Most knowledgeable educators know that the investigative units of SCI, OSI, and OEO are not fair and impartial. If a teacher is charged with a potentially serious accusation you can bet the three investigative agencies will pull out all the stops to substantiate the accusation and recommend the terminat6ion of the teacher. By contrast, accusations against administrators are usually buried and no action is usually the result. Now the New York Post published some actual numbers dealing with academic fraud against school administrators and shows how little the investigative agencies care to file charges.
According to the New York Post, SCI received 704 cases since August 2015 of grade tapering or fixing, trey investigated only 22 of the cases or 3% of all accusations, and substantiated only 3 cases or 0.04% of the total accusations. Unbelievable, but true! It seems that SCI does not take academic fraud seriously and maybe that's why principals are willing to commit academic fraud, knowing full well that the DOE and the investigative agencies will not investigate it and will look the other way/ A prime example is Principal Howard Kwait of John Bowne High School who has been accused multiple times of grade fixing and is still in charge. Read the ICEUFT blog on the latest.
How many principals have actually lost their position when caught committing academic fraud? A handful at most. Yet, if you look at my list of bad principals and my academic fraud articles you will find numerous examples of principals acting badly and have been accused of grade fixing or tapering yet they are still in charge of their schools. Here is the most recent case.Yet if teachers are accused, they are removed from the classroom and are assumed guilty of the accusation, even before its investigated.
If you have any question about the fairness of the investigative units that work with or are part of the DOE please read my articles on corrupt investigations.
Leadership Academy Principal Namita Dwarka of Bryant HS, Queens NY is damn deep in academic fraud, she cant hear her own farts.....not to mention she's missing about $200,000.
ReplyDeleteIncredible.
A former friend of mine was under investigation for Regents tampering over 6 years ago- no wrongdoing found, of course- and she is still principal of her school. Without knowing any of the particulars of the case, but knowing her, I can assure you she's guilty as sin.
ReplyDeletePart of me understands why they took Regents scoring away from schools- when your livelihood is dependent upon children's test scores, it drives some people to unethical behavior.
I've seen teachers go in and give answers to Regents while I was proctoring. It put me in a personal bind because I was friends with the particular teachers father. I reported it and it pissed me off because he counted on my friendship with his father, but the principal said it was a moot point as the kids all failed anyway. She lied, of course. It's rampant all over the city. The schools should just hand all the kids their diplomas the first day of freshman year and be done with it. It adds to the underclass and poverty.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting subject and I know I am going to get hammered hard with this post. How many of you have ever had one of your students cheat on a regents exam? Let me explain. After the exam finishes or two days later you find out one of your students cheated. Let's be honest (I know everyone is going to say they would take the high road blah blah blah) most will not say a word.
ReplyDeleteThe reason most will not say a word is it helps your teaching stats. When I was teaching before my school closed down, even before Klein era, I did not condone or want my students to cheat. However, if they did cheat and it helped my stats then I was okay with it.
Same argument could be made with regards to Chaz's post. Higher ups need stats too. They can't tell administrators and schools to cheat but if they do cheat then they too will look the other way. They have to. They need results like teachers need results.
So now let's go one step further. SCI is under the mayor. OSI is under the mayor. Mayor needs results. Why would SCI and OSI go out of their way to investigate or show cheating exists? It does not help them out at all. They need to play ball with the mayor and the state otherwise they will lose positions.
Now, let's start hearing from all the: OH MY GOD. NOT under my watch if students cheated nonsense. Yeah yeah yeah save those comments for someone who really believes you.
Second post... I definitely do not condone cheating by teachers or administrators. It is absolutely wrong. No questions asked.
ReplyDeleteHowever, let's be totally honest. Let's really look at this problem and I will give you an example: google Lynn Passarella. One of the best cheaters of our time. A legend who needs to write books on this subject. How did she survive? How did she keep her job?
https://www.villagevoice.com/2012/03/10/bronx-principal-teaches-students-lesson-in-cheating/
This is the real answer. I do not care who you are but with pressure on teachers and principals - if my job was on the line then by all means I pray that I would do the right thing. However, human nature and survival skills will kick in. With a family to feed and again not condoning cheating but cheating might have to kick in and be an option.
