Metro

NYC’s high school equivalency program is a complete boondoggle

For adults seeking a high-school equivalency diploma through the city Department of Education, your odds are slim to none.

Despite a $52 million budget last fiscal year, the DOE’s Office of Adult and Continuing Education, OACE, says it awarded only 150 diplomas — less than half as many as the year before.

The lame results alarm City Councilman Daniel Dromm, chairman of the education committee, who held a hearing on adult-ed in September after a Post report.

Daniel DrommErik Thomas

“These students are people looking to the DOE to give them a chance of success in life. We can’t crush their dreams,” Dromm said Friday.

The DOE enrolls about 28,700 students age 21 and up who failed or dropped out of high school, or came to America with few English skills. They need a HS equivalency diploma to enter community college or land a stable job.

Insiders blame the failure on “gross mismanagement” by OACE Superintendent Rose-Marie Mills. Instead of focusing on teacher training and curriculum, she demands excessive “post-testing” as soon as after 12 hours of instruction to gauge student gains.

The data gives the program an inflated rating by the state, but does not prepare students for the Test Assessing Secondary Completion (TASC), which students must pass to graduate.

Administrators also put up roadblocks to take the TASC to avoid a high failure rate, they said.

“It seems there is a strategy to make the numbers look much better, and real-life outcomes be damned,” a veteran teacher said.

Stephanie Carrasquillo, 36, entered the DOE program in 2014 after having a baby at age 18, and hopes to attend CUNY to study business.

Stephanie Carrasquillo

“I go to class. I learn. Nobody schedules me to take the test. I feel like I’m ready. I’ve been doing this for so long, it’s time already!” she said. Now a mom of two, she is finally set to take the exam in January — in a different adult-ed program.

Since the state switched from the GED exam to the more rigorous TASC in 2014, the number of New Yorkers taking and passing the exam has declined. The test has sections on math, reading, writing, social studies and science.

The DOE says 163 adults in its programs took the TASC last year, and 150 passed. In FY 2015, 316 adults took it and 299 passed.

By calendar years, the state Education Department counts even fewer diplomas through OACE — 60 in 2016, down from 69 in 2015.

The DOE defended the program, saying it is rated “highly proficient” with 71 percent of students showing growth last year. About one percent enter at the level required to take the final exam, a spokesman said.

But that’s no excuse for abysmal results, Dromm said: “When it comes to children, the DOE says we have to meet them at their level and bring them up. The same standards should apply to adults.”

About two dozen other city nonprofits and agencies, including CUNY, offer adult-ed classes — many with better results. For instance, in the Queensborough Public Library program, which enrolls about 1,500 adults, 450 took the exam last year and 286 passed.