Two Clinton High School teachers are fired after changing nearly 1,500 student grades.
On Monday, the Board of Education met for a special meeting in which they discussed and vote on a “Charges of Dismissal” for Rachel Jones and Clay Turpin for unprofessional conduct, insubordination and neglect of duty. The board voted to fire both teachers.
This all comes after an investigation was launched into possible grade manipulation and now-former Principal Dan Jenkins resigned.
Previous Coverage: Anderson County Schools investigating teacher and principal for grade manipulation at Clinton High School
According to the “Charges of Dismissal” document, both Jones and Turpin reported to Jenkins, who was recognized as Tennessee’s Principal of the Year in 2023.
The State of Tennessee previously recognized Clinton High School as a “Reward School” for the 2022-23 school year, but the report says, “As the 2023-2024 school year progressed, however, it became more and more clear to [Dr. Tim Parrott] as the Director of Schools, and to other central office administrators, that something was amiss at CHS.”
Administrators and Parrott then began investigating students’ access to and performance within credit recovery and/or virtual programming and submitted the issues to the state Department of Education.
When school administration met with Jenkins and Jones to suspend them while the investigation progressed, the report says Jones accepted her suspension and “even expressed remorse for what she knew was improper conduct.” Jenkins, however, resigned from the district.
During an interview with Jones on May 2, Jones told administrators a school counselor asked her to enroll a student in virtual courses in January 2023. Jones then texted Jenkins about the student, and he told her the student should move to virtual programming, according to the report. Virtual data showed the student completed all five of his remaining courses over an eight-day period.
Additionally, administrators asked Jones about virtual data confirming 485 score changes under her account, “many of which were skipped questions until a desired grade student was achieved,” according to the document. Jones reportedly admitted she changed the grades because “[Principal Dan Jenkins] wanted him to be done.” Jones added Jenkins “instructed her to [b]ump the student’s grade, skip questions, skip assignments, and do whatever she had to do to ‘get him out of there.’”
Jones further said Jenkins’ primary motive was to improve the graduation rate. She also said she had been doing this “pretty much the whole time that Dan was principal.”
During the interview, the report says Jones also admitted to placing students in “test-mode only,” meaning students could skip through instructional lessons, materials or assignments. She went on to say those students were ’100 percent’ cheating by simply looking up the answers on their phones.”
When school administrators interviewed Turpin on April 26 and 29, he admitted to changing more than 1,000 grades between January and April 2024 “because he knew others were doing it. When he was asked why he changed the grades, he said, ‘I would say I was told to make sure that kids have a grade above a 60, so I did go in and change their score to make sure it was above a 60.’ He added the counselors told him to change the grades and that it ‘was all from Mr. Jenkins and the counselors.’”
Turpin also told administrators students could complete an entire course in two days while in test-mode only, including one student who completed a geometry course in 1 hour, 46 minutes and 40 seconds, according to the report.
Following Jenkins’ resignation, Clinton High School Assistant Principal Amanda Powers was appointed by Director of Schools Tim Parrott as the school’s Interim Head Principal. Story courtesy of WVLT
