We were a classroom full of underachievers.

The bright but aloof teenager who failed chemistry because he skipped nearly an entire semester. The bespectacled girl who consistently came to class an hour late and rarely wrote anything down because she took notes “with my mind.”

And then there was me, a Toronto Star reporter posing as a summer school student upgrading her Grade 12 chemistry mark so she could apply for nursing college. I was a mediocre pupil at best: I barely studied, never handed in homework and failed most of my tests.

But after completing a four-week, watered-down chemistry course at a private high school called Toronto Collegiate Institute, or TCI, the three of us walked away with marks we wanted — but did not deserve.

For the month of July, I spent four hours a day in a Scarborough classroom as part of a Star investigation into alleged high school “credit mills,” a growing problem in Ontario where private schools are essentially handing out credits and grades for a fee.

• How Star reporter went undercover as a student

What I observed was troubling: a credit course scheduled for 84 hours of classroom time instead of the 110 minimum required by the Ministry of Education; a teacher assisting students on tests or revealing questions beforehand; a struggling student permitted to rewrite tests she failed, open book; a student granted his credit after registering late and attending only the last week of the class.

Since 2009, the Ministry of Education has received dozens of complaints about private schools inflating marks — at least three were about TCI. One complaint filed by a guidance counsellor last year involved an R.H. King Academy student who had math marks ranging from 28 per cent to 57 per cent. That student went to TCI for Grade 12 calculus and scored 84 per cent.

The ministry is responsible for inspecting private schools but oversight is lax. According to documents obtained through freedom of information requests, TCI was inspected at least four times between 2005 and 2009 and consistently failed to assess and evaluate students in accordance with provincial standards.

Nevertheless, the Scarborough school was allowed to continue operating and granting credits. Between 2005 and 2009, at least 651 students have obtained high school credits from TCI.

In an interview with the Star, the school director, Sivam Mahalingam, said he is committed to improving the quality of education being offered at TCI, which is still a relatively new school.

He admitted to breaching provincial rules by offering a chemistry course 26 hours short of the ministry requirement. Mahalingam said he decided to shorten the course because summer students “can’t stay that long” and the teacher taught two subjects back-to-back and was “tired.”

But on the question of mark inflation, Mahalingam flatly denied that his school was giving students an easy ride.

“We don’t just pass the student, no,” he said. “It’s not (like) we are for easy marks, no, we don’t do that.”

But in my class this summer, the boy who failed chemistry at his regular high school emerged from TCI with a glowing mark of 88 per cent. The bespectacled girl — who had a 20 per cent average going into her final exam at TCI — received a final grade of 75 per cent, a mark that was mathematically impossible.

My final mark also defied mathematical logic. Going into my final exam, I had a middling 60 per cent average. I was told my final exam would be worth 30 per cent of my overall grade — that means the highest mark I could hope for was 72, but I would have to get a perfect score on my final exam.

I did not score perfect on my final exam. Yet, I wound up receiving a final chemistry mark of 72 per cent anyway — and then, the teacher arbitrarily boosted that by another 13 percentage points.

My final grade: 85 per cent.

It didn’t take much for me to be accepted as a student at TCI. All I had to do was hand over a doctored high school transcript, $500 in cash (plus a $50 registration fee) and another $35 for a photocopied, ring-bound textbook.

Although the ministry requires private schools to verify students’ identities, I did not provide any proof of identification to Mahalingam. He asked me to bring it in at a later date but I never did and he never followed up.

TCI is located in a scrubby business plaza at 50 Weybright Court, near Midland and Sheppard Aves. The Scarborough school is primarily attended by South Asian students, many who say they know Mahalingam — or Sivaji, as students call him — through friends or relatives.

The 39-year-old said he got into the teaching business because he wanted to help students perform better in school. He mentioned a gang problem within the Tamil community and said TCI has helped troubled youth graduate high school and go on to college or university.

Mahalingam said he is a University of Ottawa-trained engineer but began a tutoring service in 2002, which eventually became TCI. He said he is always looking to improve his school so he enrolled in teacher’s college at Oshawa’s University of Ontario Institute of Technology, graduating with distinction just this year.

These days at TCI, business is booming. In the summer of 2006, its first term as a credit-granting school, TCI had just 18 students, according to ministry inspection reports. By the 2008-2009 school year, there were 250.

Summer sessions have fewer students and my class was small, with only nine other students in my chemistry course. The school has four classrooms, with larger rooms partitioned by curtains to create more teaching space. Security cameras are mounted in classrooms, where students sit at fold-out tables under neon lights.

Mahalingam is like a pied piper for slackers craving an easy grade. Struggling students flock to TCI because they know it will be drastically easier than their regular high schools. One of my classmates — a recent high school graduate upgrading his chemistry mark — said he heard about TCI from two friends who took their entire Grade 12 course load there. He said one went on to be accepted at the University of Waterloo and the other got into the University of Toronto.

Because TCI has a reputation for being a cakewalk, there is an expectation amongst students that they will get their money’s worth. “Why would I pay all that money to get a 75? Then I would just take (the course) in (public) school,” said one female student in my class.

Another classmate bemoaned the $500-per-course price tag but said the effortless marks make TCI worthwhile.

“It’s easier, way easier,” she said. “That’s why everybody comes here. (We) don’t even look at the five (hundred dollar) bills.”

This student confessed she does feel guilty because her cash-strapped family has already forked over $3,000 for six courses at TCI. Her family resorted to paying for her education because she “screwed up” in public school, she said.

