Elite Schools Cheat Kids Out of AP Test Fees

Elite Schools Cheat Kids Out of AP Test Fees

LEE W. McCASKILL: Trouble finds him again. Several of the city's top schools charged a fee to students eligible to take Advanced Placement exams for free, then kept the money, according to a report released two weeks ago by schools' Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard J. Condon. The practice was first discovered at Brooklyn Technical High School. The Principal responsible, Lee W. McCaskill, resigned earlier this year after Mr. Condon determined that he attempted to sidestep tuition payments for his daughter by falsifying a city address on school documents.

Tipped by Coordinator

Margaret Blau, the AP coordinator at Brooklyn Tech, alerted the State Education Department to the problem earlier this year after unsuccessfully attempting to get Mr. McCaskill to refund fees for 259 tests taken by low-income students. These students were eligible to take the tests for free; the SED covers the cost.

The Brooklyn Tech Principal refused to reimburse them, saying "we'll make it up next year," even though the students involved would have graduated. Mr. McCaskill, who under a deal reached regarding his previous offense is ineligible to work for DOE, then transferred $10,000 of the AP money to the school's general fund.

An audit of the Brooklyn Tech AP exams determined that $76,678 in improper funding was collected between 2002-2005 to cover 1,511 exams.

Stuy., Bronx Science, Too

Stuyvesant High School and Bronx High School of Science showed similar abuses of the fee waiver program, according to the report. Stuyvesant improperly collected $71,272 to cover 1,571 tests, while Bronx Science took in $73,032 to cover 1,421 tests. The AP Coordinator at Bronx Science said the school has begun a program to refund the fees, starting with those collected this year.

Mr. Condon said in his report that the "clear purpose" of the fee waiver program had been violated, and directed DOE to "develop and promulgate standard procedures" for schools administering AP tests.

"We will make sure that schools which received the grants reimburse the lowincome students," DOE spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said in a June 13 e-mail. "We will reinforce this to all schools that offer AP exams. We will make sure this doesn't happen again."

Mr. Condon went on to say that any new scenario should not require students to advance any of the money due to them from the fee waiver system.

He forwarded the report to the city's Office of Legal Services and the SED.