Gov. Hogan calls on State Board of Education to investigate Baltimore City Schools' grading practices
BALTIMORE -- Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday called on the Maryland State Board of Education to act on a recommendation for an independent investigation into grade-changing practice uncovered at Baltimore City Schools last month.
An audit released in early June by the Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education revealed multiple Baltimore high schools changed more than 12,500 failing grades to passing over a several-year span.
The report was the product of a three-year review of grading procedures within Baltimore City Public Schools, which was launched in response to complaints about students being promoted despite poor academic performance and allegations that teachers were pressured to change grades.
Its findings were based on a combination of documents, including emails exchanged by district and school staff, and interviews with educators and administrators, some of whom the auditors' say were reluctant to speak out of fear that it could cost them their jobs.
One of the Inspector General's main recommendations in the report was an emergency procurement for an independent performance audit of BCPS. Hogan's office said the school system has expressed an openness to an external review.
"In order to root out corruption and damaging practices that jeopardize our children's futures, we must demand full transparency and swift corrective action wherever instances of wrongdoing are uncovered," Hogan wrote in a letter to Clarence Crawford, the chair of the State Board of Education.
Hogan said the move is similar to when he called on the board to investigate allegations of widespread corruption in the Prince George's County Public School System, which uncovered "substantial irregularities in grading and graduation certification."
The school system has called the Inspector General's report "perplexing" and said the grade-changing incidents "occurred more than 3 years ago," before many current seniors were in high school.
