How do you fix a failing high school? Change the grades.
Under pressure to boost student achievement, the state-designated “out of time” Automotive HS in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, has resorted to rigging Regents exam scores.
The failing scores of five students who took the Regents in January were switched to passing scores of 65 or higher on their transcripts, the city Department of Education has confirmed.
One junior saw his scores upped to pass two exams required for graduation — Living Environment (biology) and algebra — even though he had failed both classes. The student insisted he deserved a break on the exams because “I studied my ass off.”
In 2011, the state banned “scrubbing” — the practice of re-scoring tests that fall just short of passing. In 2013, the DOE tried to fire a teacher who raised the scores of five students on a Regents physics exam. In 2014, city scores plummeted after a new rule barred teachers from grading tests given at their own schools.
Now, the city has sanctioned it.
“This is Scrubbing Part 2,” a veteran educator said of the Automotive HS score changes. “The teachers used to do it. Now it’s the administrators.”
Modal Trigger
Mayor Bill de Blasio met with teachers and administrators at Automotive High School in March.Photo: Daily News Pool
Automotive HS is one of the city’s 94 low-performing “Renewal” schools — which Mayor de Blasio showered with $31 million this school year and has vowed to revamp with $163 million next school year. The state Education Department has branded Automotive and seven other city schools “out of time,” meaning the schools require significant revamping or a shutdown.
While declaring Regents scores “final,” state officials last week said exams may be re-scored “if the superintendent of schools has compelling reason to believe that an essay was not scored in accordance with the rating guide or according to the required procedures.”
The DOE said Aimee Horowitz, superintendent of the Renewal schools, “reviewed and approved” appeals for nine Automotive students to have their January 2015 Regents exams re-scored. The reasons were not explained.
As a result, five students got higher scores, one stayed the same and three decreased, officials said.
Asked whether Regents exams at other Renewal high schools were re-scored, a DOE spokesman did not immediately answer.
‘IT’S NOT BENEFICIAL FOR HIM. IT’S GOING TO HURT HIM IN THE LONG RUN ’
- mother of a student who had a failing exam re-scored
Principal Caterina Lafergola, whom de Blasio kept in place despite years of failing to revive Automotive HS, was instrumental in the score changes, said students and staffers.
Automotive insiders said Lafergola instructed several teachers to go into a room and re-score the January exams in March.
The DOE disputed that, saying, “No staff from Automotive are on the re-scoring committee.”
An Automotive junior who scored 64 on the biology Regents in January said he spoke to a guidance counselor and Lafergola.
“I wanted to see if I could get that one point,” the junior said. “I asked if they could do it for me.”
All he had to do, the student said, was sign his name on a list of “about 20” classmates, most with scores of 64 and some with 63. His score was raised to 72.
The other junior who had two exams re-scored despite flunking both classes had his algebra score raised from 64 to 65 and his biology score upped from 64 to 69.
“They found extra points,” he said. “The other school that graded that test graded it wrong . . . I know I couldn’t have failed it.”
He could benefit further. Schools may give class credits to students who fail a class but pass the Regents exam.
A sophomore who also failed his Living Environment classes had his failing 64 Regents score boosted to a 72. His mom, who learned about the score change from The Post, was bothered.
“It’s not beneficial for him,” she said. “It’s going to hurt him in the long run .”
Her son “spent most of the school year at a suspension site.” He was ousted from Automotive for fighting and accidentally jabbing a teacher who was trying to break it up with a pencil, she said.
In Common Core math, just one student out of 25 passed. In trigonometry, all seven test takers failed.
They fared better in English (33 test takers, or 37 percent, passed) and US history (61 students, or 42 percent, passed).
De Blasio attended the commencement last Thursday for Boys & Girls HS, another “out of time” Renewal school. He hailed the 93 grads as symbols of progress.
But he skipped Automotive’s ceremony the day before, when only 43 of 98 seniors — 43 percent — received diplomas, down from 2014’s 49 percent graduation rate.
Automotive’s enrollment plunged from 881 in 2010-11 to 383 last September. The high school finished the school year with 350 students. Twelve left the city, and the rest enrolled in GED or adult programs, or dropped out.
The challenges ahead are immense. The vast majority of Automotive’s incoming freshmen have failed or scored below proficient on state exams, records show. Only about half of its teachers have applied to return next fall.
“We are using aggressive efforts to lift up Renewal schools,” said DOE spokesman Harry Hartfield, citing plans “to serve the whole child while improving academic outcomes.”
“We are holding schools accountable for progress,” he added.
Automotive offered after-school tutoring this school year, but staffers called it too little, too late. Renewal schools will provide an extra hour of instruction next school year, officials said.
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