SCS investigation came up empty but spurred new transcript policy

The investigation into possible grading fraud at nine Shelby County Schools produced no definitive answers but is spurring policy changes around transcript controls and prompting fundamental discussions about how many chances students should have to make up work.

“You hate that you can’t say one way or the other whether people engaged in wrongdoing,” Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said in an exclusive interview with The Commercial Appeal about the nowclosed investigation and its ramifications.

But the probe, which came to an end last week after auditors couldn’t find enough documentation available to prove or disprove fraud, revealed massive records-keeping deficiencies and an archaic under-use of technology.

“We are a very, very manual school district,” Hopson said.

The school board is now reviewing a draft of a new grade modification policy, a new requirement under state law, that Hopson said will set in stone many of the new controls and procedures put in place over the last year.

The policy limits the number of people with access to the transcript system, requires a justification for the changed grade and holds the district responsible for training principals and teachers about how and when changing a grade is acceptable.

Another policy yet to be written and still up for debate, Hopson said, will dictate how students can make up work, how many chances they can receive and how schools can interpret circumstances that might require extra leniency.

“We want to always make sure that we give kids opportunities to succeed and legitimately make up work, but do it in a way that we teach kids they’ve got to be held accountable for their actions,” Hopson said.