In Lynn's case she cheated so much she had a better school than Bronx Science. Does anyone really need to investigate? Any school better than Bronx Science in the Bronx has to be cheating especially a school with level 1 kids. But the DOE allowed it. Everyone knew and looked the other way. Lynn took it too far, got caught and still survived a 3020A.
REASON: With the amount of nonsense, blame and pressure - most decent honest humans will resort to cheating to survive whether right or wrong. Also, bonuses? Are you serious? I can get 25k for having better regents results then let's invest in erasers and teach students how to cheat. You can't dangle bonuses and not expect cheating. I know I know blah blah blah.
Now, for humor. This is why principals love me. I walk into their office and just ask them to please fill in my grades for me. I am usually asked to proctor every exam and even paid per session. I have principals fist fight over me during regents week. Principals start trying to book me as proctor as early as March. As a matter of fact one principal told me he wished every proctor was like me. He said when I proctor my rooms score 30 percent higher on average and wanted me to run PD on proctoring. However, PD is goes against my religion and ethics. It is torturous.
Look 80 percent graduation and 15 percent college ready. This is cheating. Not brain surgery.
Shad or Shady = you are way too much and way over the top. Too bad you are probably 100 percent accurate and correct.
ReplyDelete@Shad C,
ReplyDeleteYou're 100% correct. I currently teach PE at the elementary school level (I've also taught middle school) and it's the same thing there. I usually only proctor a couple kids at a time for special ed accommodations and when the test scores count for me again I still won't have much incentive to cheat, as the test component for me is taken from half the school, so a couple kids won't really move the needle. I could understand why someone with a caseload of 100 dumb teens would want to cheat, it's common sense. Teacher get penalized in this system for teaching the worst kids.
I love my principal to death, hope he never retires, but he did say this year "we're not holding back any 5th graders" and since I've been in the DOE, no 5th or 8th grader in my schools has been held over, and obviously there were dozens who could have been. Quite frankly, I'm so happy they don't, since I have to deal with those kids every year they're in the school and it's torturous to have students and teachers have to deal with these kids for additional years. The best thing to be in the DOE is a jackass student; don't have to do any work, get excuses for everything you do, and get passed along because nobody wants to deal with you. I truly realized the DOE weren't serious about achievement when I found out that when a Kindergarten teacher in my school wanted to hold back a couple of kids, the parents had the right to say no. The teacher has no authority here and can have tons of evidence and it doesn't matter. So these kids are already behind and are just being pushed through, then we wonder why they fail at the high school level.
As long as we have a system where the fake passing statistics matter more than what kids are learning, it doesn't really matter. At this rate, kids will need 10% to pass the math regents. It's not the real world, the kids who give a crap in school are usually the ones who give a crap when the leave school, the lazy ones in school will be lazy in the workforce. HIgh school diplomas show that you managed to not drop out of school, that's it, and everyone knows it because remember, everyone goes to high school and see what goes on. Teachers just have to get out of low performing schools whenever they can and let the newbies populate it for a few years while they collect their Teachers of Tomorrow bonus check. Those who can't transfer should find another career to be honest.
This is what passing kids for doing nothing leads to. http://nyp.st/2upYAmG
ReplyDeleteWalk around the streets or visit some homeless shelters, you'll definitely meet some former students. Be careful though, they may understand you helped them get to where they are in life.
Scad C...
ReplyDeleteYou are really a disgusting sell-out. Are you sure you're not MORM?
The system invites cheating.
ReplyDeleteNo, actually, that's not true: it compels cheating. Arguing otherwise when, schools close and careers are destroyed based upon tests scores and graduation rates, is ignoring reality.
That being so, why are people surprised/upset when the invitation is accepted or the compulsion receives it required response?
