Brooklyn High school principal caught on tape: Pass students who don’t learn but ‘try’

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The acting principal of a Brooklyn high school was secretly recorded saying that too many students up to 71 percent were failing remote classes, and that teachers should pass kids “just because they’re trying.”

“If a child is engaged, if the child is doing work, but somehow the child doesn’t get it, gives you the wrong answer, but the child is doing something, checking in with you, doing work … I would have passed the child,” said Costas Constantinidis, acting principal of Cobble Hill High School of American Studies in Carroll Gardens.

Two clips of leaked audio from a May 14 remote meeting of administrators shows that remote instruction amid the coronavirus crisis has exacerbated poor performance at some schools. Under pressure from the Department of Education’s upper echelons, the schools are lowering the bar to pass students and keep their graduation rates up.


“What’s going on is a push to pass every kid with careers and tenure on the line,” a Cobble Hill staffer told The Post.

Two teachers who posted 100 percent passing rates for the latest marking period are “gaming the system,” but they have been praised by supervisors and cited as models for others not toeing the line, the staffer said.