Writing Feature Articles - Step 1 - Lesson 1 | Page 48

Writing Feature Articles - Lesson
Writing Feature Articles - Handout . a

Experienced

Name: ________________________________________ Date: ___________________

. a: Feature Articles Packet

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School Big In 'Test Tamper'
By YOAV GONEN Education Reporter, New York 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 of?ce rather than in a group grading room. They said Incantalupo later told them she
was taking tests home to ?nish the scoring there.
Gonen, Yoav. (December 13, 2007). “School Big in Test Tamper.” New York Post, http://www.nypost.com/f/print/
news/regional/school_big_in_test_tamper_KP2Nby3yjwUVbQkYezJMeK Permission pending.
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