Students Got Answers
Fault Principal For Cheating on Regents

By RICHARD STEIER

The Principal of the High School for Youth and Community Development in Brooklyn failed to prevent student cheating on the 2005 Living Environment Regents Exam when Teachers provided answer keys for a prerequisite for the test, according to the school system's watchdog.

RICHARD CONDON: Students got improper help.

Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard J. Condon noted that the students' exams were invalidated even before the improprieties surfaced because all of them failed to complete a section of a mandated laboratory report.

Discipline for 9

He stated that even if evidence was placed in the most favorable light, the school's Principal, Marie Prendergast, "failed in her role [and] did not supervise her staff," and recommended that she, the Principal at an adjacent school, and seven Teachers be disciplined, with termination among the options.

The Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, which represents Ms. Prendergast, did not respond to a request for comment on Mr. Condon's findings and recommendations.

A Department of Education spokeswoman, Dina Paul Parks, said, "The actions described in the report are totally unacceptable. We are reviewing the roles of each individual named by the Special Commissioner to determine the appropriate disciplinary measures."

The High School for Youth and Community Development is one of two schools set up on the campus of Erasmus High School, a storied Brooklyn institution (Barbra Streisand was among its graduates) that closed its doors in 2004 because of persistent academic failure. Ms. Prendergast, who has been Principal at YCD since it opened in September 2004, in May 2005 allegedly told substitute Science Teacher Michael Sweringen that students had not completed the requisite labs to be permitted to take the Regents. He also said that Ms. Prendergast informed him that he would assist Douglas Graham, the Principal of the School of Humanities and Performing Arts - which shares the Erasmus campus - in making sure the labs were completed.

According to five students who were interviewed by investigators, Mr. Sweringen gave them the answer keys to fill in the lab reports in the days just prior to the Regents. Mr. Sweringen claimed he never distributed answer keys but said that another Teacher at the school had maintained a set.

One student claimed that English Teacher Melissa Liwanag had passed out answer keys, although the Teacher said that she had expressed concerns about students being given the answers.

Another Teacher, Naphtaili Aiken, said he had provided documents to the students to complete their lab reports but denied that he included the answer keys. He testified, however, that Ms. Prendergast had asked him to develop a lab book containing blank lab sheets and the appropriate test keys, and that he made photocopies which he distributed. He also testified that Ms. Prendergast had entered a classroom where students were copying the answers from the keys.

Says Prendergast Knew

Ms. Liwanag told investigators that prior to two laboratory makeup sessions the week of the test, Ms. Prendergast held a meeting with staff at which the science Regents was discussed. She said that on the first of those two days, June 20, a man came to her classroom and handed out blank lab worksheets and answer keys to students. She said that the students copied the answer keys onto the lab sheets, and that Ms. Prendergast was present in the room for at least five minutes.

Other Teachers told of answer keys being brought to their classrooms and the students being permitted to copy them as a way of ensuring their eligibility to take the Regents. One substitute Teacher, Nicole Creary, claimed that a school employee explained to her that "the students just needed to catch up" and it "was not a big deal."

Ms. Prendergast told investigators that she had never asked Teachers to let students cheat and had been unaware that students were copying answers for the lab reports. Although she knew that students had not conducted lab experiments, she was under the impression that the only thing they hadn't done to qualify for the Regents was to complete the lab paperwork.

Anonymous Complaint

An anonymous complaint about the school administration's actions had led the State Education Department to contact Jennifer Bell-Ellwanger, the Deputy Senior Instructional Manager for DOE's Division of Assessment and Accountability. She, in turn, referred the matter to Mr. Condon.

He concluded that there was no question that students had been given the key answers for the lab reports to copy, and that students had been allowed to take the Regents although they had not completed the required labs.

"Viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to Prendergast, she failed in her role as Principal of the school," Mr. Condon stated. "She did not supervise her staff after giving them the assignment to make the students eligible to take the Regents. That impossible task led to the copying of the answers. Then, despite the Herculean and dishonest efforts to get the job done, the students did not complete one section of one of the required labs."

The end result, he noted, was that all the students were later required to retake the Regents in order to receive credit.

Ms. Prendergast declined comment, referring a reporter to a spokeswoman for DOE.