Lakechea Melvin was stunned when a student walked up after Christmas break and thanked her for the C he got in a computer business class.
Melvin was sure she had given him an F. So she logged into the district's electronic grade book, then gasped. ''For every kid I gave an F, the principal overrided it to a C,'' said Melvin, who has three years of teaching experience and was in her first year at Charles Drew Middle School in Liberty City. She said that more than 100 D's and F's had been changed for students in seven of her classes. ''I was never notified that my grades were being changed and never consulted,'' Melvin said.
When Melvin asked about the changes, she said, principal Gwen Coverson told her "there was no way I was going to fail her kids in a business class.''
Coverson, through her secretary, referred questions to district officials, who said Coverson told them she can substantiate the changes. Melvin is one of five teachers at Drew Middle who told The Miami Herald that administrators at the school have changed their grades without proper authorization. They offered dozens of documents -- grade sheets, failure notices and change-of-grade forms -- to support their claims. Following inquiries from the newspaper last week, Miami-Dade school district officials launched an investigation into the complaints. It is ongoing.
''These are very serious allegations, and the district is not taking them lightly,'' said district spokesman Joseph Garcia. Principals are permitted to override a teacher's grade for several reasons, but they must consult with the teacher.
Robert Morris, a 10-year veteran teacher, said he also had a problem with his grades being changed in March by Drew administrators. Like Melvin, he said he discovered by chance that about 50 of his F and D grades were changed to C's for the third semester. ''If I didn't see my student's report card, I would have never known my grades were changed,'' he said. "I wasn't going to allow them to just change my grades and pass students who didn't earn it.'' Morris complained to the teachers union, which set up a meeting with Coverson. According to district officials, Coverson said she authorized the grade overrides because Morris did not turn in required failure-notice forms -- explanations of why a student is getting an F or D -- that are sent to the parents and the school counselor.
Morris insisted that he had and produced copies of the notices. Coverson agreed to switch the grades back. An assistant principal asked him to sign off a change-of-grade form, Morris said. He said no. ''I believe she has asked me to sign the grade-change form so that it will look like I agreed with the grade change,'' he said. Morris showed The Miami Herald dozens of grade-change forms that he had refused to sign. Melvin's complaints are also under review by the district. Documents she provided to the newspaper focused on the second semester, which ended Dec. 21, but she said the grade changes occurred in every semester without her knowledge.
According to Garcia, Coverson said that Melvin "did not submit mandatory failure notices in any of the nine-week grading periods.'' In addition, Garcia said after talking with Coverson, "her grades were changed because, in the professional judgment of the principal, Ms. Melvin was not in a position to render grades on students she was largely not present to teach.'' Melvin told The Miami Herald that her attendance was nearly perfect for most of the year and slacked off only at the end of the year because of what she found to be an "abusive atmosphere caused by Coverson.'' Regarding the failure notices, Melvin alleged that Coverson ignored her request to look in the counselor's office, where the school's copies are kept, she said. ''She said she didn't have time to look for any failure notices,'' Melvin said.
Garcia said the district has not determined whether Coverson violated the grade-change policy. ''Coverson says she has the paperwork to substantiate any grade change and is providing it to the Region III'' office, he said. He said that while Coverson did not perform the actual grade changes, she authorized the assistant principal to do so. Melvin said she, too, has paperwork. She showed the newspaper more than 100 copies of failure notices signed by students that they were supposed to take home. The notices were dated between Nov. 18 and Nov. 21, a month before the end of the second grading period. The documents included a host of reasons that a student was getting a failing grade in one of Melvin's business classes:
• Does not complete assignments.
• Does not bring materials to class.
• Does not complete home learning assignments.
• Poor test scores.
• Frequent absences.
''I gave the students the grade they deserved because many of them weren't even showing up to class,'' Melvin said. Upon learning about the failure forms from The Miami Herald, Garcia said: "I hear that you have the notices. . . . That's compelling.'' In addition, Melvin said she sent out interim progress reports earlier in the semester to warn students that they were doing poorly. ''The failure notices are a second notice sent to parents as a courtesy,'' she said.
When asked what criteria are used to determine a student's grade on an override, Garcia said the district leaves it to the principal's discretion.
''The principal is the person who in the end is responsible at that school, and she gets to make that call in the case where a teacher is unable to,'' he said. "Somebody has to give those kids grades.'' Three other Drew teachers also complained that their grades had been changed without their knowledge. But they did not provide The Miami Herald with the documentation that Morris and Melvin did. The five teachers said they were so frustrated that they decided to go public. Coverson has been ''changing grades every year,'' said social studies teacher Tammie Thurman. "We only find out what happened when we see a student promoted that we gave an F to.'' "Sometimes you hear the students bragging, `I got an A!' when you know you gave them an F,'' said language arts teacher Tiffani Lawson. ''It's pretty much expected that [Coverson] will change your grades,'' math teacher Thomas Harper said with a sigh. "People have just gotten used to it. The kids even throw it in your face.''
The teachers allege that teachers who don't comply with the grade changes are threatened or harassed, such as being assigned to the most disruptive classes. Teachers at other schools have also spoken out about feeling pressured to change grades. Last month, several teachers at Miami Springs Middle School complained that their principal called an emergency faculty meeting to urge them ``to shorten the failure list.'' Principal Gail Quigley said she held a faculty meeting to discuss grades but strongly denied telling teachers to pass failing students.
At Drew Middle, Lawson said teachers have heard similar requests. ``The principal says she wants shorter failure lists, and when we don't shorten them, she just goes in the computer and changes the grades.'' The Drew teachers say there is low morale among faculty members and apathy among students. ''It's just discouraging,'' Melvin said. "I'm not sure if I even want to teach next year. The students aren't motivated to work hard because they know they'll pass anyway.'' (excerpt from Miami Herald-by Peter Bailey)
What a typical crock of corruption from the Miami-Dade School Board. The School Board has the Principals changing failing grades in order to give the appearance that the kids are making progress. According to the newspaper, this is going on in more than one school, and it is probably the result of pressure that is coming down from the top rungs of the festering pile of corrupt trash known as the Miami-Dade School Board.
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