. Non-paying, non-resident students were (are?) rampant at the school, and its front office records were so bad it took an OSSE investigation to figure out how bad it was. And the initial local news report focuses on how the parents were offended by OSSE...just crazy, literally, imo.

+1.

When will DCPS take over that disgrace of a publicly-funded private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread seems like damage control to spin over the real story. Non-paying, non-resident students were (are?) rampant at the school, and its front office records were so bad it took an OSSE investigation to figure out how bad it was. And the initial local news report focuses on how the parents were offended by OSSE...just crazy, literally, imo.

Ten. Repeat --10, confessed to being non-residents. Hardly rampant. The other 22 or so "uncontested" includes people who did not get or respond to outreach. Doesn't make them non-residents.

But again let's stop playing games with the band aids. Let's get to the real issues. None of this would be an issue if DCPS provided strong enough arts education in middle schools so that Ellington never even think about letting someone in from MD or Va, tuition or otherwise. Some departments, such as Dance, need let in MD or Va people because there are enough dance training programs in DC that offer solid training. But strings? No way. Serious visual art? No way. Better arts training throughout the system and Ellington could function like all others schools, which is to only let in DC people unless they cannot fill a slot. Barring that MD and VA need to subsidize Ellington until such time as they create their own arts high schools.

You're still minimizing the scope of quite a large problem. From WTOP:

"The November report, released by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, has revealed 65 percent of the 219 Duke Ellington School of the Arts students investigated have been found to be residents of the District, clearing them of all accusations of fraud. Another 10 percent of the accused students didn’t fight the accusations, five percent admitted to fraud and 20 percent of the cases remain open."

https://wtop.com/dc/2018/11/report-families-wrongly-accused-of-duke-ellington-school-of-the-arts-residency-fraud/

My math says that 35% of the 219 originally singled out results in a total of 77 fraudsters. Well, 44 of them have to go to a hearing, but if they haven't been cleared by now, it's not good for them. 33 clear fraudsters, and 44 very likely fraudsters. A lot.

Just deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't DC have one central registration office, computer system and staff that are in charge of registering families & students to attend school in DC?? A number of other unified school districts require families to submit their admissions paperwork including proof of residence to one central office. Their are sometimes satellite offices or traveling staff sent to education fairs, schools, libraries, rec centers etc as well as options for submitting documents online. If one staff team/office (not each schools administration) was primarily responsible for verification of residence & other paperwork required their wold likely be less issues. No one in the school looking the other way just to keep numbers up, hopefully no one coaching people on how to beat the system and less stress of each schools offices. The central office can send documents directly to whatever School the family /student wishes to enroll. Also, saves families from filling out the same thing 10 times too.

The simple answer is that nobody in DC government really wants to solve the problem. It's seen as a victimless crime and DC government insiders are often the perpetrators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OSSE should outsource the residency fraud investigations and pay a bounty for every case of nonresidency that is sustained. Create an economic incentive for others to ferret out the cheaters and it will take care of a lot of the problem.

Unnecessary. The reality is that Ellington, as a school that accepts tuition actually allows people from DC and VA to attend. The cheating is in the saying you are from DC to escape tuition. So if Ellington is, for all practical purposes, a "regional" arts school, the solution is to make its funding regional. At the very least any one from MD or VA who wants to attend and cannot afford tuition should be able to apply to their state for tuition coverage for kids from that state. In fact, it should do away with tuition altogether and make MD and VA pay directly for any MD/VA student who attends Ellington in that 10% non-resident MOU the school operates by. That's only fair. No need to cheat if the states are in a regional agreement.

I would start by challenging the premise that Ellington needs to be a regional arts school and not just for DC residents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Residency verification should be the same as verification for DC TAG, which includes a certified copy of DC tax return. It's all done electronically now and not particularly onerous.

Except you can't - because attendance at school is compulsory and you are not supposed to erect barriers to enrollment (e.g. even undocumented people can walk in and attend). No one has a right to go to college, much less get a voucher to reduce the cost.

OSSE now allows people to voluntarily give OTR permission to share their tax info to prove residency but I don't think it can be made compulsory.

I think this has come up, but using the taxes should be default, and then if your tax return can't be found by the system (which could be automated) - THEN you are asked to come in with other documentation. At least this would narrow any resources to be spent on catching cheaters to that somewhat small pool. Sure, there are always exceptions but deal with them individually. Nobody is going to start paying DC taxes who doesn't live here.

Right, a rational system is organized around the most common cases, not the outliers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread seems like damage control to spin over the real story. Non-paying, non-resident students were (are?) rampant at the school, and its front office records were so bad it took an OSSE investigation to figure out how bad it was. And the initial local news report focuses on how the parents were offended by OSSE...just crazy, literally, imo.

+1.

When will DCPS take over that disgrace of a publicly-funded private school?

From a financial standpoint they basically already have.

But how many directors does OSSE, DCPS or the rest of the District government have the right to appoint to Ellington’s board? Zero!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Residency verification should be the same as verification for DC TAG, which includes a certified copy of DC tax return. It's all done electronically now and not particularly onerous.

Except you can't - because attendance at school is compulsory and you are not supposed to erect barriers to enrollment (e.g. even undocumented people can walk in and attend). No one has a right to go to college, much less get a voucher to reduce the cost.

OSSE now allows people to voluntarily give OTR permission to share their tax info to prove residency but I don't think it can be made compulsory.

Not true.

No one csn just show up at s school and attend just because.

If you say you are homeless and sleeping in your car, on the streets, or doubled up with family members due to economic reasons you can declare you are homeless and you can in fact show up at a school and be enrolled.

yes, and if you say car or streets, CFSA will be contacted and you'll be pushed into a motel or shelter or staying with a relative if you want to keep your kids.

It seems unlikely that anyone is claiming homelessness as a means of getting into any school.

Former registrar here: happens more often than you might think. Homeless can mean doubled up - you're not permitted to ask for residency in those cases and investigating the homeless is awkward at best.

[Anonymous]

Even 10 non-residents is a HUGE scandal. This is a highly coveted program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even 10 non-residents is a HUGE scandal. This is a highly coveted program.

It is weird to blame OSSE here. They found insufficient paperwork to prove residency, investigated, and a bunch of families were able to explain or produce alternate records to satisfaction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even 10 non-residents is a HUGE scandal. This is a highly coveted program.

It is weird to blame OSSE here. They found insufficient paperwork to prove residency, investigated, and a bunch of families were able to explain or produce alternate records to satisfaction.

+1

It's the school that wasn't doing its job, choosing a wink wink admissions strategy instead.