The city Department of Education touts its $47 million-a-year adult-education program as the biggest in the state and second-biggest nationwide, but last school year it awarded just 299 high-school equivalency diplomas, The Post has learned.
About 27,000 people over age 21 were enrolled in classes offered by the DOE’s Office of Adult and Continuing Education, including 15,700 learning English as a second language and nearly 11,000 in basic education classes that can lead to a diploma.
While many of the DOE’s adult students are immigrants with little schooling, few eventually advance enough to take the high-school equivalency exam.
Frustrated staffers call the OACE’s performance “embarrassing” and “totally unacceptable.”
“Why can’t we move them to a ninth-grade level and get them ready for the test?” an insider asked.
Many blame Superintendent Rose-Marie Mills, who has led OACE for three years. They charge she has squandered funds, hired friends without adult-ed experience as administrators and failed to give teachers the curriculum they need to help students. “There’s no feedback, no support, no curriculum. We’re left to our own devices,” said a veteran teacher.
OACE faculty members have sent anonymous letters to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, calling Mills, a former superintendent of District 19 in Brooklyn, a “tyrant” and pleading that Fariña investigate her management, hiring and spending. The DOE said those concerns were “unsubstantiated.”
‘There’s no feedback, no support, no curriculum. We’re left to our own devices’
- a veteran OACE teacher
The staffers question why OACE needs its own tech team headed by Marvin Superville, a former assistant principal and Mills’ friend, when the DOE provides computer support to every school. The tech team costs at least $290,600 a year in salaries.
Mills’ aide Thomas Trocco, who makes $120,388 as “director of special projects,” has led training workshops, though he has no certification as a teacher or administrator. The DOE said he doesn’t need any.
Teachers say Mills pushes them to test students excessively — before they have had a chance to progress — simply because the state rates adult-ed programs on the frequency of exams, as evidence of attendance.
People enrolled in adult-ed are classified at six levels, based on tests. Those who score at the top two levels — at least ninth-grade ability — may take the high-school equivalency exam.
OACE reported 1,563 students reached that level in the 2013-14 school year. But last year, only 316 took the Test Assessing Secondary Completion (TASC), and 299 passed it.
Two dozen other NYC nonprofits and agencies that offer adult high-school equivalency classes, including CUNY and the New York Public Library, have collectively proven more successful. Last year, a total 12,070 took the test in NYC, and 40.6 percent, or 4,900, passed. Mills admitted her numbers are low. “We need to see more people getting a high-school equivalency,” she said.