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Wagner HS teachers vindicated after release of cheating scandal report
Jan 17, 2008 12:25 PM
Teachers at Susan Wagner HS in Staten Island feel vindicated after the release of a report by the Department of Education’s Office of Special Investigations recommending that Mary Incantalupo, a former assistant principal at the school, be fired and her husband, Wagner Principal Gary Giordano, be disciplined for their roles in a Regents cheating scandal that rocked the school in June 2006.
The report was released Thursday, Dec. 13, several days after an article on the Wagner scandal appeared in the New York Teacher.
The cheating was first reported by teachers at the school.
They accused Giordano, 45, of a cover-up and of trying to silence them by saying “you will pay.” He also threatened whistle-blowing teachers with the loss of their pensions.
According to a union official, the teachers were ecstatic when the UFT Web site posted an article from the Dec. 6 New York Teacher on the probe [“Wagner HS cheating scandal report delayed”] and are relieved that the blame was placed squarely where it belongs — on Giordano and Incantalupo.
In what union activists would consider the ultimate compliment coming from disgraced bosses, both administrators blamed Chapter Leader George Anthony for the scandal, claiming he was “stirring up” the teachers, as if the story were about nothing more than worn-out turf on the school’s football field.
The UFT official said: “It’s unfortunate that they need to spin the blame in the direction of the chapter leader, whose only job is to protect the teachers. It’s sad.”
Incantalupo transferred from Wagner to IS 88 in Brooklyn in September.
UFT President Randi Weingarten said the report “makes clear that UFT members — the teachers who put aside concerns about retaliation by the school administration — have taught us all an important lesson in ethical and social responsibility by standing up and blowing the whistle on this behavior.”
The OSI investigation was completed in May. At that time, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein had promised UFT President Randi Weingarten that it would be released “shortly.”
The report found that Incantalupo, 29, oversaw substantial test tampering, directed teachers to change the grades from failing to passing, took physics exams home to grade and directed another teacher to pose as an exam-grader by initialing Regents exams that she did not grade.
Although OSI stopped short of recommending Giordano’s dismissal, the probers pointed out that “the principal is responsible for the rating of all papers written in the school.”
OSI also called for Wagner Assistant Principal Andrea Solgan to be disciplined because she “attempted to impede OSI’s investigation by coaching three of her staff members as to what to say during OSI interviews.” The report said that Solgan “instructed them to keep their answers to questions to a yes or no.”
One of the most explosive charges made by teachers last year is that Incantalupo came into a classroom, wrote passing Regents grades on the blackboard and said: “These are the numbers that Gary wants.”
The report notes the allegation but is silent about its veracity.
Echoing the charge was another teacher who said he was told by Assistant Principal Suzanne Lippa that she had received a phone call from Giordano stating the Regents exams “needed to be reviewed and the scores raised above 55 percent and 65 percent.”
The teacher refused to review the exams and left the classroom.
OSI also substantiated that Incantalupo violated a State Education Department manual issued in 2001 by taking Regents exams to her home to grade in June 2006. “I had no weekend. I was marking Physics Regents which were spread all over my bed,” Incantalupo told teachers.
OSI also claimed that Incantalupo “took no action” when a science teacher informed her that some students who had taken a Regents exam had received higher grades than permitted by the State Education Department.
AP Solgan admitted that she went to the school on a Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006, and was observed by a teacher rummaging through the June 2006 Regents exams. This happened one day after OSI ordered the exams impounded. Solgan said she was looking for a particular exam after a parent complained about a mark for his son.
The report made no reference to allegations from teachers that the previous year’s Regents exams were shredded on a Saturday.
OSI probers also slammed Giordano for offering up a lame excuse for his wife’s actions when she inflated the exam grades. He said the grades for the 2006 Physics Regents exam had already surpassed the grades from the previous year’s exams by seven percentage points and “there was no logical reason” for Incantalupo to have tampered with the scores.
No documentation to support these claims was offered by Giordano, the report said.
According to the report, Incantalupo told two teachers that “these grades need to be changed. Make them pass.” She also told other teachers that “my kids don’t know this. I didn’t teach this — what I am going to do?”
When the June 2006 physics and living environment exams were re-scored by the Division of Assessment and Accountability, the members of the re-scoring committee found evidence of test tampering. OSI said their observations included:
- the appearance of inks of different intensities on the same exam;
- many exams containing edits that appeared to be in a handwriting different from that of the student who took the exam;
- computation errors, made in multiples of 10, were found in the awarding of credit on several exams;
- questions worth one credit being awarded two credits on some of the exams;
- blank responses being given credit on some of the exams; and
- many of the exams that were re-graded by teachers within the school resulted in changes of the original grade.
