cleveland.com | Jackie Borchardt
The software that was intended to help the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow accurately report student activity was used by state auditors to show the now-shuttered online charter school might not have been completely honest in its reporting.
Ohio Auditor Dave Yost said ActivTrak was the “smoking gun” that allowed auditors to prove ECOT submitted inflated numbers of recorded student hours to the Ohio Department of Education to get paid for student participation. Yost referred his audit of the 2016-17 fiscal year to the U.S. Attorney and Franklin County prosecutor for possible criminal charges.
“For the first time, we have evidence that, when ODE went to confirm that information, ECOT hid the truth beneath meaningless and unreliable information, fake proof that ODE inexplicably accepted,” Yost said at a Thursday news conference.
What is ActivTrak and what role did it play in state auditors’ investigation? Read on to find out.