But even at TCI, she exerted minimal effort, failing all of her unit tests this summer. Her lack of trying did not translate to a failing report card, however — this is the same bespectacled student who ultimately scored 75 per cent in chemistry, a mark that puts her in a competitive enough position for the university health-care programs she’s been eyeing.

She said the teacher helped boost her mark by letting her rewrite the tests she failed, open book — meaning, the second time around, she was allowed to consult her notes and textbook.

Mahalingam said TCI employs about 10 teachers, with starting wages at $20 an hour. He claimed his teachers are all accredited by the Ontario College of Teachers but would not provide a list of his staff.

My Chemistry 12 teacher, Martina Rodrigues, said she only began teaching at TCI in the last school year. But amongst students, she already has a reputation for being one of the toughest teachers, mainly because she emphasizes attendance and prohibits talking during class.

According to the Ontario College of Teachers’ website, Rodrigues has a master of science from India, as well as a teaching degree and doctorate in philosophy.

She knows her material well and appears to genuinely care about her students.

But Rodrigues repeatedly reassured us she would do whatever she could to help us get our marks up. She said she wanted everyone to “love the subject” and would feel guilty giving poor grades to students who tried hard.

“Even if a student doesn’t deserve a mark, I’ll give it because I feel bad,” she told the class once. “I see you guys working. But I can’t change an answer to give you a mark. That’s cheating.”

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Instead, Rodrigues accommodated us in other ways. Her exam questions were exceedingly easy. Mid-test, she added bonus questions to pump up marks or allowed us to skip over certain questions we found too difficult.

Rodrigues also gave “review” sessions an hour before each test, revealing several questions that would be asked and giving students time to quickly prepare for them before she handed out test papers.

“Is there nuclear fusion on the sun?” she asked once, urging everyone to find the answer in our textbooks before we began writing our tests. That question appeared on the test.

Prior to our final exam, Rodrigues urged us to quickly study the differences in the structures of ammonia and water molecules. A major question later appeared on the exam, worth several points, testing us on the differences in the structures of ammonia and water molecules.

“Oh my God, I am such a bad teacher, giving you the questions,” Rodrigues said, looking pained.

Rodrigues explicitly assisted me on several questions during my final exam as well. She discreetly pointed to a correct multiple choice answer, gave me the answer to a true or false question, supplied me with an equation I needed and checked over my calculations. I also saw her giving step-by-step instructions to my seatmate on how to solve a long-answer problem.

At the end of the course, Rodrigues met with students individually to discuss our marks. I had previously said to her that I hoped for at least an 80 per cent overall; she assured me she would try her best as long as I “worked my butt off” for the final exam.

During our last meeting, Rodrigues told me I had “earned” a 72 per cent but she would boost my grade by another 13 percentage points.

“I’m going to bump it up,” she said, urging me not to tell the other students about her favour. “I’m adding marks to this because you’ve done well.”

Rodrigues implied that she received authorization from Mahalingam to raise my grade. “That is what he is telling me, that you and (another student in class) can get up,” she said.

Repeated attempts to reach Rodrigues after the course ended were unsuccessful.

In a follow-up interview, Mahalingam said the reason I received 13 additional points was because I was a college-bound student who had completed a chemistry class designed to prepare students for university. He said Rodrigues made the judgment call to grant me the extra marks based on my “performance” and as a reward for completing a more difficult course.

According to my classmates who have taken multiple courses at TCI, other teachers are even more lenient than Rodrigues. One girl said a past teacher slept during tests or left the classroom, thus allowing students to cheat easily. Another classmate gloated about his math teacher answering entire exam questions for him; that same teacher ended the class one week early because he wanted to go on vacation, the student said.

Mahalingam said he has faith in his staff and was unaware of these allegations until now.

“It didn’t come to my attention,” he said. “Definitely I will take action.”

In an interview with Star reporter Robert Cribb, Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky acknowledged the need to ensure the integrity of credits being granted by private schools. When informed of the inappropriate grades I received at TCI, she said it “would be very troubling” for such back-room mark inflation to occur.

“It would be a very dangerous process to employ,” Dombrowsky said. “The concern I have (is) for those students and for the family who, in good faith, would expect that the marks they receive would, in fact, be the marks they have earned.”

According to R.H. King Academy teacher Jennifer Wilson, increasing numbers of students at her school are turning to private institutions like TCI to boost their grades. The veteran high school chemistry teacher said she was “shocked” to hear that Grade 12 chemistry credits were being granted to students who spent just 84 hours in a classroom.

Wilson said credit mills are unfair because they take university spots or scholarships away from more deserving students. At TCI this summer, one of my male classmates took Chemistry 12 to hang on to an athletics scholarship to a Toronto-area university. He said he had to upgrade his chemistry mark by 10 per cent or his university offer would be forfeited to another applicant.

The student enrolled at TCI on July 20, with just one week remaining in the course. He said the school allowed him to waive the tests he missed, meaning he only wrote one test and a final exam to complete the course.

Mahalingam confirmed this student received his credit but would not disclose his final mark. He said that because the student was upgrading his chemistry mark, it was permissible for him to show up to just half the classes. Mahalingam also claimed the student compensated for the time he missed by coming to school in the mornings and studying chemistry at the back of Rodrigues’ classroom while she taught a biology course.

Many educators believe the real harm of these so-called credit mills is inflicted upon the students who attend them. They worry that young people are being sent to university woefully unprepared and imbued with a distorted sense of their own capabilities.

At TCI, there is a school motto listed on its flyers and website. It reads: “You are smarter than you think!”

With files from Robert Cribb