Posted on 09/21/2023 7:55:35 AM PDT by george76
BALTIMORE — The latest round of state test results is raising alarm in Baltimore City Schools. Project Baltimore found that 40% of Baltimore City high schools, where the state exam was given, did not have any students score proficient in math. Not one student.
“This is educational homicide,” said Jason Rodriguez, deputy director of People Empowered by the Struggle, a Baltimore-based nonprofit.
In 2021, the group held rallies calling on Baltimore City Schools CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises to resign over low test scores, falling graduation rates, and a lack of transparency. Now, after seeing what Project Baltimore discovered, Rodriguez is renewing those calls.
“There is no excuse,” he said. “We have a system that's just running rogue, and it starts at the top.”
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unredacted state test results for every school in Baltimore City through a source within the school system, and the results are hard to believe.
Students took the tests in the spring of 2023, just a few months ago. Project Baltimore found 13 Baltimore City high schools where not one student who took the state math test scored proficient in math. Not one student.
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Students took the tests in the spring of 2023, just a few months ago. Project Baltimore found 13 Baltimore City high schools where not one student who took the state math test scored proficient in math. Not one student.
Of the 32 high schools remaining, if 13 had zero students test proficient, that means 40% of Baltimore City high schools could not produce a single student doing math a grade level.
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But that’s not the only alarming finding we made. In those 13 high schools, 1,736 students took the test, and 1,295 students, or 74.5%, scored a one out of four. One is the lowest level, meaning those students were not even close to proficient.
Last school year, Baltimore City Schools received $1.6 billion from taxpayers, the most ever. The district also received $799 million in Covid relief funding from the federal government. And still, not a single student tested at 13 City high schools scored proficient on the state math test.
“So, it's not a funding issue. We're getting plenty of funding,” said Rodriguez.“I don't think money is the issue. I think accountability is the issue.”
Six years ago, in 2017, Project Baltimore produced a similar report, where we analyzed state test scores and found 13 City schools had zero students proficient in math. Many of the schools from 2017 are also on the 2023 list,
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“We're still dealing with these same issues year after year,” said Rodriguez. “It's just scary to me and alarming to me because we know that what's happening now, you know, it's just opening up the floodgates to the school-to-prison pipeline.”
City Schools will not do an interview to discuss these results
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“I'm beyond angry,” said Rodriguez. “This is why we've been calling for the resignation of the school CEO.”
It’s important to note that Project Baltimore is only able to report these test scores to the public because a source gave them to us.
When the state officially releases them later this month, the results will likely be heavily redacted, making it more difficult for parents to see how many schools are performing.
Earlier this year, the Maryland State Department of Education began further redacting state test scores after Project Baltimore reported on last year’s poor outcomes.
With State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury no longer seeking another term, Project Baltimore reached out to the State School Board, asking if it will reverse course and make more information available to the public. We were told the board has no comment.
PEST? They need a better title.
Finally, equality!
Now those racist employers can’t discriminate on the basis of math.
There’s no time for all that.
Everything’s about skin color and/or sex organs.
It would be interesting to see detailed attendance figures for the students.
I taught Algebra 1 in a school where darn near every student came to my class every day. A good half of those students didn’t miss more than one or two days all year.
I also taught Algebra 1 in a school where the average student attended class maybe three days a week. Some students only attended once a month, on bus pass day (if you’re in school on that day, you get a free monthly bus pass, good anywhere in the city). And I won’t even talk about the disruptive students.
Guess which school scored higher on standardized algebra exams.
You can’t have a real turd-world city if the residents aren’t illiterate and innumerate.
Actually, this is an improvement for Baltimore. Keep up the great work!
Mr. Rodriguez went on to say the only solution is to lower standards so everybody gets an A.
"Judging '2 + 2 = 4' is a fictitious white social construct with no bearing on reality. We must continue the struggle to get everybody to believe '2 + 2' equals whatever anybody wants it to equal. Oceania was always at war with East Asia."
Give those groomer teachers a raise! They are do exactly what the Marxists want.
The Democrat party hates black children.
L
Your experience shows what Baltimore schools’ real problem is. Oddly omitted in the article.
If it's really zero proficiency it means they are not being taught.
I'd like to see the teachers to take the same proficiency tests.
Our future doctors will not know how to spell scalpel.
Zero students in every school were proficient.
It’s stunning to think not a single student in any school met the standards.
But of course we are handicapped by certain factors.
We aren’t allowed to criticize a culture in which doing well in school is derided as acting White.
We aren’t allowed to criticize some teachers who just are not up to the task of teaching.
We aren’t allowed to talk about discipline problems in schools which detract from the learning environment.
We dare not say anything about the ethnicity of the student body or of any teachers or administrators.
We are only permitted to say that schools need more money or resources and that the lack of money and resources is the reason for these terrible test scores.
For starters, stop teaching 2 + 2 = 5.
How can any company actually hire adults from this environment?
They can count the number of bullets to load a Glock.
How can the kids do their drug deals without knowing math?....
Math is racist. This is just another example of that fact.
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