WASHINGTON — Maryland’s Board of Education has voted unanimously to investigate allegations of fraudulent grading in the Prince George’s County school system — an investigation the school system’s chief executive officer also called for.
In a letter to the state board, Kevin Maxwell said he was making the request “in the interest of bringing closure to public speculation” regarding charges that the school system engaged in widespread grade fraud in order to boost graduation rates.
In the same letter, Maxwell repeated his previous assertions that there has not been any systemwide effort “to promote students in order to inflate graduation rates.”
Karen Salmon, Maryland’s interim state superintendent of schools, recommended that a third-party contractor conduct the investigation.
The vote by the state school board took place at their regular meeting in Baltimore on Tuesday. The county’s teacher’s union issued a statement saying that teachers could not have altered grades.
The Prince George’s County Education Association letter reads, in part, “The current policy makes it technically impossible for a teacher to change grades once published, and the integrity of PGCPS teachers is not in question.”
