In NYC, the NY Post publishes articles regularly exposing corruption scandals in New York City High Schools. In order to make graduation rates rise with students who have some great needs, principals do anything they have to in order to make sure students graduate The latest school exposed by the Post is repeat offender Dewitt Clinton High School in the Bronx which already removed a principal for playing games with the numbers but the new administration according to the Post is just as dirty as the old one.
From the Post:
This high school is a hooky player’s dream.
At DeWitt Clinton HS in the Bronx, kids who have cut class all semester can still snag a 65 passing grade — and course credit — if they complete a quickie “mastery packet.”
Insisting that students can pass “regardless of absence,” Principal Pierre Orbe has ordered English, science, social studies and math teachers to give “make up” work to hundreds of kids who didn’t show up or failed the courses, whistleblowers said.
“This is crazy!” a teacher told The Post. “A student can pass without going to class!”
One would think that a principal who is replacing someone involved in scandal would be careful to not try anything funny but those of us who have worked in the schools understand that the culture to pass students by any means necessary is widespread in NYC schools. Numbers need to look good for the Mayor who controls the schools to look like he is running the schools successfully. People who object are dismissed by the Mayor as being involved in a "hyper-complaint dynamic" in the schools. Mayor Bill de Blasio is wrong in my insiders opinion. There is a hyper-corruption dynamic in too many high schools, not a hyper-complaint dynamic.New York City is not alone in this regard. Washington DC provides us with another lesson in what happens when a mayor runs a school system with no accountability other than an election every four years.
This is from AP via Earthlink:
A decade after a restructuring that stripped the decision-making powers of the board of education and placed the system under mayoral control, city schools in 2017 were boasting rising test scores and a record graduation rate for high schools of 73 percent, compared with 53 percent in 2011. Glowing news articles cited examples such as Ballou High School, a campus in a low-income neighborhood where the entire 2017 graduating class applied for college.
Then everything unraveled.
An investigation by WAMU, the local NPR station, revealed that about half of those Ballou graduates had missed more than three months of school and should not have graduated due to chronic truancy. A subsequent inquiry revealed a systemwide culture that pressured teachers to favor graduation rates over all else — with salaries and job security tied to specific metrics.
The internal investigation concluded that more than one-third of the 2017 graduating class should not have received diplomas due to truancy or improper steps taken by teachers or administrators to cover the absences. In one egregious example, investigators found that attendance records at Dunbar High School had been altered 4,000 times to mark absent students as present. The school system is now being investigated by both the FBI and the U.S. Education Department, while the D.C. Council has repeatedly called for answers and accountability.
"We've seen a lot of dishonesty and a lot of people fudging the numbers," said Council member David Grosso, head of the education committee, during a hearing last week. "Was it completely make-believe last year?"
Nobody who works in a NYC high school is surprised by anything that is occuring in DC. The only reason we don't see even more stories of playing with numbers in NYC is that teachers have basically been frightened into silence in many schools. Administration here is very skilled at scaring teachers and retaliating against them as this story on two teachers at Clinton who are facing 3020a dismissal charges shows. The UFT, which should be screaming the loudest, is, well, the UFT. Don't expect much from the Union.
The only way to solve any of this is to return integrity to the school system by making the truthfulness of the statistics more important than the actual rise or fall of the graduation rate. That can happen if the UFT becomes a real union again. We should be the whistleblowers, not the NY Post.
38 comments:
Before allowing the comments to run wild, I already know that one person is going to say that the problem in NYC and DC is that there are too many black students, blah, blah, blah... and liberal policies that encourage dependency are what is wrong here. You have made that point ad nauseam sir.
Please don't go there again on this post. This story was not about race. It was about integrity of numbers. Please spare us the usual song and dance here. Thank you very much.
Not fair James . It’s not that theirs too many black students, who cares what race or ethnicity they are it’s about the break down of the family. Why are the Asian students doing so well? Are they genetically more intelligent? Of course not but their family structure is much better. Like I politely suggested earlier do posts on the correlation between family structure and environment and student success. It’s all about the family James and a man your experience should have realized that by now. One more thing, with all due respect your post is quite insulting and beneath a man who proclaims he wants different ideas even if those same ideas are constantly being offered. As the great norm pointed out earlier my position and analysis as wrong as many might think may sway some reading your blog. God bless
I doubt you are swaying too many people but you are giving me headaches with people complaining about you and then complaing about me for tolerating what you say, not agreeing. I do think you made your argument a little better this time by saying you don't care about race or ethnicity but as per normal, you don't anywheretalk about the original post.
That great norm said it not me. It’s never about ethnicity it’s anout behavior and achievement. Just happens that certain groups are having a difficult time. I care that certain groups, and. ethnicities are having a difficult time and the policies many on this blog support haven’t done a thing. In fact it’s nade things worse. If I was responding 100 yrs ago I would mention Irish and Italians. Oh was responding to your off topic comment. You need to stay on topic. And different ideas sometimes give us a headache. God bles
Just move the blacks and hispanics to a separate school, the muslims to another school so they can prey, the asians to the specialized schools and the whites to westchester and long island schools. Now lets look at the numbers jack
12:18, I tried to head you off at the pass and hoped you would take the hint. It didn't work. Oh well. 1:11pm, That is kind of the system we have in a generalized way. Not good.
