Hinsdale D86 Leader Takes Blame For Bad Data

HINSDALE, IL – A couple of months ago, Hinsdale High School District 86 presented data showing that the district had largely eliminated the longstanding disparity in course selection between the two schools.

But the portrayal was wrong. The gap persists, with the smaller Hinsdale South getting the short end of the stick.

In mid-June, the district backed off the statistics after a Patch story pointed out the issue.

During a meeting on Wednesday, the school board discussed the matter.

"We cannot put out data that is inaccurate," the board's president, Catherine Greenspon, said. "We need to ensure the integrity of our data is intact. I would suggest that it is not appropriate for administrators to manipulate data."

A month ago, Greenspon said the administration put out "intentionally vague data."

At Wednesday's meeting, Superintendent Michael Lach said some slides in a previous presentation lacked all the necessary information. That resulted in an "inflated" conclusion, he said.

"That's on me. I'll own that," said Lach, who took the helm a year ago. "We've spent a bunch of time trying to figure out what happened and what the truth is. It's not entirely easy to do that."

That's because the district pulls information from different sources, trying to connect the pieces, he said.

"We're working on that," Lach said. "I look forward to reporting that out."

He also said that as an organization, the district needs to learn what the data fields mean and how they are reported.

Greenspon said the data is housed in multiple systems. She suggested hiring a consultant to help bridge the systems, "so they actually talk to each other."

"It's not OK for it to be subject to an administrator's interpretation," she said.

During a board committee meeting in December, officials reported that Central was able to grant 89 percent of course requests the previous school year. South's rate was 68 percent.

But at a committee meeting in May, officials said that for the next school year, both schools "satisfied over 98% of total requests and over 80% of students had all of their requests filled," according to the minutes.

The officials did not explain the gap in numbers in a single year, especially given that no major changes were made.

A few days after Patch reported the discrepancy last month, the district said it incorrectly described the numbers in December. They did not apply to total requests, but rather the percentage of students who had all their course requests honored.

Late last month, Alan Hruby, a longtime district watchdog, disputed the district's numbers, saying they included scheduling conflicts for courses that aren't running at the other school next year.

Hruby said the larger Central has more courses running than South. By his numbers, one scheduling conflict occurred for every 9.7 students at Central for next year's courses and one for every 4.3 at South. Those numbers, which exclude courses not available at the other school, are a fairer representation of the disparity, Hruby said.

Hinsdale Central's enrollment is nearly twice South's. Central also has a wealthier student body.

Even before the latest controversy, Lach was criticized for statements appearing to dismiss the five-year effort to achieve equal course offerings at Central and South high schools.