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Over the course of six years Claremont McKenna College lied about its incoming students SAT scores, inflating them by 10-20 points. When administrators discovered the problem, the ramifications were serious. They may become even more serious. This is despite the fact that the actual deception was pretty meaningless.

As I wrote earlier in the week the financial planning magazine Kiplingers has dropped Claremont McKenna College from its prominent Best Values in Liberal Arts Colleges list. U.S. News also plans to recalculate its rakings due to the Claremont deception.

But, according to Daniel de Vise, its not just the rankings the school needs to worry about. As he writes in the Washington Post:

This apparently went on for several years. And that presumably means inflated SAT data were sent to the Education Department, which publishes consumer-oriented college data on its College Navigator site.

Bad data must also have been included in Claremont McKennas periodic internal review documents, submitted to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges to support its case for academic accreditation. Accreditation is the regulatory lifeblood of a college.

As he explains:

Dropping the school from the list is about the worst penalty a ranker can inflict on a college. What about Claremont McKennas accreditor? What about the Department of Education? Claremont McKenna must have reported inaccurate SAT numbers to them, too. Either of those agencies could conceivably inflict real penalties such as suspension of accreditation, or of student aid on a school that breaks the rules.

As he points out though, its not clear that the SAT lies were symptomatic of any larger structural problem, or even plan of deception at the school. It appears that one admissions officer, Richard Vos, was responsible for the whole thing.

But then, whats really so odd about all this is why Vos even bothered. A 10 or 20 point difference is, as de Vise points out the equivalent or answering one or two more questions correctly on the test. Why?

Well it may sound ridiculous from the outside, but a 15 point difference in SAT scores, students moving from the 94th to the 95th percentile, is very much the sort of thing on which an academic admissions officer is evaluated.

Perhaps thats the problem.

The Pima Community College board voted 3-2 Wednesday night against a proposal to appoint Provost Suzanne Miles to the college’s top position automatically once Chancellor Roy Flores retires.

An overflow crowd of about 220 people turned out at the Board of Governors meeting, and most who spoke called for a national search for chancellor.

Flores, 69, who recently said he will retire by the end of this year, announced plans Tuesday to take medical leave effective today to deal with health issues.

Flores’ contract expires in June 2014, and under the proposal, Miles, now the college’s second in command, would have served out the rest of his term. She would have earned the same base salary, more than $270,000, and received nearly the same benefits as Flores.

Board Chairman Scott A. Stewart and members David A. Longoria favored offering Miles the automatic contract.

Voting against Miles’ automatic appointment and leaning toward a national search were members Brenda Even (who took part in the meeting by teleconference), Marty Cortez and Sherryn S. “Vikki” Marshall.

Cortez said she looks for Miles to be a candidate considered in the national search because she is qualified to compete.

College attorney John Richardson said the board is likely to set a meeting within a month to discuss a search.

Call for “vigorous” search

In the call to the audience before the vote, Miguel Palacios, former PCC Desert Vista Campus president who worked for the college for more than 30 years, was one of nine people who spoke against the automatic appointment.

“Over the years the college has taken great pains to select top-flight faculty and top-notch staff through extensive and competitive processes. The selection of the next chancellor should be no less vigorous to assure that the most qualified person is selected,” he said.

Palacios added, “Many of us in the community are keenly aware of the current troubled state of the college, and I submit to you that it will take a uniquely qualified individual to lead this institution through these difficult times and restore the college’s credibility and standing in this community.”

Several speakers referred to an article Sunday in the Arizona Daily Star revealing that PCC paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a consultant, John Crnokrak of Wisconsin, who was hired in a manner that bypassed the college’s competitive bidding process. Crnokrak forwarded lewd emails to the school’s executives and billed the public for a personal massage, the Star’s investigation of college records showed.

Scott Collins, on the math faculty at PCC’s West Campus, told the board that a national search isn’t the easiest way but is the best way to fill the top post.

Collins, immediate past president of the PCC Education Association, said he had a petition with 187 signatures favoring the appointment of an interim chancellor while a national search is conducted.

Michael Coiro, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 449, said the board should know that there is an unfortunate perception that it rubber-stamps contract renewals. He also called for a national search.

Four people spoke in favor of Miles’ appointment, including Heather Tilson, Miles’ senior assistant. Tilson said Miles “leads with humility and fosters an open work environment.”

Miles also recognizes leadership in others and embraces it for the good of the college, while bringing a sense of humor that energizes the staff, Tilson said.

A recommendation included in the board’s agenda package said Miles’ appointment “would promote a smooth and cost-effective transition” when Flores retires.

Miles has been at PCC for 20 years, most recently as executive vice chancellor and president of the college’s community campus, in addition to her provost duties. She also filled in for Flores while he recuperated from bypass surgery.

Board member Cortez said of the vote, “When it is all said and done, there’s going to be unhappy people tonight. We need to come together and do what is best for our students, faculty, staff and the community.”

Longer contracts approved

In one of his last acts before taking medical leave, Flores asked the Governing Board to approve two-year contracts for his entire top tier of executives, who have had only one-year contracts until now.

They include Miles; Pima’s finance chief, David Bea; college spokesman C.J. Karamargin; human resources boss Janet May; and five campus presidents.

By a 5-0 vote Wednesday night, the Governing Board approved the longer contracts.

Flores needs “time to heal”

As for his medical leave, Flores said in a written news release that he will take the time to concentrate on recovering from heart problems. “My soul’s still strong, but my heart of late has been less than completely dependable, and I need to listen to my cardiologists and take the necessary time to heal,” he said in the release.

