The Principal Of Jamaica High School Gets Caught As He Tries To Cheat His Way Into A Better Graduation Rate And The DOE Sees No Problem With That.

The New York Post shockingly wrote an article how the Principal of Jamaica High School, Walter Acham, directed the guidance office to give up to 12 additional credits for immigrants who entered Jamaica High School, regardless of the student's academic history in their own country. Yes, this is the same Principal who was repremanded by Chancellor Joel Klein for sending an October 1st, 2007 memo to staff on how to report an incident without calling 911.

I previously identified this disgusting practice of phony credits here. This is really academic fraud and is just an attempt by a Principal to artificially raise his graduation rate without providing the academic services for real student achievement. Once, this disgusting practice was exposed and the State was scheduled to visit the school, the phony credits were quickly removed from over 200 students that were given them in the first place.

Incredibly, Tweed defended the Principal's action to the New York Post by claiming that the school has a right to give up to 10 credits for "life skills". However, the condition for granting the credits are based upon stringent criteria for students who come from non-English speaking countries. In fact, according to the DOE regulations, the criteria is as follows:

Department rules say students can get up to 10 credits "for documented school attendance and residence in an other-than-English-speaking environment" through age 13. Without outside transcripts, there must be a "thorough review," including interviews and possible testing, said department spokesman Matthew Mittenthal.

Instead, Principal Walter Acham gave up to 12 credits to students who had spotty attendance records, and came from English speaking countries. Yes, this is the very same Walter Acham who challenged his staff in a facility meeting who questioned his poor decision- making ability by "taking them out to the woodshed". This threat was reported to Tweed, who took no action.

We all believe cheating is wrong. However, when Principals cheat by giving phony credits, manipulates with the dropout rates, and abuse the "credit recover program". The DOE sees nothing wrong with that kind of cheating in their ongoing effort in their "children last" polices.