Mayoral Control= 100% Corruption
On topic and on point. Cool!!!
In the scheme of things mayoral control, though corrupt and ineffective has little to do with the real reasons educational progress is nearly nonexistent. You could get the best and most talented person to run the school system and you would only see marginal improvement. We need to fix the generational and institutional issues that impact the children.
Same crap goes on at Tottenville. In addition to bogus Ilearn... there are packets made up for students to do in order to pass
Expose, expose, expose.
Just pass everyone. No one questions it and what does it matter? Start failing kids and you better have your ducks in a row. Principals wouldn't have to resort to these measures if you pesky teachers would just pass everyone who is breathing. The more you try to hold your students accountable the more they will come after you. So, pass everyone, wait them out and collect your pension. Need help getting on the band wagon? Talk to the "special" teachers in your school like art , music, gym, etc...we've been doing it for years. When it comes to accountability my family is first, food on the table and roof over the head and so what if Johnny can't play the clarinet or properly shade a drawing of a vase, I 'll be gone in a few years and someone else will continue the cycle until we fix the system.
What all these exposes have done is to prove that many, if not most, NYC public school teachers are babysitters - not just ATRs. Personally, I guess that should make me feel better, but it makes me feel much worse.
The question is why can’t many of the kids pass? We once had some semblance of educational standards. What changed? Did the kids change? Did society change? Did our expectations change? What the f went wrong? I realize we always tried to help kids pass and on occasion exaggerated a few grades but this is full blown out educational fraud. I started in 1995 and we would put some sort of packet together as extra credit for the kids that needed maybe 5-10 points to pass. We only had a few maybe 10%. Now kids need the entire amount to pass. Can’t wait to get out of dodge with at least half my honor and respect for myself. God bless
What changed? Mayoral control and the emphasis on results, graduation rates, so the mayor could show his success and become mayor for three terms. The vanity of mayor Bloomberg destroyed the core integrity. At the same time Emperor Bloomberg was hedged His bets with the rise of the privatization and charterization enterprise. Of course Bloomberg got lots of help from others, like Bill Gates, the Koch brothers, Hedge gunfire vultures and the Democratic Party.. Barack Obama.
In summary, the recent history of public school education is an epic farce. It is a world class laughingstock, and so to are Joel Llein and Michael Bloomberg.
These comments are enlightening. Real teachers exposing reality in the high schools. Fraud indeed.
James, the fraud starts in elementary school! I bet we could count on one hand the number of 5th graders in the DOE held back rather than passed along to middle schools. Heck, there's kindergarteners who are promoted unjustly. The graduation rate means absolutely nothing, but the public doesn't know that. These fake graduates can't trick the real world, so it only benefits politicians and administrators who want the numbers to look good and who can get rid of kids that cause them trouble. 6:59 is right, our number one responsibility is to ourselves, so unless we're willing to lose everything with our career then we have to go with the flow.
When I was 24 and had no responsibilities outside of myself, I fought the good fight. Failed kids. Wrote kids up. Called parents Kept legit records etc.
Now, at age 38, I can’t afford to do that.
In the doe, the harder you try the more you are punished. I am a yes man.
I do not give one iota if any kid learns anything. The kids of Nyc are not my issue.
And all of this starts in elementary school.
Elementary schools do not prepare kids at all. Forget about academics. Elementary schools coddle kids.
Then they go to middle school and cry the entire year of 6th grade and by the time ha is here all hope is lost.
Ah well. 10 weeks of no doe! I hope these garbage parents enjoy the next 10 weeks
But the question is why can’t these kids pass on their own anymore? Why don’t they study or do homework or have even a little sense of educational interest? We just can’t put all the blame on Bloomberg, Koch brothers or presidents Bush and Obama. Something went wrong, what went wrong?
Because of the liberal, entitlement society, helped by tons of teen and out of wedlock pregnancies, helped by the obama led disrespect for white authority, helped by welfare so i can do whatever i want.
So what came first, the children losing interest in education, or the need to fake grades so politicians and Admins would look like their doing something to improve education so admins can keep their high paying job and pol can trick the public into voting for them again?
If you were 13 and knew you could do zero work and still pass wouldn’t you?
A lot of it is parenting. Most of these parents are just happy their kids are out of their hair all day.
The motivation is lacking
It is not a race issue. It is a socio-economics issue. Put kids in a family where parents work hard and care and take interest and you have kids who will try.
Put kids in a low income area with parents who are on government assistance and look at the result.
Great point!
Once politics took control aka mayoral control, look at the results.
But I’m politics, perception is reality and politicians create a good story.
