Uvalde CISD presents Skyward audit showing rank shifts; board declines automatic weighting for incoming transfer students
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Auditors and district staff described coding errors in the district’s student information system that altered class ranks for hundreds of students; trustees then voted to decline an administrative recommendation to automatically apply advanced‑course weighting to transfer students unless the originating transcript explicitly designates the course as advanced.
District staff told the Uvalde CISD board that a multi‑year audit of GPA and class‑rank calculations uncovered systemic data‑entry and security access problems in Skyward that affected student rankings district‑wide.
Ms. Graber, who led the audit presentation, said the findings were not a teacher grading error but the result of inconsistent course coding and too many users with the ability to adjust records. She reported 42 students had been excluded from rank by a manual flag, there were 210 movements of students recorded during corrections, and staff reviewed about 1,800 student records for potential adjustments. For the classes of 2026 through 2029, the audit documented hundreds of rank movements and several students who moved 10 or more places after corrections.
Administration proposed clarifying board policy to require that when a transfer student brings a high‑school course taken in junior high that is equivalent to UCISD’s course, the district should weight that grade the same as locally offered advanced junior‑high courses. The proposal was based on existing board policy language that ties transfer weight to whether the district offers a “similar or equivalent course.”
Trustees debated whether the district can verify curricular equivalency from another district and whether changes should be applied mid‑year. Several trustees said the originating transcript must explicitly denote the course as advanced or honors for the receiving district to apply extra weight. Trustee Gonzales moved to decline the administration recommendation and require transcript designation; the motion passed. The board also asked administration to review policy language and return with clarified procedures so transfer students and counselors have clear rules going forward.
District staff said they are correcting coding, reducing super‑user access in Skyward, retraining PEIMS clerks and counselors, regenerating GPA reports and notifying affected families; counselors made direct contact and letters were mailed to parents.
Trustees asked for a policy review and a process to correct historical GPA errors where appropriate. The board did not authorize retroactive reweighting beyond the audit corrections administration is already implementing without further board direction.