Bryant Principal Namita Dwarka Gets Caught Playing the "Manipulate the Test" Game And Loses

Oh, the glory! RBE reported on this story at Perdido St:
Just Make Every Student A Former ESL Student And You'll Magically Raise Your Test Scores!

In case you missed this story in the NY Post:

More than 100 teens in one teacher’s English classes were recently marked “FELL,” for “former English language learner.” The label grants students exam “accommodations” up to two years after they test proficient on the New York state English as a Second Language Achievement Test. But many students given extra time on the Regents exams are native English speakers, staffers said.

 Old-timers are not surprised. I worked for the mother of test manipulators who from the day she took over my school in -- check this year -- 1978 -- she found every wrinkle possible in test manipulation. I once said this to Joel Klein at a PEP - that I know all the games because I was taught by a master - the mother of test manipulation, as I dubbed my principal.

Here are a few of her tactics:
1. Identify poor readers in kindergarten and 1st grade and leave them back a grade early. This makes them a year older for the rest of their time in the school and an 11 year old 4th grader - even a poor reader - will do better on the test than a 10 year old poor reader.

2. Make sure there are as few non-English speaking kids in the school as possible. In fact make sure there are none. How to do this? Refuse to have a bi-lingual class and every parent off the boat who comes to register their child is sent to the school on the other side of the projects (now run by the great Brian De Vale). Those kids will drag down the scores pretty much for their entire time in whatever school they are in. Result: our school rose to 2nd in the district in test scores and the other school was at the bottom - year after year.

3. Push every kid into special ed as possible -- pressure teachers to do so - because in those years their tests didn't count against the school.

4. And of course one of my faves. Dump kids from the test where possible. I have 2 personal examples.

a. A few days before the exam I am informed that Matt, a difficult child from a problem family of difficult children - but funny and I had become pals with him --- would not be taking the exam with my class. Why? He had a slight speech impediment and due to his going out a few times a week for speech therapy, he would be classified special ed for this exam and separated out so his test wouldn't count. I was so livid I called the NY Times and spoke to an ed reporter who told me, "Isn't this the way things are done?"

 b. Bill was a silent, brooding-looking child who at first scared me but soon I saw he was a bit shy and by the time we were testing I loved having him in my class. His apartment had a fire and he went to live with his grandmother a few miles away in another school district. His mother said they would be back in the apartment in a month or 2. So he kept coming to school -- not as often due to traveling -- and I even picked him up and dropped him off a few times. No problems - until test time. A week before I get a transfer notice from the office sending him to the school near his grandmother's. I called the mother and she said she had nothing to do with it. I knew exactly what had happened and confronted my principal. She said "too bad," - at first. I had to convince her that not only was Bill a good kid but I guaranteed he would score well -- I rate this with Messier's prediction on the Rangers in '94. She relented and Bill did score well and graduated with his class in my school -- and by the way was back in his apartment not long after the test.

RBE closes with:

If Namita Dwarka survives all the scandals and investigations she's under by the SCI and the DOE, then you know that de Blasio's and Farina's claims about a new kind of DOE, one that is different than the Bloomberg DOE, is a lie. 

Well on this one issue I would put some money that there are a hell of a lot of principals who play similar games.

Message to UFT Leaders: Where's the Change of Tone as Hundreds Call for Ouster of Bryant HS Principal Namita Dwarka?

A handful of students said the principal threatened them, warning they would not take part in graduation if they attended Monday’s rally. Teachers told the Daily News Dwarka has doctored their performance records, canceled their after-school programs and fired them from coaching positions when they’ve spoken out in opposition to her practices... Daily News

 How funny when we hear Mulgrew and crew talk about the change of tone at Tweed. Sure, a change of tone at the top. But in the schools, the wars between Tweed appointed principal and teachers, parents and students still rage.

But maybe the gaggle of principals who punish teachers and students for speaking out falls in line with the way the UFT/Unity leadership runs the UFT. 

Bryant HS (Joel Klein's alma mata - rumored the reason he protected it from closing) is also a school with one of our old ICE pals, Sam Lazarus, as CL. Here it is not just teachers but parents and students sending a message to Tweed. If the UFT really wants to support this school, pick up the phone and call Ernie Logan at the CSA and make it clear - the CSA if it wants any support at any point from the UFT has to apply pressure on the mad dog principals.

James Eterno posted the story on the ICE blog.

200 EDUCATORS, STUDENTS AND PARENTS PROTEST OUTSIDE BRYANT HS AGAINST ABUSIVE PRINICPAL

What should the UFT be doing right about now to support its members?  A good start would be to encourage more protests like the one that occurred at Bryant High School in Queens. 200 adults and students were out in the street calling for the removal of a less than stellar principal. 
There was coverage of the event in the Daily News.
“This is the end of my 30th year teaching here. No principal has ever treated staff like garbage like this one does,” said teacher Mary Bozoyan, 51, who attended the high school herself. “Everyone’s waiting for the next ax to drop on their head.”
I am fairly certain there are stories like this one in many schools across NYC.  Let's see if this type of event is repeated elsewhere.

The full Daily News article.

CBS also had a story pointing to Namita Dwarka's negative style of management.

High School Won’t Allow Injured Queens Teen To Learn From Home
M'Kayah Walker Worries She Won't Be Able To Graduate On Time

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A Queens teenager is in the battle with her high school, saying she should be allowed to learn from home.

But as CBS 2’s Dave Carlin reported exclusively, the Department of Education does not agree.
High school senior M’Kayah Walker of Woodside, Queens, said she was injured while playing soccer.
“I was playing soccer. Kids fell on top of me,” she said. “And I found out my knees were dislocated.”
That sports injury has Walker struggling to get around on crutches. But she never dreamed it would disrupt her academic future.
She said making it up the steps and in to William Cullen Bryant High School in Woodside is painful.
Her mother requested home instruction for Walker, allowing the teen to graduate with her peers. The answer was no — not once, but twice.
“Just give me the home schooling so I can get my diploma,” she said.
Instead, the school issued her an elevator pass. But getting to it was tough and then she says she had to wait.
“They have taken more than 15 minutes to open the elevator,” she said. “When I use it, I’m late, and the teachers yell at me.”
CBS 2 attempted to speak to Bryant High School principal Namita Dwarka, but was told to leave.
When CBS 2 asked about Walker’s two petitions for home instruction, the Department of Education issued a response.
“Everybody has a right to request this service and it’s taken on a case by case basis,” the department said. “We’re still looking in to this.”
To help Walker avoid stairs, her guidance counselor and some of her teachers have been sending coursework home to her. But for every day she doesn’t walk in to the school building, she gets marked absent.
“I don’t know if it’s money, or if it’s incompetence, or whatever it is — it’s wrong,” said City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-26th).
Van Bramer said Walker is being “unnecessarily delayed.”
“She just wants to graduate,” the councilman said.
And the ordeal is not easy for Walker either.
“Now I’m depressed,” she said.
Walker waits to find out when she’ll graduate, eager to go on to college and major in psychology.
Next month, Walker gets surgery to repair her knee. Without home instruction, she believes she won’t be able to graduate until next summer.