Carmen Farina and Bill deBlasio Are Ultimately Accountable For The Grade Scandal and the Worthless Diplomas of Kids in NYC Public Schools

Of course Bill deBlasio, Carmen Farina, and all the Superintendents knew about "credit recovery",

The smoking guns of all the parents, teachers and others who cried into their emails about how children were pushed out of their schools with worthless grades and diplomas cannot be counted, but we must hold deBlasio and Farina accountable for the mess children who are and have attended public schools in NYC are now in.

The Renewal Schools Program is the next scandal.

Betsy Combier

Aimee Horowitz (second from right) with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen
Fariña (left) at a meeting at one of the city’s “renewal schools” in March.

DOE official was informed of effort to graduate failing students

By Susan Edelman and Bruce Golding

, NY POST, August 10, 2015
LINK

A smoking-gun email obtained by The Post shows that a top city Department of Education official was informed about shady efforts to graduate 150 failing students through quickie online courses in apparent violation of DOE rules.

Cyndi Kerr, a director of “school renewal” under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $400 million plan to turn around 94 low-performing schools, was CC’d on a June 1 email in which a Flushing High School administrator said the flunking kids would be put in online classes to help them graduate.

It’s against DOE rules to have students to do “credit recovery” work while the classes they are failing are still in session, staffers said.

In the email, a Flushing administrator said the failing kids would be enrolled in Apex Learning online classes and a physical-education “boot camp.”

“Our benchmark of a 60 percent graduation rate in June is non-negotiable,” wrote Patricia Cuti, assistant principal for guidance. “Summer graduation is NOT an option.”

Cuti also ordered teachers and supervisors to “develop a plan” to get them to pass.

Teachers said they had to create last-minute assignments, such as book reports, for students who had done little or no work all year. They said they felt pressured to pass the students.

A veteran educator said the email was evidence that Kerr — who reports to Aimee Horowitz, executive superintendent of de Blasio’s School Renewal Program — had “full knowledge” of what was going on at Flushing High School.

“This is the first email made public that directly ties Aimee Horowitz and the Renewal hierarchy to a policy of teacher coercion and grade fixing,’’ the educator said.

“This email proves that the higher-ups at the DOE’s Renewal Program were informed of a quota system at one of their Renewal schools. Did [Kerr] question this policy? Did she ask, ‘What are you doing here?’?”

DOE spokesman Harry Hartfield wouldn’t say what Kerr did after receiving the email but insisted that officials are “reviewing transcripts, credit accumulation and course registration practices at Flushing, and we will take all necessary steps to ensure the integrity of our policies.”

Kerr, who oversees Queens high schools in the Renewal Program, refused comment.