Base everything on numbers, and the required numbers are what you'll get, even when they're totally meaningless, as any NYC public school teacher could tell you.
This post is a masterful summa of the pervasive corruption corroding the DOE and its watchdogs. Let me add two certain proofs that Farina and SCI have dirty hands.
ReplyDeleteRe Farina: At a PEP meeting two years ago I accused the Chancellor to her face "of participating in a high level cover-up of my Regents cheating allegations at Cobble Hill and then lying about your role to both OSI and SCI." My handout was headlined "Chancellor Farina is a cheat, liar, and perjurer." Pushing the envelope, I dared her to fire me. Publically shamed and conceivably libeled and defamed, she could have retaliated via charges of insubordination, harassment, and the catchall unbecoming conduct. What Chancellor wouldn't? Only one who knew I was telling the truth, who feared discovery and cross-examination at my putative termination trial.
Re SCI (and DOI): In 2014, at the DOI's request, I submitted a complaint against Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon for his fraudulent report exonerating Farina et al. of Regents tampering and cover-up. Rejecting my insistence on an independent review by an Inspector General, DOI General Counsel Michael Siller refused to recuse himself -- despite the fact that Condon was (is) Deputy Commissioner of the DOI. In response to my uncontested, deeply documented 278-page complaint, Siller brushed me off in two sentences: "The Department of Investigation is fully prepared to conduct, where warranted, investigations of its own personnel, including high-level ones. In this case, however, DOI has determined not to take action on your complaint."
The corruption comes from the top. No doubt about it. Parents and students are in it too. Then the pressure falls on the teaching staff. That's a lot of weight. It's just out of control. Welcome to the world of ratings.
ReplyDelete@10:30 what is a MORM? Look I am telling you the way it really is. Do I agree with it? NO. DId I pass a dead student who was still on my roster? Yes. Why? Who am I to penalize a dead student for not showing up to my class. Who am I to fail students who never show up to my class? Some students who never show up actually do the same amount of work as the ones in front of me.
ReplyDeletePlus, you think Eva Moskowitz fails kids. You think Eva has her regents being graded outside of their schools. You think Eva is not cheating and playing games.
Let me take this one step further. Why are principals not giving hallwalkers gym credits? Are these hall walkers not doing more than kids who actually attend gym classes? Kids who do graffiti in hallways and bathrooms should get an art credit. Kids who listen to music while walking the halls or cutting classes should get music credit. Kids who rap "yo yo shady is white ho ho" deserve a music credit and if they threaten me "hell I give them a gym credit."
That's just the way it son. I am sorry to provide you with the truth but if it makes you feel better to think the DOE is graduating 80 percent of students who are college ready then you go believe that. I did not create the system.
Shad C...(MORM)
ReplyDeleteI'm not your "son". My parents were not related genetically.
@7:13 Of course you are not my son. I would have aborted you even past 22 or 24 weeks. As a matter of fact your IQ is lower than any student I have ever taught. The fact you are not being U-rated on a daily basis shows the incompetent system we have. MORM!
ReplyDeleteShad C.:
ReplyDeleteYou have to ignore Anon 7:13, the MORM. He seems angry and very bitter. Probably has been discontinued. Leave him be.
shad c
ReplyDeletekeep it comeing
your the best thing to happen to this blog in a whiule
Shad,
ReplyDeleteMORM was a commenter about a year a half ago. One of the Master of Relationships Movement comments is after this pos-t
https://chaz11.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-peaceful-classroom-needs.html
other comments follow later posts.
Hysterical. I was googling MORM trying to figure out what this idiot was calling me. LOL
ReplyDeleteHe has no sense of humor. I specifically said: "Now, for humor. This is why principals love me. I walk into their office and just ask them to please fill in my grades for me...
Even if I did walk into the principal's office and said "hey you can fill out my grades for me"... How many would actually fill out the grades? Principals would think "oh my God is this teacher setting me up?" or a total idiot would actually do it. Then again, if you dangle 25k in front of some then it might entice them.
Let's keep the conversation civil please.
ReplyDelete