The Trenton Times is reporting that Princeton High School, one of NJ’s highest-performing high schools, “allowed a ‘significant’ number of students to graduate over a four-year period despite their excessive absences, and in some cases could not provide documentation to justify the waiving of attendance requirements, a state investigation concluded.”
According to the article, the state Department of Education’s Office for Fiscal Accountability and Compliance released a report that shows that during the period of 2008-2012 “district staff altered transcripts by hand to show students earning credits that had been lost because of excessive absences.” In addition, PHS Principal Gary Snyder tried to “dodge a question” related to the alterations.
The Princeton Board of Education has released a statement, which concludes,
While the district agrees with the recommendation [by the state to standardize attendance records and appeals], it takes great exception to the omissions, misleading language and incomplete account in the report. Most of all, it must be clearly and firmly stated that never once were any student records altered in any way. PHS pupils are known well by their teachers, their counselors, their nurses and their administrators. Every credit, every grade and every attendance pattern were specifically documented and addressed by our staff.