Three more McKinley teachers say Dr. Abraham changed grades to boost graduation rate
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Three more McKinley High School teachers are coming forward with allegations that a former principal changed students’ grades in order to improve the graduation rate during his tenure.
We first told you about the allegations of grade fraud against Dr. Marck Abraham last week.
Abraham has since written a book about increasing the graduation rate among males of color and speaks at schools around the country.
“It’s a scam,” said Don Gile, a former teacher at McKinley.
“It’s a game of perception. He goes out there and lets people perceive that he was this great administrator. He was awful.”
Gile didn’t want to show his face on camera, but he’s letting us use his name.
A former carpenter turned teacher, Gile taught carpentry classes as part of McKinley High School’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program for nearly 20 years before retiring in 2018.
During the 2017-2018 school year, Gile says then-principal, Dr. Marck Abraham changed an entire senior classes’ grades, including giving 95s to failing students.
Gile confronted Dr. Abraham about changing the grades in a meeting with his supervisor and the union representative at the time.
“I said, ‘You have no right to change my grades.’ He said, ‘I’m the principal. I have principal’s privilege to change the grades.’”
Another teacher, who didn’t want to be identified because he still teaches English classes at the school, says Dr. Abraham didn’t directly change grades for his classes, but he regularly put pressure on him to increase the passing rate for one of the classes, which was then 75 percent, to 85 percent.
“He never said ‘I’ll outrightly change your grades, but he said 85 percent was the passing rate that I want,’ and he would constantly hit you with that.’”
A third teacher, who also wants to remain anonymous, says Dr. Abraham asked him to increase the grades of a handful students in his music class who were barely passing, stopping by his classroom to ask him this:
“Will you move his grade up to 70 or 75? He needs more points.”
In January 2018, more than 60 percent of the McKinley teachers took a vote of no confidence in Dr. Abraham but then Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash backed him, and he remained the schools’ principal until June 2020.
In July 2021, Dr. Abraham came out with a book about how he allegedly increased the graduation rate for males of color at McKinley, from 60 percent to 93 percent during his tenure, an accomplishment he denies changing grades to achieve.
“That is completely false,” Dr. Abraham said to Fox Buffalo’s Emily Girsch.
But teachers say they know the truth.
“I don’t know what’s true in that book other than the pages it’s written on,” said a teacher.
“He’s the only one he’s fooling,” said Gile.
“We all know he didn’t do a good job. We all know what we went through. We all took a vote of no confidence in him.”
The teachers we spoke with tell us the district has called them this week about the allegations.
We’ve also sent FOIL requests to both Buffalo Public Schools and the New York State Department of Education to see if an investigation into the allegations of grade fraud have been conducted at either level.
We’ve also reached out to the publishing company for Dr. Abraham’s book, Rowman & Littlefield, to learn about their process for vetting clients prior to publishing their work.
We are waiting to hear back from all parties.