Mary Plummer | KPCC 89.3 | http://bit.ly/1JUAXHT
File photo: In August 2014, Jefferson High School students walk out from classes to protest a broken student data system that failed to properly schedule them in classes. Continuing problems with the data system is impacting the Class of 2015. Benjamin Brayfield/KPCC
Audio from this story 1:03 Listen
July 09, 05:30 AM :: Problems with Los Angeles Unified’s student data tracking system known as MiSiS continue to haunt the district and the latest issue is plaguing graduating seniors.
The $133 million MiSiS system is still coughing out transcripts that inaccurately report whether students have met their graduation requirements, according to officials familiar with the district's recent problems.
UTLA Secondary Vice President Colleen Schwab said up to 7,500 students may be affected.
"I understand that they have been working diligently day in and day out to try and fix the problem, but the result is that kids culminated [graduated] that may or may not really have qualified," she said.
Schwab said she spoke with counselors who report that they are being unfairly blamed for signing off on graduating students who hadn’t met the requirements needed to graduate.
Jefferson High School and Hamilton High School are among the schools whose students are affected by transcript problems. Other schools may also be impacted.
LAUSD acknowledged the latest problems with MiSiS, but declined to comment on the number of students affected or the scope of the issues.
In a written statement issued to KPCC on Tuesday, Superintendent Ramon Cortines said the district was taking steps to solve the problems:
The District’s My Integrated Student Information System (MiSiS) recently identified reporting issues with graduation requirements for students in the Class of 2015.
Local district superintendents, along with their secondary principals, assistant principals, counselors and central office staff, have been working hard to address these issues. Through this collaboration, the number of student records with discrepancies has been greatly reduced.
In addition, the District has implemented a multi-step strategy going forward:
1. Principals and school site staff continue to verify all information in each student’s individual file. Central office staff is validating this information, as well.
2. Each local district has developed a plan to monitor students from 9th to 12th grades. Each local district will institute a process with checks and balances that work for their students.
3. Each local district has put a plan together – using MiSiS – to go back into all records for current high school students to verify that the existing information is accurate.
4. Each local district has developed a plan to ensure our incoming class of seniors (2015-16) will meet graduation requirements.
All local district plans will require a mid-year report and a timeline for reaching specific goals and milestones.
I am confident the District has the proper tools in place to ensure accurate record-keeping going forward.
Graduates who have questions may call: 213.241.7510.
A spokeswoman for the Cal State University system said officials there know of no recent problems related to transcripts from incoming LAUSD students or applicants. In October, Cortines sent a letter to various university leaders apologizing for data problems related to GPA, transcript errors and class rank. Cal State LA and Cal State University Northridge were among those that received the letter.
The district initially spent $29 million for the student data tracking system, which was designed to replace an earlier system that proved unsatisfactory. Since then it has spent an additional $100 million on the system, including expenditures meant to fix issues from a year ago.
Major problems with MiSiS emerged as soon as it rolled out last summer. Students' class schedules were fraught with issues; the system failed to record grades or attendance. About 600 students at Jefferson High ended up spending their days in the auditorium because the school lacked academic classes for them.
In August, frustrated Jefferson High students walked out of the school in protest. Two months later, Alameda Superior Court Judge George Hernandez ruled the loss in class time caused by the scheduling problems was so egregious that the rights of the Jefferson students were being violated.
He ordered school officials to immediately fix the problems. The district brought in more teachers, expanded the school day to provide more class time, and hired retired educators to help address inaccuracies in student transcripts.
The problems with MiSiS, along with the district's problem-plagued iPad program, contributed to the resignation of former Superintendent John Deasy in October. A month later, a consultant group hired to review the MiSiS problems said in a report that top district administrators ignored warnings the data system was not ready for launch.
In February of this year, Jefferson High school officials reported repairs to MiSiS were taking hold and class scheduling problems were being resolved.
But the district’s logs for known issues with MiSiS show 355 problems as of Wednesday, including pending problems with student transcripts.
In December, Cortines defended the MiSiS system. “With these improvements, I am confident that MiSiS will prove to be a landmark achievement for LAUSD," he told board members by email. Earlier that same month, the superintendent estimated it would take another year to resolve problems with the data system.
No comments:
Post a Comment