Critics cry ‘grade inflation’ at NYC schools as students pass without meeting standards

At the Science School for Exploration and Di☂scovery, MSไ 224 in the Bronx, an impressive 94 percent of students in grades 6-8 passed their math classes in the 2017-18 school year.

But how much math they actuall♔y mastered is questionable.

Onlꦅy 2 percent of those same Mott Haven students — nearly all Hispanic and black from poor or low-income families — passed the state math exams, which measure skills that kids should have at each grade level, according to city data reviewed by The Pos🐓t.

At Harbor Heights middle school in Washington Heights, an awesome 100 percent of kids — all Hispanic — passed their 🐲state English Language🦋 Arts classes.

But only 7 percent of those kids passed the ELA exams, the✅ data show.

Some edu🤡cation advocates politely call it “grade inflation.”

But critics brand it “grade fraud,” because rosy repo🌠rt cards may camouflage failure.

“Mayor de Blasio’s educrats have created the illusion of learning, and thus rob tens of thousands of students of the know-how that they need to succeed,” ꦚsaid Deroy Murdock, a senior fellow with the London Cent🦹er for Policy Research in Manhattan, who blasted the practice as “Mathgate.”

Yet the city Department of Education dismisses the di🐓sparities.

“It’s apples and oranges to compare students’ classroom grades over the course of a full school year with their performance on a two-day state 🐬exam,” said DOE spokeswoman Danielle Filson.

Now, the Queens City Councilman who recently penned a damning letter, signed by eight fellow lawmakers, calling Chancellor Richard Carranza’s racially-ꦕcharged rhetoric “divisive” is urging the chancellor to take action.

“Dozens of schools have a high percentage of students passing t🐷heir course work in Math and English, but a very low percentage of students meeting standards on the state Math and English exams,” Robert Holden wrote to Carranza on Friday, citing MS 224 as an e🅷gregious example.

“While I understand that these issues were present before you arrived in New York City, they ne🍸ed to be prioritized and taken seriously by your department,𝔉” the email reads.

Holden met 🌜with Carranza💎 May 7 to discuss several issues, including “widespread grade inflation,” he told The Post.

“We🤡 showed him the data. He wasn’t aware of i🐈t,” Holden said. The DOE did not respond to that remark.

Holden, a CUNY professor for nearly 40 years, continues: “I saw firsthand the effect this grade 😼inflation has on our students. I had countless students from public schools who were required to take remedial classes in Math and English while in college.”

Wide chasms between soaring pass rates on class work and dismal test scores plague many𝓰 schools in poor neighborhoods with mostly black and Hispanic kids.

Among the biggest gaps, DOE data show 13 middle schools passed students in math courses at rates of 63- to 90 percent. At t🧸he same schools, 2 to 8 percent of students tested proficient on state math exams.

In ELA, students at 29 middle schools passed courses at sky-high rates of 75- to 100 percent, but 💦only 7 to 20 percent passed the state exams, data show.

“They’re inflatin🍌g the grades and passing all the kids. It’s fake,” a DOE administrator said.

Many NYC high schools use grades among admission cr🐟iteria. Mayor de Blasio and Carranza want to toss the sole entrance exam, the SHSAT, at eight specialized high schools, and admit the t✃op 7 percent of kids at each middle school based on state test scores and classroom grades.

Course grades are based on multiple factors such as clas𒆙s work, tests, projects and homework, the DOE said: “This provides teachers with an accurate picture of what a student knows and understands.”

But teachers often complain they are pressured to pass as many kids as po👍ssible to♛ avoid a bad performance review.

Still, the DOE said it is beefing up math instruction, and aims to offer algebra classes to all 8th graders. The DOE has♋ also change𓆏d leadership, merged or closed several schools with wide gaps between classroom grades and state test score, the department said.

More scrutiny would expose weak teaching or flimsy curri♋culum, experts say.

“It doesn’t serve students and parents well to think that the kids are performing at grade level if they’re not,” said David Bloomfield꧋, a Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center education professor.

“If there’s🉐 a problem in learning outcomes or performance that’s bei♛ng hidden by inflated course pass rates, it needs to be confronted by the chancellor.”