State officials have stepped into an investigation initially launched by the Columbus school district, Ohio's largest. It involves a devious method of, in effect, cheating on tests.
Allegations are that some school district officials list certain students with poor attendance records as having withdrawn - then re-enroll them later. Such youngsters often don't do well on standardized tests used, in part, to measure schools' effectiveness. The practice would allow some schools to record better average scores on standardized tests than actually were the case.
Some former employees of the district said the scheme was used commonly to boost standardized test averages.
If so, everyone involved should be fired. But state officials also should be looking at enrollment records in other school districts throughout Ohio.