WICHITA, Kansas — Wichita school leaders say they are still investigating allegations of grade tampering at Southeast High School and will not tolerate practices that could artificially inflate graduation rates.
“The integrity for which we give diplomas is of utmost importance,” Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld told school board members during a meeting this week.
“It is essential that we do not tolerate any kind of unethical behavior, and that we hold a high standard for data,” he said. “It's important for us to be transparent and honest. We can't get better and we can't fix things if we don't admit that they're broken.”
District officials said last week that some student records at Southeast High School were changed — possibly to meet graduation requirements — and that the school’s principal had been replaced.
The district has not said whether any Southeast students received a diploma without earning the required credits to graduate.
Over the past few years, Wichita has focused on raising graduation rates as a measure of student achievement. The district-wide graduation rate for Wichita’s class of 2024 was a record-high 84.3% — a nearly 14% increase since 2018.
Over the same period, the graduation rate at Southeast High rose by more than 20%, to 86.3%.
Several other Wichita high schools showed double-digit gains in their graduation rate from 2018 to 2024: Northwest High, 12%; West High, 13%; South High, 15.7%; and North High, 19%. The graduation rate at Sowers Alternative School went from 64.3% in 2018 to 86.4% in 2024 — a 35% increase.
Southeast High teachers who asked not to be identified said the extraordinary increase sparked concerns that the school could be manipulating data to artificially inflate its graduation rate.
School board member Kathy Bond said this week that she received “a wave of unsettling feedback” from retired educators that other Wichita schools may be manipulating grades or course credits so that more students graduate.
“Their words resonate with a troubling tone, with phrases like, ‘This has been going on for years,’ and ‘Finally someone got caught,’” Bond said. “Such remarks have stirred a mix of emotions within me, leading to a deep sense of disappointment and frustration.”
Bond said the investigation at Southeast has sparked doubts about the value of a high school diploma and “raises critical questions about the district’s priorities.”
She added that the district should not seek another bond issue for building upgrades, which could happen as early as the November election. Voters in February narrowly rejected a $450 million bond issue for Wichita schools.
Bielefeld and other district leaders say the record-high graduation rate reflects hard work on the part of teachers and students. The district has also launched a variety of credit-recovery programs that allow students who failed a class to make up the credit in a matter of days or weeks.
Kansas requires students to pass at least 21 credits to graduate from high school. They include four units of English language arts, three units of math, three units of history and government, three units of science, one unit of physical education, one unit of fine arts and six electives.
Suzanne Perez reports on education for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service.
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