Teachers are accusing higher-ups at New York City’s Flushing High School are forcing them to pass students who are failing math classes.
Educators at the school claim students are being given passing grades despite being chronically absent, failing to turn in homework or participate in class activities and regularly failing tests, including state exams, three teachers told QNS on the condition of anonymity. Despite this, the teachers are required to hand the students passing grades.
Only about 30% of students passed the New York State Regents Exams the previous academic year, yet 70% are pushed towards graduation anyway, the teachers claimed.
“It just seems like expectations have become lower,” one teacher told QNS. “It’s becoming easier to get a passing grade just based on what the administration expects teachers to be doing.”
The city’s education department announced in an email to QNS that it had opened an investigation into the issue on Jan. 5.
“At New York City Public Schools, rigorous academic instruction is a top priority,” New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) told QNS. “To support this, we have a robust, publicly available grading toolkit that schools use to create their individual grading policy.”
Flushing and NYCPS did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Teacher Denise Severing congratulates a child during a math lesson at the federally-funded Head Start school on September 20, 2012 in Woodbourne, New York. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Flushing teachers are worried the grading policy is setting a poor example for others, noting that students who put in effort are often discouraged, knowing their peers will receive similar grades without much work.
“Students have mentioned that it’s not fair that they’re trying and then they see classmates show up half the time and have nearly an equivalent grade,” a teacher told QNS. “They get frustrated, which will then demotivate them from doing work because they think it’s an unfair policy.”
In alignment with the Flushing math department’s grading policy, even students who earn a one for class participation on a zero-to-four scale will earn a passing grade of 65. Students who earn a zero for attending class but not participating still earn a 55, and students who fail to even attend class receive a 45, according to a December 2024 guide obtained by QNS.
Some teachers suggested that one factor that may be influencing the school’s chronic absenteeism is its majority Hispanic population, positing that some students’ parents may not speak English well enough to understand the issues their children are having or the school’s schedule and attendance policy. (RELATED: Soaring Levels Of Non-English Speaking Students May Be Driving National Reading Test Scores Into Ground)
The school’s “mastery grading policy” used in the 2024-2025 academic year gave students multiple opportunities to complete assignments until they received a 100, allowing them to simply do in-class test corrections after initially getting a poor grade, and did not include any assignments that did not get a 100 towards a student’s final grade. Teachers pointed out that this meant students only had to receive a 100 on a single assignment to pass the class, and the standard was dropped the following year, QNS reported.
Students were also not penalized for late or incomplete work.
The latest grading policy still allows students who get less than half of the answers correct on an assessment to receive a 55, according to an October 2025 email obtained by QNS. Answering 50% or more questions correctly would be met with a passing grade.
“Every effort students make is a step towards growth,” the grading rubric stated while warning teachers that students may put in little effort.
The lowest grade a student can earn in any category is a 55%.
Teachers who failed students were forced to justify it by detailing the steps taken to improve the student’s grade, and sometimes, they would then be placed on Teacher Improvement Plans.
“It’s often seen as a punishment,” one teacher told QNS. “Administration is more worried about numbers than actual teaching accountability. They make claims they want students to be college-ready, but when we try to do that, they chastise, penalize, and make teachers’ lives miserable.”
Teachers who tried to raise their concerns with school administration were told simply to pass students who come to class, even if they complete no work, QNS wrote. Talks with parents, teachers’ unions, guidance counselors and school officials have yielded zero results in changing these policies.
“We want them to be proactive and take a role in their education,” one teacher said to QNS. “I feel like it’s going to be a complete disaster in the future when these same students act like this in the real world.”
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