COMIC RELIEF: Kids at the Theatre Arts Production Company HS in The Bronx say they laughed when principal Lynn Passarella (above) announced that the school was ranked best in the city.
The city’s highest-rated school is being investigated for its “nonfailing policy” that makes it so easy for students to pass a class that kids say even a caveman could do it, The Post has learned.
The Department of Education is probing to see if the Theatre Arts Production Company HS in The Bronx attained its starred-ranking by fudging student grades.
“This week, my average is a 30; in three days I can bring it up to a 95,” boasted one senior who didn’t want his name published.
“The teachers will give you sheets that are already filled out, and you can just copy them. It’s for the school so it doesn’t look bad with failing grades.”
The senior added that when principal Lynn Passarella announced over the loudspeaker last fall that the school had ranked first on the city’s A-through-F progress-report ratings, “we all started laughing. We all know it’s a bad school.”
But several current and former students said those complaints exaggerated what was essentially a second-chance policy for kids who struggled because of academic or home-life issues.
“I was in that predicament once. I was failing a science class. I explained why I was failing, and I was given a chance to make it up,” said Nayshadin Stokes, 18, a graduate who returned to take part in the after-school theater program.
“I had to do a lot of work — all the work I should have done — in a short amount of time,” he added.
A teacher also emphasized that the options to make up for a failing grade had limits.
“The kids are given every opportunity to turn their grades around . . . but there is a time frame,” he said. “It’s not like it’s open-ended.”
Passarella — who has been credited with expanding the Theatre Arts Production Company from a successful middle school to a high-performing high school that graduated more than 93 percent of its students over the past two years — declined to comment on the record.
Department officials would only confirm that a probe of the Claremont school was in its early stages.
Yesterday, several students who were asked about the school’s grading practices said the off-the-chart results were too good to be true.
“This school is mad easy. I don’t even bring textbooks home,” said Tunisia Timmons, 16.
“The nonfailing policy is taking away our education, in a way,” added Rafael Salazar, 17. “If we could just go in and sit there in a classroom and they’ll pass us, it doesn’t help prepare us.”