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Irregular News for 11.03.06
Brooklyn, NY -- Principal Jolanta Rohloff runs the gauntlet of her students at Lafayette High School, Brooklyn, during protest in May. It simply doesn't add up.
A controversial Brooklyn high school principal sent a pie chart and letter home explaining her new grading system - but the confusing graphic totals more than 100%.
About 150 of the memos went out Monday to Lafayette High School students and parents before Education Department higherups caught wind of the spoiled pie chart and stopped the mailings, the Daily News has learned.
Principal Jolanta Rohloff is "trying to make us smart but [the pie chart] is stupid," said sophomore Stephanie Ortiz, who received a copy.
"By looking at it, you can tell automatically she can't add," said Na-Deardra Love, 14, also a sophomore. "If you add it up, what's going on?"
But Rohloff defended the charts, without acknowledging the mathematical impossibility.
"That was meant to be flexible for the teachers to allow them a range to make a decision on grades," she said.
Still, Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said the memo would be "readjusted so people won't misconstrue that it's anything but 100%."
The embattled principal, a graduate of Mayor Bloomberg's elite Leadership Academy for new principals, was previously chastised by the Education Department for gutting the grades of hundreds of students last summer.
Rohloff had docked students' grades by 10 to 15 points for failing to score 65 or higher on the Regents exam. Education Department officials ordered her to reverse the policy, which had sparked a firestorm among teachers and students.
Rohloff subsequently put together a committee of teachers and students to revise the grading policy. The pie chart sent out Monday explained that under the new system Regents exams would count 25% toward final grades, homework for 10% to 20%, exams for 60% to 75% and classwork for 10% to 20%.
Add it up and the range would be 105% to 140%.
A memo with the flawed chart warned that students who did not return old textbooks would "not be able to participate in extra-curricular activities, school events, nor receive a textbook in your current classes."
This admonition comes after The News reported last month that Rohloff withheld textbooks from students for weeks to minimize the loss of funds from unreturned books.
An Education Department spokesman has said school officials did not authorize the move and launched an investigation. Rohloff said she was simply trying to recover the nearly 4,000 books that go missing each year.
Rohloff also made headlines last spring for trying to bribe teachers with school money so that they would decorate and clean their rooms before a visit by top administrators.
source
Brooklyn, NY -- Principal Jolanta Rohloff runs the gauntlet of her students at Lafayette High School, Brooklyn, during protest in May. It simply doesn't add up.
A controversial Brooklyn high school principal sent a pie chart and letter home explaining her new grading system - but the confusing graphic totals more than 100%.
About 150 of the memos went out Monday to Lafayette High School students and parents before Education Department higherups caught wind of the spoiled pie chart and stopped the mailings, the Daily News has learned.
Principal Jolanta Rohloff is "trying to make us smart but [the pie chart] is stupid," said sophomore Stephanie Ortiz, who received a copy.
"By looking at it, you can tell automatically she can't add," said Na-Deardra Love, 14, also a sophomore. "If you add it up, what's going on?"
But Rohloff defended the charts, without acknowledging the mathematical impossibility.
"That was meant to be flexible for the teachers to allow them a range to make a decision on grades," she said.
Still, Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said the memo would be "readjusted so people won't misconstrue that it's anything but 100%."
The embattled principal, a graduate of Mayor Bloomberg's elite Leadership Academy for new principals, was previously chastised by the Education Department for gutting the grades of hundreds of students last summer.
Rohloff had docked students' grades by 10 to 15 points for failing to score 65 or higher on the Regents exam. Education Department officials ordered her to reverse the policy, which had sparked a firestorm among teachers and students.
Rohloff subsequently put together a committee of teachers and students to revise the grading policy. The pie chart sent out Monday explained that under the new system Regents exams would count 25% toward final grades, homework for 10% to 20%, exams for 60% to 75% and classwork for 10% to 20%.
Add it up and the range would be 105% to 140%.
A memo with the flawed chart warned that students who did not return old textbooks would "not be able to participate in extra-curricular activities, school events, nor receive a textbook in your current classes."
This admonition comes after The News reported last month that Rohloff withheld textbooks from students for weeks to minimize the loss of funds from unreturned books.
An Education Department spokesman has said school officials did not authorize the move and launched an investigation. Rohloff said she was simply trying to recover the nearly 4,000 books that go missing each year.
Rohloff also made headlines last spring for trying to bribe teachers with school money so that they would decorate and clean their rooms before a visit by top administrators.
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