Professors, parent groups and education organizations are among those assailing the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) for the termination of Preuss Charter School Principal Dr. Doris Alvarez amid what they call a targeted and flawed audit.
Education groups are pointing at UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox’s past position at North Carolina State University, where the Faculty Senate censured her in 2003 for firing two of the school’s leaders. Though UCSD knew about the reprimand when Fox took the chancellor position at UCSD “” and Alvarez said Vice Chancellor Paul Drake officially asked her to step down as principal of Preuss after last year’s public audit investigation into grade tampering “” many education leaders said the situations are similar.
“We reached an agreement that was the best thing for her to do,” Drake said.
He said UCSD stands by the internal audit, but that Alvarez is not accused of tampering with grades.
“Grades are sacred,” he said. “It doesn’t matter [whether] it was a large number of misrecorded grades.”
For that type of mismanagement, the principal of any school would be held accountable, Drake said. So, for that reason Alvarez decided to resign, he said.
According to Alvarez, Drake asked her to step down as Preuss’ principal after the audit. She was told it was for the betterment of the school, Alvarez said. She is refining a rebuttal and said she wants to be reinstated in her position.
Preuss is a nationally recognized middle-to-high school on the UCSD campus that helps disadvantaged teens enter college. But months ago, officials launched an audit targeting suspected grade changes. Now, a group of UCSD professors who thoroughly studied the documents insist the auditors made gross mistakes and have asked Fox to re-open the case.
Gary Cottrell, professor of computer science and engineering and director of the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center at UCSD, is one of five professors who examined the December 2007 audit performed by Audit & Management Advisory Services (AMAS), and the adjacent teacher interviews. The team of professors concluded there were “obvious factual errors and statistical flaws” in the audit.
The audit stated that Alvarez may have influenced the teachers to lower their grading standards, but the professors said they acquired statements and notes from teachers who felt the interviewers’ questions were leading and their tactics biased against Alvarez.
“Some faculty think she’s innocent and some think she’s guilty,” Drake said. “We didn’t come to that conclusion.”
Drake said because the audit was done independently, the university is standing by the results and has begun the search for a new principal.
“It’s done and people have a right to express their opinions about it,” Drake said. “Some people think it’s accurate and some people think it’s inaccurate.”
Drake described the AMAS auditors as detectives who went into Preuss after grade-changing allegations came to light. The auditors found 427 instances of what they called “misrecorded” grades, he said. Although groups that studied that document claim it is substandard, Drake defends it, saying the audit was not meant to be a scientific random audit.
“That’s not what it was. It was called for by the chair of the board of the Preuss School,” Drake said. “They were complaining about the changing of grades.”
Though Drake said the registrar could have altered grades, he said it’s time for the university to move forward. But the dissenting professors disagree; they said key interviews were tainted by the registrar, who had been fired by Alvarez.
“It took us considerable re-reading of the audit to realize that this conclusion was based on testimony from the registrar that had been terminated by Dr. Alvarez, prior to the investigation, for changing her own children’s grades,” the professors wrote to Fox in a letter dated Jan. 15.
Auditors also accused Alvarez of pressuring teachers to allow students to re-take failed exams and classes.
“In college, if you flunk you can take the class again,” Cottrell said.
As a professor, he said this is a common practice.
Another group that rose to Alvarez’s defense, called the Committee of Concerned Latinos, consists of 20 mostly retired, high-ranking area Latinos who include school administrators and professors. The committee contacted Fox and also urged her to reopen the investigation and audit.
“The current audit is flawed and the negative impact it has had on Dr. Alvarez is not just and must be addressed in an appropriate manner,” the group wrote to Fox in a letter dated Feb. 11.
The committee urged Fox to hire an impartial third party to examine the audit.
“Please know we intend to pursue this request within the University of California and if necessary, outside the internal UC process until justice prevails,” they wrote. “We urge you to give this matter your close attention.”
Fox denied both the committee of Latinos and the group of professors. She wrote a similar letter to both groups.
“The audit of The Preuss School was conducted in accordance with the highest professional standards for professional practice of internal auditing, promulgated by the Institute of Internal Auditors,” Fox wrote in a Feb. 22 letter to the professors and a Feb. 13 letter to the Latino group.
Gus Chavez of the Committee of Concerned Latinos said the group is considering its next action.
“Ultimately, the matter will be going to the regents, probably,” Chavez said. “You don’t spend your whole life as an educator like Dr. Alvarez and pour your whole soul out for nothing.”
Chavez said the group is comprised mostly of retired persons who have a lot of time on their hands, so they can focus on UCSD and which direction to proceed.
“This is not the first time institutions have had to take another look and take corrective actions,” he said.
A parent group circulated a petition in early February that contained signatures of former PTA presidents asking Fox to reopen the audit. That group said Cecil Lytle, Preuss chairman of the board, supported their efforts.
Fox declined comment after repeated attempts at contact, but Stacie Spector, media representative with UCSD, said the chancellor did not ask Alvarez to step down.
“Doris submitted a letter of resignation to serve out her term,” Spector said.