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education mayor

October 29, 2009

Thompson: Grade tampering shows Bloomberg oversells success

by Anna Phillips, at 2:47 pm

Officials from Bill Thompson’s campaign are pointing to a story about grade tampering at a Bronx high school as evidence that the city’s education data is unsound.

Yesterday, I reported that current and former teachers at Herbert Lehman High School are accusing principal Janet Saraceno of transforming the school into a “diploma mill.” Student transcripts given to GothamSchools show that in the last year, dozens of students have been given credit for courses they failed or never took.

Mayor Bloomberg has staked his reelection on his claim that graduation rates are rising, an assertion Thompson  questioned in an audit he released as comptroller.

“Today’s article about Lehman High School grading fraud is another appalling example of Mike Bloomberg’s corrupt Department of Education,” said Thompson campaign spokesman Mike Murphy. “This is the second story this month to prove that Bloomberg has greatly exaggerated the success of his Department of Education by padding, manipulating and falsifying statistics, including graduation rates and test scores.”

Christopher Cerf, an education policy adviser for the Bloomberg campaign, defended the mayor’s accountability system, which rewards or punishes principals based on their schools’ test scores and graduation rates.

“We cannot comment on any aspects of this, but we certainly do not condone the kinds of things that are alleged. But at the same time, we believe that accountability for student outcomes is a central driver of positive reform and we believe it is critical to hold everybody in the system accountable for student results.”

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  • QueensParent

    Well Bill Thompson is stupid. I understand there’s an investigation going on but talk about trying a person in the media! He’s already reached a conclusion when the investigation had begun. I’m very wary here. If these teachers were so concerned about what was going on then why didn’t they report it to the Special Commissioner of Investigation instead of the papers? I know I’ve called SCI more than a few times about conduct I have seen at schools during my involvement on the school and district PA. In any event haven’t we had enough of this “guilt by association” type argument that he puts out: “well since one principal may be abusing his authority then it means THE ENTIRE SYSTEM is bad.” What a grim view Bill Thompson has of our school system, certainly not the outlook or qualifications one should possess to lead it.

  • Michael M.

    QP,
    Where’s BLOOMBERG’s sense of outrage?

    Not even the usual, “If the charges are true” caveat?

    Keep those bogus bonuses rolling, New York.

    Would you call CSI (sic) if you saw something showing up Kleinberg’s Wizard of Oz act?

  • QueensParent

    MM I’ve called to SCI at least 10 times with the things I see going on in schools. We’re all supposed to be reporting waste, fraud and abuse in the school system.

  • Elizabeth Green

    QueensParent, as you’ll see in our story, the teachers at Lehman did report the grade-changing to the Office of Special Investigations. They came to us only after losing hope that OSI would issue a finding. From Anna’s story:

    The teachers approached GothamSchools after some of them had submitted the same transcripts to the Office of Special Investigations, but had not heard back for months and assumed the investigation was dead.

    The DOE says it is still investigating the matter.

  • QueensParent

    EG to me your additional detail makes the story even worse. So they report the allegations, they don’t like that the investigation is taking a while, in other words, they want the principal tarred and feathered quickly, so they call the media? Wow, I’d like to see teacher misconduct hearings go this way. The rubber rooms would be empty.

  • http://www.classsizematters.org Leonie Haimson

    I love Cerf’s comments. Message to principals: Lie, cheat or steal; doesn’t matter to us, as long as you get those test scores up!

  • Michael M.

    Re Cerf’s comments: Of course there is ZERO accountability for the bogosity of the Shool Progress Reports.

  • Pogue

    The Cheatership Academy

  • I noticed that…

    Churn, churn, churn all you diploma mill schools! We don’t educate. We fabricate!

  • Michael Fiorillo

    With apologies to author Mary McCarthy in her literary feud with Lillian Hellman: Everything they say is a lie, including the words “and” and “the.”

  • Justice

    The only ones that could attest to the game of Ms Saraceno are Hanna Thacht and Dyanand Sugrim from Media Communication HS in Manhattan who aided her in changing the grades so much that in less than 4 years the Media Communication school’s grading went from an “F” school rating published in all of the Manhattan Newspapers to an “A” school. If the investigation system was a serious one, they should start by investigating those who worked with her previously and figure out many things that the rest of the world know…

  • Pingback: Bill Thompson (New York) « Puzza…

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