AP Jordan Barnett, Principal Steve Dorcely, and NYC Department of Education Policies of Lying, Cheating, Fudging

If there is one thing that is Education Policy in New York City, it's changing grades. Think about it. When the NYC DOE bases your job as Principal on making a "good show" to the general public, to let Chancellor Carmen Farina shine, and the "good show" requires 'improvement' of the students/teachers with no discipline problems and all the little angels doing well, what do you do? Yep, you fudge. Perfection is the standard, and how you get there does not matter.

The process means nothing to the rulers of the island (have you read Lord of the Flies recently?) and there is no accountability to anyone for your actions, so you do what you have to do.

This is nuts.

I'll keep writing, dont worry. They came after me already, but now I have my bow and arrows ready to go. I didnt then.

Betsy Combier
 betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, The NYC Public Voice

School leaders allow cheating ‘to boost the numbers’: staffers

By Susan Edelman

, July 3, 2016

LINK

Urban Action Academy's assistant principal Jordan Barnett (l) and principal Steve Dorcely

Cheating is in the lesson plan at a Brooklyn high school where grade fixing is so blatant even intellectually disabled students pass rigorous state tests, faculty members charge.

At Urban Action Academy in Canarsie, an 18-year-old girl with the reading skills of a kindergartner had a passing grade of 65 on the Regents US history exam, a whistleblower told The Post.

The girl scored a 73 on the algebra exam, despite calculation skills at the level of a second-grader.

Teachers suspect the student’s tests were taken by an educational aide.

Inflated scores will eventually backfire on disabled students, a school staffer said: “It raises false hopes.”

Urban Action Academy administrators promote a cheating culture, staffers say.

When the Regents Global History exam was given at the school on June 14, students stashed review materials in toilet stalls so they could sneak information during bathroom breaks.

Alert teachers tried to thwart the cheating. But Assistant Principal Jordan Barnett slammed their “discriminatory” treatment of students and ordered them to back off, teachers say.

Barnett suggested the teachers themselves would not have gotten anywhere if they didn’t cheat in school.

‘It’s all done to boost the numbers and make [Principal Steve Dorcely] look good.’

 - one staffer

“You did that when you were young. We need to stop sabotaging our students and sabotaging our school,” one quoted Barnett as saying. Others confirmed the remarks.

Principal Steve Dorcely, who has no teaching experience except as a substitute, pressures faculty and aides to “do whatever you can” to pass students, staffers said.

“It’s all done to boost the numbers and make him look good,” one said.

The 293-student Urban Action Academy posted a 61 percent graduation rate last year. But only 5 percent of its graduates were deemed college-ready.

Truant students slide, said a person familiar with the records.

In one case, a boy “has not physically attended class this semester,” a Social Studies teacher noted, but got a passing 65 grade and full credit. He also was passed in English even though he “does not come to class.”

Last Monday, The Post reported that Urban Action administrators also did nothing when teacher Angela Costa found students hacked her Facebook account and spread copies of intimate comments to her boyfriend.

Teachers are now calling for a probe of the school’s tests and grades.

During Regents week, Barnett summoned staff to a meeting and ordered them not to check rest rooms during the exams.

“We cannot treat students like criminals,” she said, adding that teachers unwilling to “work with this demographic” should leave the school. The student body is 81 percent black and 11 percent Hispanic.

Other teachers said kids shared calculators during the Algebra Regents exam, which is forbidden because students can copy answers. Teachers said they warned Dorcely of a severe calculator shortage months earlier after many were reported stolen.

“This is educational malpractice at its worst — and a parallel to what happened in Atlanta,” a veteran educator said, citing the Georgia scandal that spurred criminal charges against cheating principals and teachers.

Dorcely did not return calls seeking comment. He and Barnett were absent on Friday.

The DOE said the allegations were sent to the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools.

“There is zero tolerance for violations of academic integrity,” said spokeswoman Devora Kaye.