By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY
Detroit Free Press Education Writer


Marjorie Pasqualle, a teacher for 9 1/2 years in Detroit PublicSchools, expected her sixth- and seventh-graders to have self-control. And more important, she expected administrators to enforce consequences for the poor behavior she reported.

Such as the students who cursed her and disregarded her instructions. Such as the student who profanely asked her to perform oral sex on him.

Instead, after more than a year of struggling to gain control of unruliness in her science classes at Durfee Elementary, she faced termination for what her bosses called an inability to "impart knowledge" and unsatisfactory "manner and efficacy of student discipline."

So she retired in July.

"They said I was a horrible teacher," Pasqualle said.

But that doesn't justify her students' grades being changed, she said.
Pasqualle gave 94 of her 137 science students D's or F's in June. However, poor grades were changed to C's on student records, a Free Press review of report cards and computerized documents shows.

Pasqualle's story -- that she was pushed out and her students passed -- is not surprising to DPS teachers. In the face of tremendous odds -- such as low parent involvement and low academic performance -- teachers who fail a lot of students often face questions from principals and administrators who are under pressure to improve student achievement rates, teachers say.

"I did get called down to the office ... but I wasn't the only one. It was a lot of us," said Karanji Kaduma, a science teacher at Denby High School who gave D's and F's to dozens of students last fall. His principal asked him to explain -- but not change -- his failing grades.

"It can't all be on the teachers. The problem has so many causes. But you can't just change the grades," he said.



Continued at: http://www.freep.com/article/2011021...S-teacher-says