Students at the troubled William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens were falsely labeled as not fluent in English — to grant them extra time to finish last week’s Regents exams, The Post has learned.
More than 100 teens in one teacher’s English classes were recently marked “FELL,” for “former English language learner.” The label grants students exam “accommodations” up to two years after they test proficient on the New York state English as a Second Language Achievement Test.
But many students given extra time on the Regents exams are native English speakers, staffers said. Others had once taken English as a Second Language but became proficient long ago.
“I was born in New York. I grew up in this country. I speak perfect English,” said a senior at the Astoria school who took the English Regents exam on Thursday — and got an extra hour.
Her parents, of Italian and Spanish descent, were also born in the United States and grew up speaking English.
She said she speaks “a little bit of Italian — whatever I can learn from my grandmother.”
So the senior was surprised to find herself on a list of many students given extra time to complete the normally three-hour Regents exam, which is required for graduation.
“I was rushing to finish when the proctor approached me and said, ‘Relax, take your time, you have extra time,’ ” she recalled.
She didn’t question her good fortune.
“I used it to my advantage. I think any student would have,” she said.
She spent about 15 minutes completing an essay and going back to answer two multiple-choice questions she had gotten stuck on.
Other students in the room also got extra time.
“If I get a better grade, it will help me get into college,” she said. “On the other hand, it shouldn’t have happened. I don’t feel it’s fair at all.”
Student rosters dated in March list 110 of 154 students, or 71 percent, in one teacher’s classes as former English language learners. Almost none was so identified on rosters last October, records show.
Teachers suspect a scheme by Principal Namita Dwarka and her administrators.
“It may be a way to skew the Regents results, or skew the credit the school gets for graduating these students,” a teacher wrote to the city’s Special Commissioner of Investigation last week.
An SCI spokeswoman said the matter was referred to city and state education officials.
Dwarka referred inquiries to the city Department of Education press office, which cited state policy on accommodations.
A Bryant teacher who checked records for a sample 25 students marked “FELL” found that eight never took English as a Second Language. The others all tested proficient on the state test well over two years ago — some as early as 2005.
Staffers have begged the chancellor’s office to take action at Bryant. About 200 students, teachers and parents protested outside the school last week, with some carrying signs that read, “Dwarka must go.”