An assistant principal at John Adams HS in Ozone Park, Queens, is accused of helping students on a Regents exam — on which nearly everyone in the class got almost all the answers correct, The Post has learned.
The alleged test tampering last summer — and more suspicious Regents results in January — came to light only after a whistleblower sent an anonymous letter in April to New York state’s top education official, Merryl Tisch, who referred it to the city.
It’s the latest of several cheating scandals among 94 low-performing “Renewal” schools that Mayor de Blasio vows to fix with an extra $400 million over three years. In addition, the state Education Department has designated John Adams “out of time,” meaning it must take drastic action to improve.
During the Regents exam in August 2014, Breina Lampert, John Adams’ assistant principal for English as a Second Language, and ESL teacher Solomon Choudhury entered Room 249 while students were taking the test under the supervision of proctors, the letter said.
The two stayed in the room for about 90 minutes, a witness who spoke to The Post confirmed.
Afterward, a report listing how each student answered the multiple-choice questions showed that almost everyone in the room got No. 17 wrong — but nearly all the other answers right, the witness confirmed.
“It’s a good thing that Mrs. Lampert came to our room to help us,” one student was overheard telling another, the whistleblower wrote.
Then-assistant principal for security Adam Landman reported the apparent breach of protocol to principal Daniel Scanlon, who “chose to ignore” it, the whistleblower said.
Instead, the principal transferred Landman to supervise an annex for ninth-graders several miles away.
John Adams teachers reportedly scored the exams, despite rules forbidding teachers to grade tests from their own schools.
In the second incident last January, students sitting closely in overcrowded English exam rooms shared answers, the whistleblower wrote. This time, outside graders noted “too many similarities” and refused to count the scores. Students had to retake the exam in June.
This month, Lampert took 60 to 70 students — in summer school because of failing grades — on a bus trip into Manhattan to see Tom Cruise’s latest “Mission: Impossible” flick, a staffer said.
DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye would not answer any questions but said the alleged test tampering is under investigation.
Lampert and Scanlon could not be reached for comment.