HERBERT LONDON: FRAUDULENT SCORING IN NYC SCHOOLS
Fraudulent Scoring In NYC Schools by Herbert I. London
http://www.hudson-ny.org/1834/fraudulent-scoring-in-nyc-schools
A senior in New York City’s “highest ranking school,” The Theater Arts production Company High School, recently reported that “my average is 30, but in three days I can bring it up to 95…..The teachers will give you sheets that are already filled out, and you can just copy them. It’s for the school so it doesn’t look bad with failing grades.”
Another senior noted that when the principal, Lynn Passarella, announced the same school ranked first on the city progress report ratings “we all started laughing. We all know it’s a bad school.”
Anonymous interviews with New York City teachers are revealing: what you find is that most instructors are persuaded that achievement-test scores are manipulated so that Mayor Bloomberg’s judgment about educational improvement can be confirmed.
It was reported recently that the city’s “highest ranking school” is being investigated for what was described as its “nonfailure policy.” The city’s Department of Education is engaged in an investigation to determine whether the Theater Arts Production Company High School in the Bronx attained its unique ranking by fudging student grades.
Some students contend the school maintains “a second chance policy” for those struggling with academic subjects. As one teacher argued, “the kids are given every opportunity to turn grades around… but there is a time frame. It’s not like it’s open ended.” That seems to mean that if students fill in the blanks with answers that are provided, it should be done in a timely fashion.
Most students in the school realize that the 93% graduation rate and off-the-charts grading results were too good to be true. One student summarized it : “The school is made easy. I don’t even bring textbooks home.” Another student said, “The nonfailing policy is taking away our education, in a way. If we just go in and sit there in a classroom and they’ll pass us, it doesn’t help prepare us.”
This story about fraud is different from others that have appeared, especially as it is about “the high school with the highest rating in the city.” Reports suggest that the mayor’s claims about “skyrocketing” achievement improvement in student performance is bogus. They suggest as well that teachers and administrators are complicit in this numbers game.
Sadly the nonfailing policy at Theater Arts Production Company High School is duplicated by many schools across the city. Grades are largely a function of politics and perception, not performance.
When there are teachers who blow the whistle on this practice – and there have been a few – they are ostracized by colleagues, and invariably coerced into conforming.
It seems a serious investigation of this fraud across the five boroughs is warranted. New Yorkers should get more for their tax dollars than smoke and mirrors and the appearance of success.
Further, the mayor and chancellor of the school system should be held accountable.
In their Wizard of Oz world, they maintain that scores improved because the mayor seized management control of the schools. Alas, apparently the reason the scores improved was because everyone had an incentive to manipulate bogus results. Real results were something else again.
It is long overdue to know what is really going on, and whether one school in the Bronx is the embodiment of a systemic, city-wide effort at deception and fraud.
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