They call it “Operation Graduation:” NYC educrats thinking up creative ways to graduate as many high school seniors as possible in a school year fractured by the coronavirus crisis.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Saturday he will shutter all school buildings through June, a decision immediately challenged by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who insi🃏sts he makes such decisions under a state of emergen𒆙cy.
But Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has already begun rallying his troops to salvage the gr🐻aduation rate, which was 77.3 percent through August last year, and to pass younger students on toღ the next grade.
“We’re going to have to make big decisions in the upcoming weeks regarding promotions and graduations,” Carranza told a webinar for Brooklyn principals last week, one note-taking attendee told The Post. “We need to start to think how are we going to justify promotions and graduations.”
“Never waste a good crisis,” the c⛄hancellor told the school leaders.
“We need to rethink the way we gr♏ade students. Maybe we should should grade them on a pass/fail basis,ꦺ whether they master the material or not, instead of with traditional grades.”
Carranza kept repeating this mantra: “Flexibility🍬 and patience.”
A Bronx elementary school teacher said the writing is on the wa🐬ll: “We’re under the impression that we’re p🐭assing everyone if schools are going to be closed for the rest of the year.”
That means letting some students — those who don’t log on for remote instruction, don’t pay attention or don’t do the work — off the hook, teachers told The Post.
The city Department of Education has Fed-exed about 70,000 iPads to students, leaving some 200,000 kids still lacking devices and/or Wifi, spokeswoman Miranda Barbot said Saturday. The DOE aims to deliver the rest “by the end of the month,” she said.
With many students still without online access, others playing online hooky, state standardized exams canceled and the Regents exams waived, the pass rates are likely to soar.
High school administrators have begun citing “Operation Graduation” in emails to colleagues.
The rules are loose at some schools. If a student a💃nd his or her parent cannot be reached online or by phone, the ki🧔d gets a pass, a Brooklyn high-school teacher said staff was told.
“There’s no justification to fail the student if you haven’t done successful outreach to the parent. The kids and their parents j🌃ust have to n🐽ot answer the phone and, voila, they pass,” the teacher said.
“We are getting reports of groups of our most troubled kids hanging out in the streets, drinking, smoking weed, fighting. But these kids are goinꦿg on the ‘Operation Graduatiౠon’ lists.”
Some students or parents tell staff they have no WiFi, the teacher said. But the same kids are “posting on social media all the time,” classmates snitch.
“The DOE will blame us if those kids don’t graduate,” the teacher said.
Some elementary school teachers are equally frustrated, saying students can be marked present 🐼without any evidence they ar🦋e learning.
“My students can get away with doing virtually nothing,” a Manhattan teacher said. “I have just a few kids th༒at do a majority of the work.”
In online classrooms, students𝐆 can log on and then leave to pl𒁏ay or watch TV. Teachers can tell when they question a specific student but get no response.
Students click “turn 🌺in” to attach a competed assignment, but often nothing is attached.
“A lot of times they hit ‘turn in’ and we never actually get the assignment,” the teacher said.
DOE spoꦍkeswoman Miranda Barbot said Carranza is hol😼ding frequent meetings to grapple with the changes.
“The Chancellor speaks to educators regularly about how to best serv𒉰e students and families during this unprecedented situation, and that’s what he was doing here. We haven’t changed graduation or promotion requirements, and we’re not going to penalize students who may be facing trauma due to thi🅷s crisis.”