Principal Removed for Mishandling Cases of Alleged Cheating on State Test
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The principal and assistant principal of a Brooklyn school were removed this week for mishandling cases of alleged cheating on a state exam after a probe was launched by a teacher who tape recorded the conversations she had with the administrators.
The Department of Education began an investigation at Junior High School 14K in Sheepshead Bay last August after a teacher complained the school leaders brushed off his complaints that students cheated on a state social studies exam last year. He tape-recorded conversations and handed them over to investigators.
The teacher, who has since been fired for unsatisfactory performance, allegedly told the veteran principal, Ilene Agranoff, and assistant principal, Susan Feeley, that students in his eighth-grade class had cheated on a state social studies exam in the spring of 2004.
After the principal allegedly ignored his complaints, the teacher wrote a letter to the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, in August 2004 asking him to look into the matter. The investigation was completed in June 2005.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Education, Kelly Devers, said a probe by the Office of Special Investigations found the principal and assistant principal had “mishandled” allegations of students cheating.
“They have been removed from the school and we are pursuing disciplinary actions against both,” she said.
Ms. Agranoff, has served as New York City educator for about 30 years and has served as principal at the school for more than a decade. Pending disciplinary action, she has now been assigned to the regional office. She could face punishment ranging from a letter in her file to termination. Ms. Agranoff could not be reached for comment.
“We cannot comment on a personnel matter,” a spokesman for the principal’s union, Brian Gibbons, said.
This is not the first case of a principal being charged with covering up cheating on the state exams.
Earlier this year, the principal of the Cobble Hill School of American Studies was removed after a 14-month investigation found he had covered up efforts to inflate grades on the Regents exams in social studies in 2002 and 2003.
