The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Ohio Department of Education" ...
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Secrecy 101
"Universities hide information about their athletics departments behind a student-privacy law designed to keep grades private." Further, it hides athletes, who have done a number of unethical and some illegal activities. Also, coaches are using the law to hide their own bad behavior. All this information stunned the senator who created the law and he believes the "institutions are putting their own meaning into the law."
Tags: education; college; Senator James L. Buckley; NCAA; Ohio State; FOIA; Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); federal; sports; public records; censor; academics
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School Bus Bloat 2005
For over fourteen months the reporters investigated the Cleveland Municipal School District's transportation department, producing 25 stories. The reports examined extensive waste of resources, mismanagement, and fraudulent use of inflated data. Reporter Tom Merriman used records, surveillance video, and interviews with ex-employees to document the district was inflating rider numbers to get more funding. School administrators blamed the mid-level bureaucrat they fired, but Merriman used internal documents to show he was ordered to inflate the numbers. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of dollars were being spend on luxury coaches for athletes. The investigation lead to the resignation of a top official in the organization.
Tags: Cleveland Municipal School District; transportation; fraud; school buses; Ohio Board of Education; Barbara Byrd Bennett; state transportation funding
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Failing students getting promoted
Despite the high numbers of students who failed statewide reading and math exams, Ohio area schools continue to pass them to higher grades, regardless of if they are ready. This series originally came about after one Cleveland teacher complained of having to promote fourth graders who she did not believe were ready for the fifth grade. Upon their own analysis, the Plain Dealer noticed that, though 99 percent of students were promoted in the last school year, 66 percent of them had failed state examinations. The investigation points out: "that gap was even more pronounced for black and Hispanic students who fail the tests more often than their white peers." The report also looks at the social and educational benefits to promoting or holding these students back.
Tags: No Child Left Behind; state testing; promotion data; dropout rates; Ohio Department of Education; social promotion
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The Dangers of Daycare
The story exposes the fact that day-care centers responsible for tens of thousands of Ohio children routinely keep their state licenses despite repeated violations of state laws designed to protect children. State inspections of 615 licensed day-care centers in Franklin and surrounding counties found that 59% of day-care centers failed to run a criminal background check on workers, 39% of the centers were understaffed, 22% did not post their state-inspection reports, 51% of the centers had conditions that were unsafe for children, and 56% of the centers hired staff or administrators who were unqualified.
Tags: day-care; criminal background check; Ohio Department of Job and Family Services; violations; Action for Children; Ohio Association for the Education of Young Children; United Way; inspectors; Children's World Learning Center; license revocation
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Dividing Lines
The Columbus Dispatch investigated the "uneven educational opportunities in the Columbus Public Schools." The series revealed that "the Columbus elementary schools again are divided by race and income - and by student achievement, teacher experience and resources." The reporters identified problems with "poor test scores, a high dropout rate, financial and policy mismanagement, aging buildings" as common in the schools with prevailing minority enrollments. Some of the key findings were that "the assignment boundaries for some neighborhood schools closely match those ones singled out by the courts as racially gerrymandered", "spending by building bears little relation to the number of poor children" and "private donations...exacerbate inequities among schools". The newspaper also investigated how teachers' absenteeism and salaries correlate with the inequity issue. The reporters came to the conclusion that "veteran educators generally work at schools in middle-class neighborhoods, while beginning teachers get assigned to the poorest schools."
Tags: diskette; education; academics; race; income; poverty; segregation; FOIA; Ohio Department of Education; teachers; absenteeism; minority students; federal funds; database mapping project
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Schools and felons
WBNS finds dozens of convicted felons working in schools across Ohio using computer-assisted reporting. The list of offenses included murder, sexual assault, drug dealing, child endangerment and kidnapping.
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State Secrets: Ohio's Juvenile Jails
"A six-month (Columbus) Dispatch investigation has found that thousands of children are being warehoused in state institutions where deaths, rapes and assaults have been covered up or ignored. Ohio leads the nation in the number of juveniles put behind bars at the state and local level.... Youth Services has become little more than a human landfill where juveniles and employees have been victimized..."