That’s why the Uft is garbage. They don’t create a good narrative.
You really believe fake grades pushed by politicians and implemented by the newly trained leadership academy principals caused kids as young as 7-13 to stop caring as much about education and it’s importance’s in their lives? Or did the politicians already see the decline and thought they can’t effectively fix it so they decided to use fake numbers to protect themselves?
It started as schools became more minority, there needed to be more freebies to show progress. Look at stats, do worse in school, lower standards. Commit more crime, water down the definition of crime. Better stats ...
Why now do minority kids need educational Freebies? Didn’t they need them in the past? Or did we not allow ourselves to lower our educational standards and as a result forced and encouraged them to raise their efforts to meet them. Or has the educational system become so overwhelmed and inundated with lower preforming students, some born in the country and some coming from outside our border that hadn’t been seen in a century, that lowering standards and issuing fake grades was the only way for many to look effective?
Principals have to make things look good to make the school system look like it is doing something. That was a direct impact from mayoral control. School system mostly minority since I started in the eighties. That hasn't changed much. Take a look at the NAEP numbers before mayoral control but under the War on Poverty. Real advancement for many years up through the last few years. Why? Reac some of Diane Ravitch's work.
The comments were going really well for a while and then back to the same old Obama and the liberal blah blah blah nonsense. Obama and Clinton adopted right wing educational choice policies and moved the Democrats way to the right on education.
Dwarka has falsofied observations on veteran teachers to get rhem out, and changed grades. But the investigations are swept under the table.
Do you think minority students need more freebies is because they are more deficient in the basic skills as previous miinority students? And if so why?
And one persons nonsense is another’s persons truth. Please don’t disregard and devalue another persons position by labeling it nonsense. Stay on topic. We were doing so well until the moderator, well you know what he did. Tell us why it’s nonsense instead of just calling it nonsense.
I started teaching in 1994.
A teacher compared the school sytem to an old western.
'its all a prop"
didnt get it then - but get it now.
It is much worse now compared to 1994.
This could all be easily fixed. Change the academic policy back to when attendance mattered. As it stands, according to DOE policy, you cannot penalize a student for absence if they can show mastery of the topic. We all know thats where the fraud starts, by giving the online/packet work that blind mute horses could pass.
Even my good students only show up 3-4 days a week, perfect attendance awards haven't been given out in years because, literally in my school, no one has it. Like I said our smartest best behaved students still only show up 75 percent of the time on average. Here is a quote I unfortunately have heard many times in my 20 plus year career.
"I don't need school, ima get pregnant and get a card and ah be set"
I finished school and college and got a job because I was fearful of being on welfare or living with my parents, basically not being able to fend for myself, unfortunately no one even wants to try to support themselves. I guess its hard when you are addicted to video games. I have to stop now....
Like I have said before we don’t have a education problem we have a cultural and societal problem. Fix the culture. fix the family environment and you will see vastly improved educational progress. One leads the other. Maybe we could save billions on welfare and incarceration and use that money where it rightfully belongs. Professional job training, plumbers, carpenters, electrians, nursing, all sorts of highly marketable skills. These schools give out fake grades, fake diplomas to aleveryone to mask our failure as a society to truly help those who need it the most. Fake grades look good on paper and helps the narrative of the admins and the politicians but does nothing for the betterment of our collective success. Yeah video games, teen pregnancy, drugs and all the rest just keeps the people who need a proper education from reaching their true and rightful place in amongst the rest of us. It’s a shame and we better do something drastic and soon or the you know what is going to hit the fan.
Not having an attendance policy that will penalize students for not attending sets them up for failure. It says a lot about the DOE in its expectations. School districts outside the city have a clear, written attendance policy.
@7:52...maybe the kids view the morally and ethically-challenged world as an ideal. They see the selfish,nasty and ignorance permeating all aspects of their surroundings and just don't give a ^<&*
Oh boy at 11:40
@5:36 I here ya
Our Union by not negotiating in good faith has impacted that a group of teachers called ATRs are treated in a different way under rules that were not voted, and are denied a fair chance to find permanent jobs because they are in disvantage with respect to new teachers (fair student funding). The ATR pool was never created to be a dumping ground for the most experienced teachers. Many Leadership Principals are using the observation process to push veteran teachers that are outspoken out of schools, and making them ATRs. Therefore we require a new agreement with the input, and vote of ATRs in compliance with the Roberts Laws. We also require a new agreement that prevents any targeting, harassment, or abuse from any type of supervisor with the sole purpose of terminating ATRs. Observations should not be used in a arbitrary, and capricious way to penalize or to terminate an ATR. Article 2a of Ed. Law should not be bypassed by the UFT, or NYSUT. A teacher can only be served with termination papers if an Executive Session of the PEP votes on it, anything else constitutes a violation of the due process. Our Union cannot make any secret deals with the DOE regarding ATRs unless the D.A. approves it, and it is voted by its members. All this nonsense needs to stop.
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