Flores underwent emergency angioplasty on Friday at Tucson Medical Center after experiencing severe chest pains while at the college’s district offices. In October, he underwent a quadruple-bypass heart surgery.

“The selection of the next chancellor should be no less vigorous to assure that the most qualified person is selected.”

Miguel Palacios, former PCC Desert Vista Campus president

African-American and Hispanic students in Kalamazoo Public Schools are underperforming the state average for minorities, says a new report that says Michigan students in all socioeconomic categories have lost ground to the peers across the nation since 2003.

The report by Education Trust – Midwest, a nonprofit nonpartisan research organization that advocates for Michigan students, was released this week and includes an analysis of state and national assessment test scores.

The report focuses on the gap between white and minority students in Michigan, as well as a comparison of Michigan students compared to other states.

Among the findings:

– In the fourth-grade reading test administrated for the Michigan Educational Assessment Program  in October 2010, about 69 percent of African-Americans statewide were rated as proficient in reading  compared to 63 percent in KPS.  Kalamazoo black students passed at a higher rate than their peers in Grand Rapids, Flint, Benton Harbor and Detroit, but below Lansing, Jackson and Battle Creek.  The passage rate for white students was 88 percent statewide and 89 percent in KPS.

– In the MEAP’s 2010 eighth-grade math test, 69 percent of Hispanics statewide were rated as proficient compared to 66 percent in KPS. Among white students, the passage rate was 84 percent statewide and 86 percent in Kalamazoo.

– On the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, which are taken by a representative sampling of students nationwide every two years, Michigan ranking has fallen since 2003. In 2003, Michigan fourth-graders ranked 27th in math and 28th in reading. In 2011, Michigan fourth-graders had fallen to 35th in reading and 41st in math. The reason for the slippage in rank: Other states improved their NAEP scores while Michigan scores stayed flat.

– Michigan’s African-American fourth-graders rank last among black students in  50 states on the NAEP’s 2011 fourth-grade reading test and Michigan white students rank 36th among their white peers on that test.

“Michigan now consistently ranks near the bottom in most subjects and grades,” the Ed Trust report said. “Since 2003, our position relative other states has declined.

“So why has our ranking declined? The conventional wisdom in Michigan holds low-income and black and brown students responsible for our state’s low average — and assumes middle-class and white students are doing just fine,” the report said. “Indeed, this belief is so prevalent that state educational leaders and policymakers have been known to say, ‘If it wasn’t for our urban and poor students, we would be doing a lot better.

“Not only is this belief based on dated stereotypes, it also is patently false,” the report  said. “Yet it is used to justify inaction on improving our state’s schools.”

Ed Trust’s “recipe for reform” includes high-quality teachers in every classroom; better alignment of the curriculum to state and national standards; ensuring that low-income students have adequate support systems and cultural enrichment, and “transforming school culture.”

KPS scores

The low achievement levels of Kalamazoos minority students fits with other data that suggest the local minority community is one of the most distressed in Michigan.

Kalamazoo County has the highest rate of black teen pregnancy among Michigans 83 counties and a 2009 U.S. Census report estimated that 93 percent of single mothers with children under the age of 5 in the city of Kalamazoo live below the poverty line a higher rate than Detroit or Flint.

In 2010, almost 86 percent of KPS black students qualify for the subsidized lunch program, compared to 79 percent of Detroit students and 46 percent of KPS white students.

About 46 percent of KPS students are African-American, 39 percent are white and about 10 percent are Hispanic. A majority of Kalamazoos white students are middle-class.

Under Superintendent Michael Rice, KPS has launched a broad and aggressive array of reforms to improve outcomes.

The district has improved its preschool program, launched all-day kindergarten, overhauled its elementary math and literacy curriculums, beefed up its summer school and after-school programs, changed its secondary schedules so that students spend more time in core subjects, implemented a new homework policy, mandated a double dose of math and/or English language arts for middle school students who are below grade level and has greatly expanded enrollment of Advanced Placement courses in high schools.

In the past few years, KPS scores have been inching upwards. Results from the MEAP administered in fall 2011 have not yet been released.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned aside an appeal from an Oregon family seeking reimbursement for the private placement of a child in a school charging tuition of $5,200 per month.

The case is noteworthy because the justices in 2009 used it to decide that, in principle, the main federal special education law authorizes reimbursements for private school tuition even when a child has never received special education services.

The court that year ruled 6-3 in Forest Grove School District v. T.A. that 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act meant to rein in the costs of private school placements did not remove the power of hearing officers and federal judges to order such reimbursements under the proper circumstances.

Writing in dissent, Justice David H. Souter, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, warned that the majority’s decision could prove costly for school districts. “The more private placement there is, the higher the special education bill,” then-Justice Souter said.

The 2009 decision was a victory at the time for the parents of a boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who had clashed with the Forest Grove school district in Oregon before placing the child in the private Mount Bachelor Academy.

But the family’s battle with the school district continued after the Supreme Court’s decision, with a federal district court considering the “equities” on remand. The district court ended up denying any tuition reimbursement to the parents because they “appear to have enrolled T.A. in [Mount Bachelor] not because of any disability recognized by the IDEA but because of his drug abuse and behavioral problems,” as the district court put it.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in San Francisco, upheld the district court in in a 2-1 decision last April.

In their appeal to the Supreme Court, the parents said the 9th Circuit’s decision that the reasons for the private school placement can be the key factor in an IDEA reimbursement decision conflicted with a decision by another federal appeals court. The parents also argued that the lower courts should have considered partial reimbursement of the private school tuition.

The justices on Jan. 23 declined, without comment, to hear the parents’ appeal in T.A. v. Forest Grove School District .