How ca♛n soaring high-school graduation rates be bad news? Because the𒈔 city schools are just cooking the books — again.
As The Post’s Yoav Gonen 🅰reported Monday, the rise coincided with a decision to exempt 20 high schools from state-administered Regents exams.
They join 26 other high schools already allowed to use “alternative” assessments to make stu🔯dents eligible for graduation. Those 46 m𓂃ake up about 10 percent of the city’s public high schools.
The alternative measures can be essays, special projects, oral presentations, etc. Yet the key d🐷ifference from the standard measure, state Reg꧋ents exams, is that the Regents are graded by outsiders, while “alternatives” are judged in-house — an open invitation to abuse.
No surprise that eigဣht of the 20 exempt high schools saw double-digit spikes in graduation rates. 𒀰Pan American International HS — one of the Department of Education’s Renewal (i.e., failed) schools — saw its rate leap from 50 percent in 2014 to 76 percent in 2015.
It’s another part of the “worthless diploma” scam. This summer, The Post ran Melissa Mej🍰ia’s account of passing he♈r Government class at William Cullen Bryant HS — thus “earning” a diploma — despite her hardly ever showing up for class, not doing homework and skipping the final.
Her “graduation” counts in city stats. Who cares that she did🍸n’t truly get an education?
Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña c💫laims she’s making reforms in the w𒅌ake of multiple such Post exposés. Hmm: The boom in “alternative” assessments sure looks like she’s just finding new ways to cheat.