The Power of Incentives

Teachers hostage to 'success'

by M. Goodwin

The e-mail box runneth over with bad tidings. 

Teachers are reporting that cheating is rampant in New York City schools - and they claim principals are the culprits.

The reports are responding to my column that many schools are denying students the freedom to fail in a misguided bid to help them. To judge from the response, the problem is worse than I feared. Much worse.

First, a professional in a Manhattan high school wrote to say that teachers in her school are "encouraged" to pass 80 percent of students, no matter their grades or attendance. She offered student writing samples filled with glaring errors of spelling and grammar to prove that "social promotion is alive and well."

Now others are revealing shocking examples from their schools about how unprepared kids are being pushed along to the next grade and out the door with a sham diploma. Their disheartening tales deserve attention.

"Our mandated passing rate is 60 percent," one wrote. "We need to explain in detail why this student failed, what methods were used to get him to pass, how much home contact was made.

"The one group that is not called in for interrogation is the students themselves. No blame falls on them . . . The students know what is going on. It has empowered them to feel that they can work less or not at all and still pass the class."

Another, from a Brooklyn high school, says the principal fudges attendance and grades with a warning that unless the school improves, the Department of Education will close it and teachers will lose their jobs.

"The administration allows students to run around, go to class for 5 minutes, and we must mark them present," he wrote. "We are also encouraged to change attendance of students marked absent up to 2 weeks earlier, looking for 'proof' they are absent. So teachers just give up and mark them present."

He added, "Teachers are scared into passing students that do not deserve it."

A teacher in another troubled high school also says 80 percent of students must pass, writing: "We have about 20 teaching days left and I have yet to see 23 percent of my students. Which means if I pass everyone else, I can only get a 77 percent passing percentage, which by city standards is unacceptable.

"I have written letters and called homes and I still can't get these students into my class. I have about 8-10 percent of my students who cannot read or speak English at a 4th or 5th grade level, due to the fact that they are immigrant students. Then there is the 10 percent that should not be in high school to begin with. This means that at best 60 percent should pass.

"Here is my dilemma -- do I give students the grade they deserve or do I do the 80 percent? I do the 80 percent, my school stays open and I am a good teacher (The Post may even say something nice about me). Or do I give the grade the students deserve and my school closes and I lose my job because I am a lousy teacher?"

I have kept the teachers' names and their schools anonymous at their request. As one said, "Tenure or not, telling the truth is a crime the DOE would not forgive."

Fraudulent stats certainly are not an issue at every school, or even most. But they are clearly a problem when only half of all students do math and English at grade level, yet more than 95 percent are routinely promoted. And with 75 percent of grads who go to city community colleges needing remediation, a diploma does not guarantee an educated student.

Obviously, city officials don't take the issue seriously. Cheating allegations were raised against the principal by students and teachers at Lehman HS in The Bronx. City Hall announced a probe, even though the principal got a $25,000 bonus for the school's progress.

That was in 2009, and the probe is still not finished. Meanwhile, Lehman was recently selected for the federal "restart" program, which will mean more money and a nonprofit partner to help teachers -- and the same principal.

So, for some, cheating pays.