Duke Ellington note to families- 75 families already cleared by OSSE

[Anonymous]

Ellington parent here. OSSE has already cleared 75 families of wrongdoing. Surprise, surprise. DC got it wrong.

I'm sure there will be some valid cases but the fact is, the a ton of people's lives were disrupted.

Proud to say our school is weathering it and serving the lids better than any school I've yet encountered. It's a Haven for my creative, hard-working kid and hundreds of others.

[Anonymous]

Just a clarification - the above note didn’t come from the school itself which can’t comment on what is happening, but from an ad hoc group of parents. And good for those families.

OSSE sucks.

And yet Grosso, Mendelsohn and Chen all want to give them more power and autonomy. Why would we do that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ellington parent here. OSSE has already cleared 75 families of wrongdoing. Surprise, surprise. DC got it wrong.

I'm sure there will be some valid cases but the fact is, the a ton of people's lives were disrupted.

Proud to say our school is weathering it and serving the lids better than any school I've yet encountered. It's a Haven for my creative, hard-working kid and hundreds of others.

Just to clarify - Ellington got it wrong submitting poor paperwork to OSSE. If they had accurate info the 1st round it would not have become a thing.

[Anonymous]

Ellington has a new registrar too. So there was some housecleaning done.

[Anonymous]

So, that's 75 (allegedly) cleared out of HOW MANY who were singled out for the microscope?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, that's 75 (allegedly) cleared out of HOW MANY who were singled out for the microscope?

Several hundred. And I'd imagine the innocent cases get handled first, they're the simplest.

[Anonymous]

I don't like OSSE either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, that's 75 (allegedly) cleared out of HOW MANY who were singled out for the microscope?

164 were deemed non-resident, non-tuition paying students by OSSE in May 2018. 75 have been cleared; others are still under review / in process.

https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/OSSE%20Residency%20Investigation%20Report%20FINAL.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, that's 75 (allegedly) cleared out of HOW MANY who were singled out for the microscope?

164 were deemed non-resident, non-tuition paying students by OSSE in May 2018. 75 have been cleared; others are still under review / in process.

https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/OSSE%20Residency%20Investigation%20Report%20FINAL.pdf

would be helpful to know how many cases remain pending Big difference between 2 and 89, and if's it's closer to 89 that's pretty damning for OSSE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, that's 75 (allegedly) cleared out of HOW MANY who were singled out for the microscope?

164 were deemed non-resident, non-tuition paying students by OSSE in May 2018. 75 have been cleared; others are still under review / in process.

https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/OSSE%20Residency%20Investigation%20Report%20FINAL.pdf

would be helpful to know how many cases remain pending Big difference between 2 and 89, and if's it's closer to 89 that's pretty damning for OSSE

No, if 89 are still pending, that's more likely bad news for those 89 families. But, whatever, if your're DE let's cherry-pick some numbers, declare victory and move along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just a clarification - the above note didn’t come from the school itself which can’t comment on what is happening, but from an ad hoc group of parents. And good for those families.

OSSE sucks.

And yet Grosso, Mendelsohn and Chen all want to give them more power and autonomy. Why would we do that?

Because autonomy is the only way to ensure that OSSE would actually hold the schools accountable for enrollment. I've seen lots of bad paperwork over the years in DCPS. I assumed DE had the same thing. There's no incentive for DCPS to turn away students or charge tuition. High enrollment, high scores, high graduation - by any means necessary.

OSSE - remember, same boss as DCPS - only rocked the DE boat because they had to after the Antwan Wilson transfer fiasco.

It's easy to bash OSSE, but a State Superintendent office is a critical function. DC must have one, like all states, for federal funding and legal compliance reasons. Things that should not be tied directly to the vagaries of political whims.

A more autonomous OSSE would have gone after DE's messy records long before Wilson was even hired.

There are talented and dedicated people working in OSSE despite the political shenanigans. They can never fully do their jobs if there's always a political override.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a clarification - the above note didn’t come from the school itself which can’t comment on what is happening, but from an ad hoc group of parents. And good for those families.

OSSE sucks.

And yet Grosso, Mendelsohn and Chen all want to give them more power and autonomy. Why would we do that?

Because autonomy is the only way to ensure that OSSE would actually hold the schools accountable for enrollment. I've seen lots of bad paperwork over the years in DCPS. I assumed DE had the same thing. There's no incentive for DCPS to turn away students or charge tuition. High enrollment, high scores, high graduation - by any means necessary.

OSSE - remember, same boss as DCPS - only rocked the DE boat because they had to after the Antwan Wilson transfer fiasco.

It's easy to bash OSSE, but a State Superintendent office is a critical function. DC must have one, like all states, for federal funding and legal compliance reasons. Things that should not be tied directly to the vagaries of political whims.

A more autonomous OSSE would have gone after DE's messy records long before Wilson was even hired.

There are talented and dedicated people working in OSSE despite the political shenanigans. They can never fully do their jobs if there's always a political override.

Do you also absolve OSSE for responsibility for the mismanagement of the scrapped DC Science exams? The illegal release of confidential student data for students with disabilities / who are homeless?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ellington parent here. OSSE has already cleared 75 families of wrongdoing. Surprise, surprise. DC got it wrong.

I'm sure there will be some valid cases but the fact is, the a ton of people's lives were disrupted.

Proud to say our school is weathering it and serving the lids better than any school I've yet encountered. It's a Haven for my creative, hard-working kid and hundreds of others.

And is this audit doing an extra level of checking or is the usual low bar to prove residency? If the latter I would not presume there are still not residency cheaters among the cleared.

Also didn't the number of families caught up in last springs audit only represent a portion of the school?

Glad that Ellington is a haven but it needs to be a haven for students who legally reside in DC or those paying the grossly low tuition rate for non DC residents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ellington parent here. OSSE has already cleared 75 families of wrongdoing. Surprise, surprise. DC got it wrong.

I'm sure there will be some valid cases but the fact is, the a ton of people's lives were disrupted.

Proud to say our school is weathering it and serving the lids better than any school I've yet encountered. It's a Haven for my creative, hard-working kid and hundreds of others.

And is this audit doing an extra level of checking or is the usual low bar to prove residency? If the latter I would not presume there are still not residency cheaters among the cleared.

Also didn't the number of families caught up in last springs audit only represent a portion of the school?

Glad that Ellington is a haven but it needs to be a haven for students who legally reside in DC or those paying the grossly low tuition rate for non DC residents.

Last year during the 'count day' audit, OSSE's auditors found enough irregularities that they took all 570 enrollment paperwork files (every student's).

They supposedly went through everything more deeply, including questioning documentation, searching other docs, and determined that 160 were non-residents. They received the letters from OSSE and names went to the AG.

Many of these families disputed the findings, the AG has put their work on hold while a judge told OSSE to give families time to appeal.

This parent group is saying that 75 families have been told by OSSE that its finding that they were non-residents was false.

[Anonymous]

So good to hear the school is weathering the storm which they created.

Between this post and the LAMB parents it is truly amazing how parents are completely unable to see when their school is at fault. Blame everyone else but not our precious school!