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Scandal At Bronx High School May Put Graduation In Jeopardy For Hundreds Of Students
Ohanian Comment: The media love the scandal of fudged transcripts but the story is much bigger than that. The Center for New York City Affairs reports that Jane Addams was once a respected vocational school. They call it a Case of Collateral Damage As small schools proliferated, large school enrollments rose. The most fragile schools fractured. And city officials kept sending students who expressed no interest in the vocational training offered "They took a really good, functioning building and destroyed it," says Elliot Gloskin, a math teacher who recently retired as a teachers' union chapter chair at Jane Addams.
"Everyone agreed that those [large failing] schools had to be closed and reorganized," says David Bloomfield, a Brooklyn College education professor and a member of the Citywide Council on High Schools, a parent advisory board. "The problem is, they didn't plan enough for the contingencies. They actively made the [remaining] large schools worse. They created a death spiral, where the graduation rates and attendance rates go down further, violence increases, and there is even more excuse to close the schools."
Question: Why did students who passed cosmetology need credits for chemistry? Why isn't cosmetology good enough?
by Mona Rivera
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There are disturbing allegations of class credit "padding" at a struggling high school in the Bronx.
The principal is under investigation and students who thought they would be graduating, may not have enough credits, reports CBS 2's Tony Aiello.
1010 WIN'’ Mona Rivera reports
Students at Jane Addams High School in the South Bronx are angry.
"This is not how it's supposed to go. She's supposed to be doing her job. This is on her," senior Klarice Williamson said. "Everybody here is scared. Why do we have to put back our goals because she didn't do something directly?"
Principal Sharron Smalls is at the center of accusations of course credit "double dipping."
The United Federation of Teachers rep, Steve Tavano, said he is certain the allegations are true.
"It's a tragedy. It's very unfortunate that many of our students may be at risk for graduating," Tavano said.
The union said it worked like this: the principal allegedly gave students who passed a cosmetology class additional credits for passing chemistry. Others who passed a tourism management class got additional credit for passing geography.
"They have been given credit for certain subjects that they did not earn," Tavano said.
Almost 100 students learned this week they make lack enough science and math credits to graduate.
"I probably won’t graduate because they didn’t give me the right amount of classes,” Mariaelena Blair told CBS 2’s Jay Dow.
“You’re supposed to guide the kids in the right direction! Don’t give ‘em courses that they didn’t take, and you give ‘em credit for it. That’s not right!” parent Josephine Bello said.
It is clear many of the staff members at Addams hold the principal in very low regard. Every year teachers are asked to fill out something called a “learning environment survey.” This year Principal Smalls got some of the lowest marks of any administrator in the Bronx. Smalls declined to speak on camera.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Smalls remains on the job while the Department of Education investigates.
The DOE released the following statement:
“We are investigating a series of anonymous allegations recently made about the Principal and staff. Sadly, this is a school that for years has performed far below citywide averages on critical academic measures, which is why we are considering phasing it out and providing students with better options. In the meantime, our support staff are working with the school to look at transcripts and schedules to ensure students are getting the proper courses to graduate.”
“I just have no idea at this point if all or any of it is true,” Bloomberg told CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer.
It’s another black eye at a school that has performed so poorly the city may shut it down. Jane Addams High received an F-rating last year from the DOE.
The union claims the credit “double dipping” began in 2008, shortly after Smalls became principal.
by Ben Chapman
New York Daily News, Dec. 1, 2011
Principal Sharron Smalls, of Jane Addams H.S. in the South Bronx, is being investigated by the Ed Dept. in a course credit scandal. Teachers at the F-rated school allege administrators gave students credit for courses they never took.
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In city schools, more allegations of cheating--but not more cheaters
Students at an F-rated South Bronx high school got chemistry credits for taking cosmetology courses and geography credits for tourism classes, the Daily News has learned.
City Department of Education officials are investigating Sharron Smalls, the principal of Jane Addams High School, in a massive course credit scandal that may have jeopardized graduation for half of the current senior class.
“It’s criminal what’s been going on at this school,” said math instructor Stephen Tavano, 58, who has taught at Jane Addams for 19 years. “Our students are being cheated out of an education.”
Since 2008 Jane Addams administrators have given hundreds of students credit for courses they never took, teachers and staff said.
A school-issued “Dual Credited Course Table” obtained by the Daily News used course codes to show teachers how to award bogus credits to nearly all of the 720 student body.
Beauty classes passed for studying the periodic tables, said furious teachers who insisted that the school hasn’t even had a chemistry instructor since 2009.
Kids in tourism classes — which covered topics like managing the front desk at a hotel — were also credited as having taken geography, where students learn to map countries around the world.
“They did it all so the kids would graduate without taking the required courses,” a guidance counselor told The News. “Kids are supposed to come first, but here they don’t come first.”
Teachers said the bogus credits were handed to 189 seniors who graduated in 2009, 237 grads in 2010 and 161 seniors in 2011 — all to make the school look better to Education Department brass.
“The irony is that even with all that cheating we still got an F on our latest progress report,” said a teacher who didn’t give her name. In 2011, just 45% of Jane Addams students graduated on time.
The credit shortage came to light after new teachers refused to participate in the “Dual Credits” program.
On Tuesday, a group of teachers warned
the school’s nearly 200 current seniors that
because of the credit fudging, only half of them had enough math coursework to graduate on time. Education officials say they are investigating the allegations.
Angelica Taveras, 17, one of the seniors lacking math credits, used Facebook to assemble her classmates to confront the principal on Wednesday.
“I’ve been studying to get into college but now I found out that I might not even graduate,” said Taveras, who has a 76 average and dreams of working in the medical field.
“It’s not fair,” she added.
Smalls earns $140,074 a year, has been principal since 2007 and has worked for the Department of Education since 1992. When confronted, she told the kids she understood their concerns, but dodged questions about the credit shortage, Taveras said.
When contacted on Wednesday, Smalls refused to comment on the allegations and referred questions to the DoE press office.
Agency spokeswoman Margie Feinberg declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.
With Corinne Lestch
— Mona Rivera
CBS New York & New York Daily News
2011-12-01
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/12/01/scandal-at-bronx-high-school-may-put-graduation-in-jeopardy-for-hundreds-of-students/
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