PSAT A TOTAL SNAFU
Bedlam at Bronx HS test site, teachers say
The PSAT exam given at a Bronx high school broke every rule in the book, whistleblowers told The Post.
Nearly 300 sophomores were crammed into a gym at DeWitt Clinton HS last fall to take the PSAT, or Preliminary SAT, a college entrance test.
Their desks, practically elbow-to-elbow, made it difficult or impossible for proctors to patrol the rows — and enabled kids to cheat.
“The gym never got quiet, ever,” a proctor said. “They were all talking, sharing and cheating off each other. It was a disaster.”
The city Department of Education offers the PSAT exam to 10thgraders free of charge during school hours. Last October, about 16,000 sophomores took the test at a cost of $192,000, officials said.
The test is important: high exam scores can lead to National Merit Scholarships. And a student’s performance indicates how well he or she will do on the SAT, which colleges use to make admission decisions.
Clinton HS is one of the city’s low-performing Renewal schools, which receive millions of dollars in extra funding and services.
The school’s former principal, Santiago Taveras, was removed for improper grade changes.
Besides constant noise during the test, current Principal Pierre Orbe insisted that kids who arrived up to 30 minutes after the timed test began would still be allowed to join in, insiders said. The result was “chaos and confusion.”
Orbe did not respond to a request for comment.
The College Board, which admin- isters the exam, sets strict rules:
Students must sit at least four feet apart, from center of desk to center of desk.
No talking. “Students may not speak to each other during the exam. If they do so, they will be dismissed and will not receive scores,” said College Board spokesman José Rios.
Tardiness disqualifies. “Late students who arrive after the test has begun will not be admitted,” Rios said.
Teachers said the large room was too crowded for comfort, with “rows of kids from one end of the gym to the other, and not enough space to walk the aisles,” one said. “There was no control.”
In addition, non-English-speaking and special-needs students did not get required accommodations.
One teacher said that by the end of the 8 a.m.-to-1 p.m. ordeal, “some students were so flummoxed and dismayed by the process, I witnessed tests and material just left on the desk.”
Clinton teachers complained on a College Board hotline last week. “We follow up on all reports we receive about test security,” a rep for the nonprofit said.
The DOE said it had received no allegations of wrongdoing.