Sorry State of Advanced Placement

How does a school keep its high rating?  Easy.  Designate every senior English class as an AP class.

The school looks good because of all the students taking college level classes.  It costs the school nothing because all students must take English anyway.  The administration does not care how the grades come out as the school is judged only by the number enrolled, not the number passing the advanced placement exam.

Struggling students are not being prepared for what they will need in college.  Parents are being bamboozled and the ones that belong are getting a watered down education.

How Not To Grade High Schools

WARGA, CRAIG NYDN/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Graduation isn't everything

How not to grade high schools

Re the Daily News guide to New York’s best high schools: Graduation rates alone are not the only thing that makes a good school. In fact, as a former NYC high school teacher, I am very wary of schools with rates that are too high. I have seen students pushed through and graduated who can barely read and do arithmetic.

Regents exam scores are skewed so that a 65 on an Algebra test is the equivalent of 29 (or less) raw points out of 100. Students who don’t pass the first time have the option of doing a few online problems or going to a two-week after-school program to make up the course they missed. Teachers are pressured to pass everyone. People should wonder why specialneeds students with 70 IQs are suddenly getting Regents diplomas.

A better guide might be a look at courses offered and the number of students taking these courses. Of course college acceptance rates are important, but knowing if these students will have to take and retake remediation courses before they can begin a path to a degree is also important, probably more important. Linda Silverman

The above article was in the Voice Of The People in today's Daily News.  It was in response to a supplement to the paper announcing the 50 best high schools in New York City.  After years of teaching at Packemin, I know first hand how meaningless graduation rates are. Before I retired I administered a credit recovery program that began with very high requirements and ended up being a joke as the kids just did not do any work.  I was ashamed to have to sign off on it. I have heard of  students graduating with credits earned by having friends and teachers do assignments online for them.  I have heard of special education students who can barely read or do arithmetic getting regents diplomas and have heard of students simultaneously taking 2 courses-signing in for one and attending another, all with the APs approval.

Needless to say, I and most other teachers in the city that care about education were thrilled to see the above in the headline of today's Voice Of The People.

Cheating Scandal

Many of the students graduating today and their parents have no idea how phony their education has been.  For the last 10 - 15 years the only thing that mattered in schools were numbers and the students believed that receiving a passing grade meant they knew the course material.  Parents did too.  I remember meeting a parent who was thrilled with her son's 73 on the algebra regents until I explained to her what the 73 actually meant.  I know I crushed her beliefs but I felt reality was more important that dreams.  I had a student in a remedial math class in college brag about her 65 on the algebra regents but she could not add fractions, did not know her multiplication tables and never got more than a 30 on any exam in that class.  While I haven't followed her progress, I am willing to bet she never graduated as the college still has standards and getting out of remedial meant passing a uniform computer driven exam.  In fact, the college I where I work is very strict when it comes to passing and only wants the teachers to pass those that have mastered the course.

I feel awful for the students at John Dewey whose graduation is being questioned.  I am sure many earned their diplomas and learned what they should have learned.  I am sure many did the phony credit recovery too and now do not understand why their graduation is being questioned.  But, these kids are young and while it hurts now, they can still recover and go on to do whatever their heart desires.  I heard stories of a special education AP who only let teachers willing to "help" on regents proctor exams.  I saw an AP supposedly translating exams for foreign students but no one understood the language, and knew what he was saying.  His students always did exceptionally well.

Today I happened to be talking to a new Principal and a man who is not involved in education.  We were talking about cheating and he seemed to think all the problems with education lie with the home and that as long as the cheating is going on, no one should get caught.  I spent quite a bit of time talking to him about what I see in the college and I think eventually he saw my point.  An outsider really has no idea of the impact these phony diplomas have on kids.

Kudos to the teachers at John Dewey who came forward.  If Farina and DeBlasio really care about education they need to establish some way of looking into this at all schools and see how kids who never passed are suddenly passing and graduating.  They need to follow these students into the community college and see how little they actually know.