Nearly one of four Prince George’s County high schoolers surveyed in an audit released Friday may have graduated in the past two years without meeting requirements.
An independent audit for the Maryland State Board of Education was unable to verify that 24.5 percent of graduated seniors in the sample that had grades changed in 2016 and 2017 had those grades changed for proper reasons.
An additional 4.9 percent of the randomly selected sample of graduated seniors was in fact ineligible to graduate, since they did not meet classroom requirements or service learning hours, even with grade changes. Some grades were even changed after graduation ceremonies.
And 43.8 percent of the students whose records were examined in the audit graduated during those two years despite having more than 10 “unlawful” – unexcused – absences, which is supposed to result in an automatic E grade for a course. Indeed, 159 students in the survey who graduated in 2017 had more than 50 such absences.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Max Smith over at WTOP