Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Sounds like there is plenty of failure to go around. Why is this allowed to happen in Baltimore, or any city in America?
What was the average GPA in that school before the Covid shutdown? Does anyone see a reason for schools to reopen?
Ditto. This is just plain wicked.
Plenty of blame to go around, from the student himself (absent or late to class nearly 300 days and presumably failed to bring up his grades to the mother) to the mother (I get that she's working three jobs as a single mother, but did you really let three years pass without demanding to see your son's report cards?) to the school system (shame on them for promoting this kid when he clearly was not up to standards). Sadly, this is the state of education for far too many in public schools, particularly in the inner cities
Yup.
... because prior to her Baltimore students were the poster kids for educational excellence, right?
ROFLMAO, smarty pants.
There was an HBO documentary done years ago called Hard Times at Douglass High. It showed a year in a Baltimore high school. They've had problems long before Betsy DeVos showed up, and I predict they will continue.
They COULDN'T pass him out, and apparently they knew it all along. He hadn't accrued enough credits, even from freshman year to move forward.
That school staff knew, that most of the class would not graduate although they kept moving them through the system. He was set to not graduate, 3 years ago, as were half his classmates.
Bizarre.
When you view the mother's interview and the reporter's statements, and the district admin's comments agreeing with the mom, you get the picture. Although her son wasn't doing well grade wise, he was still being promoted - from Algebra l to Algebra ll, from Spanish l to Spanish ll - indicating he was being given credit for the earlier classes despite his low grades.
That does NOT happen in my school district. You don't go to Spanish ll after having failed Spanish l, etc.
The good news is, he's now been placed in a magnet school with an accelerated curriculum and if he works hard and sticks with it, he'll have a diploma in 2023 instead of 2025 which is what he was facing. And his mother, as distracted as she is, with 3 jobs and 3 children and no apparent husband, seems capable of supporting him through that.
Yep. Promoting people without merit still requires you to pass the class. Many districts also have attendance mandates as well. I know when I was teaching, the maximum was something like 6 unexcused a semester.
These days people use their cell phones for everything. They can set them up to block unknown numbers, so it’s possible that the mother never got the calls. It’s also possible that she switched her number and the calls were going somewhere else entirely. I work in a job where I have to make outgoing calls to people who should want contact from where I work, but so many of the numbers are out of service, a wrong number, or have full mailboxes.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 8 days ago)
35,633 posts, read 17,968,125 times
Reputation: 50655
Okay, finally, this makes sense.
Up until last year, Augusta Fells was graduating half the senior classes, even though they were failing abysmally. In 2019 2 were proficient in math, 2 in Language Arts, although the class was about 150 students.
Then, when FoxNews developed an investigative initiative called Project Baltimore and shone the light on this practice, they had to stop it.
Along comes Tiffany France's son, expecting to follow that same path of showing up the majority of days, and expecting to graduate, as of course he would. He's seen that's the pattern. That's enough for a diploma at Augusta Fells.
But this year, with the glare of Fox News spotlight on Augusta Fells for DOING this illegal practice, of graduating classes who hadn't passed anything, he's the first class that won't receive a diploma.
I would like to see criminal charges filed here. This school was getting 5.3 million for about 440 students, and almost 0 of them are getting an education.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 8 days ago)
35,633 posts, read 17,968,125 times
Reputation: 50655
Here's their rating on "GreatSchools", which is a really helpful, clear snapshot of a school's performance.
They get a 1 out of 10. I've never seen a school rank so low.
The website notes that they graduate 58% of the students but has a warning in their "very concerning" notes: (Remember: high graduation rates don't mean much if students are graduating without the coursework and test scores they need to succeed.)
If GreatSchools knows all this - why didn't the Baltimore school district know it? "Very concerning", indeed. Fox News should get a Pulitzer for this reporting.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 8 days ago)
35,633 posts, read 17,968,125 times
Reputation: 50655
Hmm. Looking further into this, it's hard to see why they're picking on Augusta Fells. There are 4 other schools in the exact same boat, all 1s, with the same level of mastery of the curriculum and absenteeism.
Then there are several 2's. There are only 2 schools in the entire district that are acceptable with ratings of an 8 and a 7.
But then to be fair, George McMechen, a 1 school, is only graduating 5% of their students. So while they're no better at educating them, they don't compound that failure by giving the failing students diplomas.
Not to split hairs, but that looks like a series done by a local Fox affiliate in Baltimore, which is separate from Fox News. I just don't want the "Fox News/Betsy DeVos Hater" crowd to get the wrong idea. The practice of schools standing by while kids fail is wrong no matter who does the reporting on it.
Location: Unlike most on CD, I'm not afraid to give my location: Milwaukee, WI.
1,789 posts, read 4,154,552 times
Reputation: 4092
Read the article, saw the pics...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
