Fwd: [nyceducationnews] FW: [GothamSchools] New Comment On: In Bronx, two high schools' progress reports are being withheld

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Nov 13, 2009, 2:23:21 PM11/13/09
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-----Original Message-----
From: Leonie Haimson <leo...@att.net>
To: nyceduca...@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, Nov 13, 2009 1:09 pm
Subject: [nyceducationnews] FW: [GothamSchools] New Comment On: In Bronx, two high schools' progress reports are being withheld

 

See the comments of Lynne Winderbaum, UFT HS leader from the Bronx below
about the whitewash at Kennedy HS by the special investigator.

-----Original Message-----
From: GothamSchools [mailto:gs-wordpress-alert@lists.openplans.org]
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 9:32 AM
To: leo...@att.net
Subject: [GothamSchools] New Comment On: In Bronx, two high schools'
progress reports are being withheld

There is a new comment on the post "In Bronx, two high schools' progress
reports are being withheld".
http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/12/in-bronx-two-high-schools%e2%80%99-progr
ess-reports-are-being-withheld/

Author: Lynne Winderbaum
Comment:
The investigations into the English Regents grade changes at Kennedy HS and
the addition of classes to transcripts that students never took and never
passed were conducted by the Office of Special Investigations. In the case
of the Regents grade changes, only the grades of 60 were affected, raising
them to a passing score. In approximately two dozen cases, exam papers were
shown to the investigators clearly showing that one individual crossed out
the original scores in black ink, initialed it, and unilaterally changed the
scores of as many as three of the four essays to achieve the passing grade.
The way in which the belated passing of the Regents was kept secret from the
department's teachers was damning. After the January Regents, the failing
students were enrolled in after-school and Saturday tutorials. Teachers were
paid per-session to help the students. In May, students suddenly started
telling their teachers that they no longer needed to attend the tutorials
because the
y had, in fact, PASSED! That's how the tampering was uncovered. A
comparison of the March and May transcripts of that year clearly showed that
in those two dozen cases, the English grades had been raised from fail to
pass.
In the case of the transcript changes, the same investigators were shown the
suspect transcripts by guidance counselors. The counselors were scheduling
students for evening school in September so that they could repeat the
classes they had failed in summer school and earn the credits they needed to
graduate. In several cases, the students returned to their counselors after
a visit to the AP of programming and announced that they no longer needed to
repeat these classes because they now had graduated! A review of the
transcripts clearly showed that classes had been added, with no teacher's
name, and a grade of "P". In one case, the "P" was actually placed on the
transcript prior to the student's repeating that same class two more times!
In another case, a student was graduated in haste with fewer than 44
credits. All of the counselors who testified were subsequently put "in
excess" from the school, one with 20 years and one with 22 years of
experience.
If this is in accordance with department policy, then Bloomberg/Klein should
take care in touting their increase in graduation rates. The goal for our
schools should be to educate youngsters--not simply graduate them.
Scrutiny should be drawn to many "credit recovery" programs in our high
schools as well. As long as the pressure of school report card grades, job
security for principals, monetary bonuses, and the threat of school closings
looms over us, our students risk being cheated out of the education that is
supposed to accompany the diploma. We should admire the many principals who
do not succumb to this temptation in times of such threat to their careers
by taking the shortcuts that inflate their statistics at the expense of our
children.

See all comments on this post here:
http://gothamschools.org/2009/11/12/in-bronx-two-high-schools%e2%80%99-progr
ess-reports-are-being-withheld/#comments

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