Michelin also makes Gotham teachers use an “incredibly inflated” grading system, staffers complain.
Gotham Professional Arts Academy awarded English credits toward graduation for a Dungeons & Dragons “class.”The grading scale has no Ds; Fs are “highly discouraged,” and “teachers are verbally pressured to pass students,” they wrote. Gotham also awards academic credits to all students for homeroom-type periods with no classwork, whistleblowers say.While 50% of Gotham grads enrolled in college, only 33% of them returned for a second year, theWith a focus on art and culture, Gotham is one of the DOE’s 49 “Consortium, International and Outward Bound” high schools.Students are exempt from taking state Regents exams but instead must complete five “thesis-like” papers in core subjects.
More galling, the teachers say, the school gives all students English and other academic credits for twice-weekly advisory or homeroom periods – called Crew in the consortium, which describes them as “community-building.” “It’s like a study hall. There’s no teaching going on,” a Gotham staffer explained, adding that teachers are often not certified in the subjects for which credits are given.
In an email to Cheng last July, whistleblowers named two students who had graduated after moving to a different state, and two who graduated “despite not attending or submitting assignments.”Other students “were given 2-3 gym credits for classes that did not occur.”