Six Facts the Public Was Never Told About City Day Coverage
Ohio Pen/10327599

DAYTON, Ohio - OhioPen -- The WriteBridge™ Documentation Project has released a new public accountability report examining what it identifies as six major omissions in the Dayton Daily News coverage of City Day Community School, a predominantly Black charter school in Dayton, Ohio.

The report, titled "Six Facts the Public Was Never Told," reviews ten articles published during the 2007–2008 investigation of City Day's academic gains. According to the project, the coverage questioned whether Black children's test-score improvements were legitimate while omitting key information that could have changed how readers understood the story.

The report states that the WriteBridge™ Founder offered, through her attorney David Williams, to take a polygraph examination to prove her innocence. The project says that offer was communicated to reporter Scott Elliott before publication but was never mentioned in the coverage.

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The report also says Elliott did not disclose contact with Williams, even while quoting other attorneys and sources. It further notes that no charges were ever filed, no wrongdoing was found, and no prominent follow-up was published with the same force as the original allegations.

One of the report's most significant claims involves the primary accuser. The project states that the source driving the investigation was a fired City Day employee with a grievance against the school — information the project says was not clearly disclosed in the original reporting.

The report also raises questions about editorial oversight. It states that Kevin Riley, the editor involved in assigning or overseeing the coverage, had previously supervised the WriteBridge™ Founder during her paid internship at the Dayton Daily News. The project argues that this prior professional relationship should have been disclosed to readers.

The project also highlights academic data it says was omitted, including City Day's fourth-grade writing gains from 30% to 92%. The report argues that writing scores were especially important because students had to produce original written work, making them highly relevant to any fair review of the school's performance.

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"The public was not given the full story," the report states. "No charges were filed. No wrongdoing was found. The offer to prove innocence was never printed. The children's writing achievement was never centered."

The WriteBridge™ Documentation Project calls for public review of the original coverage, the omissions identified in the report, and the journalism awards given for the series.

The full documentation is available at https://WriteBridge.app/SixFactsPublicNeverTold.