Grade-Fixing Charges Hit Acclaimed School

Audit spurs resignation of founding principal of charter school on the campus of UC-San Diego.

A San Diego charter school with a national reputation for success in preparing disadvantaged students for college has been hit by charges that school officials improperly changed student grades.

The founding principal of the Preuss School, an 8-year-old school affiliated with the University of California, San Diego, has resigned after an audit finding that she probably directed or knew about more than 400 inappropriate grade changes over six years.

More than three-quarters of transcripts reviewed by auditors contained one or more inaccurately recorded grades, a majority of which caused student records to look better...