snip~
Five years ago, teacher WADE R. GORIA exposed a massive grade-fixing scheme at John Dewey HS in Gravesend, Brooklyn, along with his colleague Michael P. Klimetz. Their revelations led to a state audit, released last month, that confirmed the shocking truth: School leaders had committed wholesale fraud — and cheated students out of the education the city was required, by law, to provide. Here, in an open letter, Goria says grade-fixing fraud is still widespread throughout the system and asks the new schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, to stop the rot . . .

A cancer has metastasized in NYC's school system. It was deliberately planted by your predecessor, Carmen Fariña, with the sanction of the mayor, the State Education Department and the United Federation of Teachers.

In the face of Mayor de Blasio's ambitious demands for dramatic increases in graduation rates, Fariña and her superintendents found a reliable means of achieving success: grade-fixing. John Dewey HS students sardonically called it "Easy Pass" amid a nightmarish flurry of corrupt practices that I witnessed as a social-studies teacher during the tenure of Principal Kathleen Elvin from 2012 to 2015. She came to Dewey as part of the mayor's Renewal program for struggling schools.

Elvin's creation of "Project Graduation" involved many schemes. Elvin created bogus titles such as "College Explorations" to give students a way to accumulate credits for courses they had failed or lacked. Many sham "credit recovery" courses covered a dozen or more academic subjects — math, science, English, Spanish, you name it — supposedly taught concurrently by a lone teacher who had no certification in most of the subjects. One rookie teacher was listed as having taught a total of 52 classes in all academic disciplines in a single semester. Little or no actual teaching went on. Most students didn't even attend. Elvin's assistant principals strong-armed teachers into giving passing grades. If they refused, the assistant principals and guidance counselors entered the data system and passed the kids anyway.

Elvin retaliated against unwilling teachers with endless disciplinary hearings. She and her assistant principals stormed into classrooms to do teacher observations guaranteed to slap them with the lowest rating: "ineffective." After Michael P. Klimetz, a revered science teacher, refused to grade students in subjects he didn't teach, he was moved to another room without lab equipment.


more @
https://nypost.com/2018/04/14/dear-mr-chancellor-please-stop-the-grade-fixing-in-nyc-schools/

Quote from: walkstall on April 16, 2018, 07:30:43 AM
snip~
Five years ago, teacher WADE R. GORIA exposed a massive grade-fixing scheme at John Dewey HS in Gravesend, Brooklyn, along with his colleague Michael P. Klimetz. Their revelations led to a state audit, released last month, that confirmed the shocking truth: School leaders had committed wholesale fraud — and cheated students out of the education the city was required, by law, to provide. Here, in an open letter, Goria says grade-fixing fraud is still widespread throughout the system and asks the new schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, to stop the rot . . .

A cancer has metastasized in NYC's school system. It was deliberately planted by your predecessor, Carmen Fariña, with the sanction of the mayor, the State Education Department and the United Federation of Teachers.

In the face of Mayor de Blasio's ambitious demands for dramatic increases in graduation rates, Fariña and her superintendents found a reliable means of achieving success: grade-fixing. John Dewey HS students sardonically called it "Easy Pass" amid a nightmarish flurry of corrupt practices that I witnessed as a social-studies teacher during the tenure of Principal Kathleen Elvin from 2012 to 2015. She came to Dewey as part of the mayor's Renewal program for struggling schools.

Elvin's creation of "Project Graduation" involved many schemes. Elvin created bogus titles such as "College Explorations" to give students a way to accumulate credits for courses they had failed or lacked. Many sham "credit recovery" courses covered a dozen or more academic subjects — math, science, English, Spanish, you name it — supposedly taught concurrently by a lone teacher who had no certification in most of the subjects. One rookie teacher was listed as having taught a total of 52 classes in all academic disciplines in a single semester. Little or no actual teaching went on. Most students didn't even attend. Elvin's assistant principals strong-armed teachers into giving passing grades. If they refused, the assistant principals and guidance counselors entered the data system and passed the kids anyway.

Elvin retaliated against unwilling teachers with endless disciplinary hearings. She and her assistant principals stormed into classrooms to do teacher observations guaranteed to slap them with the lowest rating: "ineffective." After Michael P. Klimetz, a revered science teacher, refused to grade students in subjects he didn't teach, he was moved to another room without lab equipment.


more @
https://nypost.com/2018/04/14/dear-mr-chancellor-please-stop-the-grade-fixing-in-nyc-schools/

Well, I am certain this is isolated to NYC.

Quote from: Rotwang on April 16, 2018, 09:10:54 AM
Well, I am certain this is isolated to NYC.

I have got a bridge just for you.