Ex-H.S. dept. chair cleared

But Theresa Capra, a former H. Frank Carey High School social studies department chairwoman, was vindicated last month when the special commissioner of investigations for the New York City School District cleared her of any wrongdoing.
The 67-page report from the commissioner, Richard Condon, released June 26, found that Capra's accuser, teacher Philip Nobile, was allowed by the New York City Department of Education's chief investigator, Louis Scarcella, to direct the investigation into Nobile's claims that social studies Regents exam grades had been changed in 2002 and 2003 without a rereading of the exams, and that Capra instructed teachers to inflate grades while she worked at the Cobble Hill High School of American Studies in Brooklyn. The report cleared Capra and then-Cobble Hill Principal Lennel George.
Shortly after the DOE investigation began in the spring of 2004, Capra was hired by the Sewanhaka school district. In July 2005, she resigned from Carey to "devote herself full time to defending herself against those allegations," then-Sewanhaka Superintendent Dr. John Williams said at the time. After Capra's resignation, a committee comprising social studies experts, department chairs and retired chairs combed through social studies Regents tests taken in 2005 by Carey students, and found no abnormalities in the grading.
In an interview with the Herald last week, Capra said that neither Carey nor Sewanhaka district officials listened to her side of the story after they learned she was being investigated, and that she was forced to resign. "I didn't get a chance to explain myself," she said. "I blame them because this was totally out of my character. They opened the safe and found zero abnormalities in the scoring, but they still twisted my arm and forced me to resign."
Capra said the school district even prepared her letter of resignation, which she signed. "The administrators weren't very sincere," she said. "They were more concerned with publicity and how the school looked than the truth. I was on vacation when the story broke. When I got back, it was like, 'OK, get in here so we can fire you.'"
Capra also said she received no support from district officials, but found that her fellow teachers in the social studies department, except for one, were behind her. Calls to several teachers were not returned. Superintendent Warren Meierdiercks, who was assistant superintendent for finance and operations under Williams, would not comment, saying the Capra case is a personnel matter.
According to Scarcella's 30-plus-page report, released in May 2005, Capra was accused by Cobble Hill social studies teacher Vincent Leardi of changing failing grades on the 2003 Global Studies Regents to passing marks, and that at least one exam was changed from the 50th percentile to the 70th percentile. Leardi also said he had personally changed grades below 65 to passing. As a result of his cooperation with investigators, Leardi avoided disciplinary action.
Nobile, a United Federation of Teachers chapter leader, said in the report that he was told by Capra in May of 2002 that students could get essay points for "old garbage" they wrote. Two other teachers said they were asked by Capra to "scrub," or inflate, scores in that fall's exams that fell just below the passing grade of 65.
Several Cobble Hill teachers interviewed for the investigator's report, however, said they never saw or heard Capra bumping up grades or instructing teachers to do so. Capra declined to be interviewed for the report, but in published reports she has denied wrongdoing.
According to Condon's June 26 report, in a Feb. 25, 2004, memo to George, Nobile claimed he witnessed Capra "direct the changing of Regents grades." Prior to the memo, Nobile, who was non-tenured, frequently complained about Capra to George, accusing her of "bias and cruelty."
George told his supervisor, Local Instructional Superintendent Kathy Pelles, about Nobile's allegations, and was directed by Pelles to speak with teachers, the report said. Over the next few weeks, George asked teachers about the exams Capra supervised. They denied Nobile's allegations that grades had been changed without a rereading of the exams, and also said that Capra did not instruct anyone to change grades.
According to the report, Nobile wrote another letter of complaint to George about Capra in March 2004. He also contacted the New York State Education Department and claimed that Capra had cheated.
A month later, Leardi, a Cobble Hill teacher out on health leave, wrote a letter accusing Capra of changing Regents grades. He brought a copy to school district officials, while Nobile dropped off a copy to George. The school district, Region 8, forwarded a copy of Leardi's letter to Condon, who referred the matter to Scarcella's Office of Special Investigation. Later that month, the state Board of Education sent a letter to Region 8 officials informing them that there would be an investigation of Nobile's allegations.
In late April 2004, Scarcella was assigned to the Cobble Hill case. His investigation concluded more than a year later with the 30-page closing report that concluded that Capra had tampered with Social Studies Regents exams in June 2002 and June 2003, and that she encouraged teachers in the social studies department to do the same in June 2003.
While Scarcella had been investigating Nobile's claims, Condon received a tip and embarked on his own, two-year investigation into Cobble Hill. "The review has included that the [Scarcella] investigation was flawed from its inception," Condon said in his report. "[Scarcella] was unsupervised and acted as an agent of a complainant. In reality, no witness provided credible evidence to support the accusations concerning Capra and George."
Condon's report went on to say that teachers who testified under oath, without representation or immunity, denied that they cheated or that they were instructed to by Capra. "There was no credible evidence in the investigative file to conclude that grade inflation by exam scorers occurred at Cobble Hill in 2002 and 2003," Condon's report read. "There was no credible evidence in the [Scarcella] investigative case file to conclude that Theresa Capra directed teachers to manipulate Regents scores."
Capra has worked outside education since leaving Carey to make ends meet, but receives no medical benefits or pension. George was cleared of wrongdoing in the Cobble Hill case in February, and is now at Metropolitan Corporate Academy High School in Brooklyn. Capra, who has also been cleared to teach again in city schools, said the city Department of Education owes her more than a job, and she is considering a lawsuit.
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