Wagner HS teachers vindicated after release of cheating scandal report
by Jim Callaghan, NT Teacher Staff writer, Dec 14, 2007 3:48 PM
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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 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 chapter leader George Anthony, the teachers were ecstatic when the cheating story went up on the UFT Web site. He said they feel vindicated by the OSI report 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 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.

Anthony 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 initializing 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 black board 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.

SCHOOL BIG IN 'TEST TAMPER'
By YOAV GONEN Education Reporter, NY POST

December 13, 2007 -- A former Staten Island school administrator ordered teachers to change scores on state Regents exams to enable students to graduate - and even hiked some of the test scores herself at home, school investigators found.

Former Wagner HS Assistant Principal Mary Incantalupo, of Staten Island, was recommended for termination for her role in a 2006 test-tampering scandal that's been under investigation by the Department of Education since October 2006.

The school's principal, Gary Giordano - who was dating Incantalupo at the time of the grading and who married her this year - was cleared of serious wrongdoing, but will be disciplined for not keeping tabs on the exams.

Messages left for Giordano and Incantalupo were not returned yesterday.

"The fact that an assistant principal facilitated a cheating scandal is just dead wrong," UFT chief Randi Weingarten told The Post. "Now it is more important than ever that the DOE take steps so that it doesn't happen again."

She added that she was surprised that he got off relatively unscathed based on the evidence presented against him.

A spokesman for the principals union, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, declined comment because they had not yet received the report.

Dozens of teachers reported improprieties in the grading of the June 2006 Regents, mostly relating to the living environment and physics exams, the report says.

Two teachers said Incantalupo handed them exams with failing scores well below the 65-point cut-off and instructed them to "make them pass," according to the report.

Science teacher Sandra Santillian said she saw incorrect answers marked as correct, and essay answers that were given more points than the questions were worth - a claim backed by several other teachers.

A handful of teachers also said they saw Incantalupo and science teacher Arleen Milton grading exams in an administrative office rather than in a group grading room. They said Incantalupo later told them she was taking tests home to finish the scoring there.

Incantalupo transferred from Wagner to IS 88 in Brooklyn in September.

yoav.gonen@nypost.

Cheating probe slams Wagner High official
Ex-assistant principal should be banned from city schools, report says
Friday, December 14, 2007
By PETER N. SPENCER, STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A former assistant principal at Susan Wagner High School who ordered teachers to boost test scores so students could graduate should be fired and banned from working in city schools, investigators for the Department of Education said.

That was one of the recommendations made by the DOE's Office of Special Investigations in a 19-page report released yesterday detailing its findings on a Regents exam scandal at the Sea View school, which was first reported in the Advance in November 2006.