Md. Education Agency Urged to Tighten Recordkeeping

State officials urged the Maryland State Department of Education to tighten its recordkeeping after an audit released Wednesday found several flaws in how the agency gathers data on testing and graduation.

The report by the Office of Legislative Audits found the state agency's reporting of data was "reasonably accurate" in most categories, but it said the department should keep closer tabs on the vendor it hires to evaluate its standardized testing in reading and math.

It also said the possibility existed of missing some testing information. In an unrelated observation, the auditors noted that the state had reported the percentage of its elementary schools that achieved academic minimum standards as 77.4 percent when it was actually 88.5 percent.

In a response to the audit, State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick said she agreed with the report's findings, and that measures were being taken to address auditors' recommendations. Most of the changes are fairly minor, and the misreported data was not due to a systemic flaw, auditors said.

The trickiest issue is how the state calculates its graduation rate, a complex problem that requires school systems to track individual students through four or more years of high school and across schools if the students transfer to another institution.

The formula used by Maryland, which is also used by several other states, resulted in a reported graduation rate of 85.2 percent in 2007. A stricter measure used in a 2006 study by the Education Week newspaper found the state's graduation rate was 75.5 percent.

An accurate measure of the graduation rate is critical because that statistic is one factor used to determine whether schools are meeting academic standards under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

In its response to the audit, the department said it planned to adopt a stricter graduation rate standard in the 2010-2011 school year, and tighten how it keeps track of students who transfer out of the school system.