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A Fresno Unified School District clerical mistake highlights how easy it is to introduce significant errors into data, which then become part of the permanent state record.

By Diana Lambert

Lasherica Thornton

Daniel J. Willis

EdSource

In 2019-20 and 2020-21, Fresno Unified counted some of its teachers in the “other” category, rather than the teacher category, when they reported annual certificated staff counts to the California Department of Education, according to an EdSource analysis of the data.

The data was reported correctly in 2021-22, which made it seem as if the district had significantly increased the number of teachers it had employed, when it had not under then-Superintendent Bob Nelson.

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