Ohio teacher misconduct sees sharp increase

The Ohio Department of Education saw a significant increase in teacher misconduct in 2014. The department received over 9,000 reports of educator misconduct last year – up over 10 percent from the year before, according to the state Office of Professional Conduct annual report.

Nearly 1,000 of those reports turned into investigations, up from 711 in 2013. The investigations ranged from test tampering to child abuse.

Data scrubbing is highlighted in the report as a significant factor contributing to the rise in misconduct investigations. There were just 3 data scrubbing investigations in 2013, but 99 in 2014, the report notes.

Teacher harassment incidents also increased from 6 in 2013 to 58 in 2014 and grade manipulation went up from two to 24.

Application misconduct by prospective licensees was a factor in more than 29% of the cases, according to the report.

Read the full report here.