While legal battles might not overhaul the city’s Department of Education, kudos to Susan Muzafar, a dedicated teacher at Information Technology High School, for unearthing a serious instance of fraud that seems to be widespread within DOE institutions.
Muzafar is pursuing compensation, alleging that school officials altered a student’s failing English grade to a passing one without her consent.
Furthermore, she argues (quite credibly) that she faced repercussions for voicing her concerns.
She asserts that the student wasn’t adequately prepared for an advanced course and didn’t complete the required work; the grade modification reflects a recurring tendency at Information Technology High School to place students in challenging courses and award them unmerited grades.
A roster of “accomplished” students provides a favorable impression of administrators — why focus on genuine educational outcomes?
Such cheating — by school leaders — is longstanding and rampant across the DOE system.
The Post exposed it at Brooklyn’s John Dewey HS in 2015 (kids passed science class by watching “Jurassic Park”!) and in a whole long series of “worthless diploma” stories across a decade.
How many schools are playing these games to hide their failure to teach? The recent Success Academy study identified 906 failures — more than half the city’s 1,600 schools.
Meanwhile, the State Education Department is lowering graduation requirements to further cover up failure all across New York.
The people in charge of the public schools — in the city and indeed the entire state — don’t give a damn about delivering for the kids, and the system’s set up so they don’t have to.