New York City administrators are under pressure to get their students out of the building with a passing grade. No Child Left Behind and all kinds of other statistics could put not only the school but the administrator's job in serious jeopardy if many kids fail the Regents and/or tests required for graduation. Therefore, why not "scrub" the failing essay, and create one that works, aside from the obvious fact that the child is not learning anything?

The E-Accountability Foundation has found that this practice is wide-spread, as Carl Campanile states in his report in the New York Post "Teachers Cheat" [January 24, 2004]. It is certainly easier for teachers who have kids in their classes who do not know the material to move these kids on to someone else. Often the teachers themselves are the problem with social promotion - many do not want to learn how to teach a subject or a difficult child.


Chancellor Klein and Mayor Bloomberg did not make any effort to acknowledge this practice and establish accountability for a system that almost requires grade inflation so that students leave the system, one way or another until February, 2004. Then, all of a sudden, grade "social" promotion became the main problem after the violence issues were "solved". Now, if more than 15,000 3rd graders are going to be held back, teachers will have to be accountable for teaching them.