Data-rigging for Ohio charter-school evaluations involved several employees

From The Columbus Dispatch Records reveal a coordinated effort among Ohio Department of Education staff to falsely inflate evaluations of some charter-school sponsors, possibly in violation of state law, according to an initial review of the documents that were released Thursday.

While emails indicate that multiple agency employees appeared to know of former state Department of Education Director of School Choice David Hansen’s grade-fixing scheme, there was no documentation of their reporting it to higher-ups including state Superintendent Richard A. Ross.

The department released nearly 100,000 pages of documents late Thursday in response to a public-records request made six weeks ago, and The Dispatch is still reviewing them. The documents did not appear to include any communications to or from Ross regarding the matter.

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