An investigation by WAMU and NPR has found that Ballou High School’s administration graduated dozens of students despite high rates of unexcused absences. WAMU and NPR reviewed hundreds of pages of Ballou’s attendance records, class rosters and emails after a DCPS employee shared the private documents. The documents showed that half of the graduates missed more than three months of school last year, unexcused. One in five students was absent more than present — missing more than 90 days of school.
Further down:
“I’ve never seen kids in the 12th grade that couldn’t read and write,” said (Brian) Butcher, (a history teacher) who has more than two decades of teaching experience in low-performing schools from New York City to Florida. But he saw students like that at Ballou — and it wasn’t just one or two.
The piece continues:
A pressure to pass students
WAMU and NPR talked to nearly a dozen current and recent Ballou teachers as well as four recent graduates who told the same story: teachers felt pressure from administration to pass chronically absent students, and students knew the school administration would do as much as possible to get them to graduation.“It’s oppressive to the kids because you’re giving them a false sense of success,” said a current Ballou teacher who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her job.
Another current Ballou teacher, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “To not prepare them is not ethical.”
Morgan Williams, who taught health and physical education at Ballou last year, says the lack of expectations sets students up for future failure.
“If I knew I could skip the whole semester and still pass, why would I try?” Williams said. “They’re not prepared to succeed.”
We are obviously not alone here in NYC high schools in being told to pass everyone. This is really sad. The real needed school reform is to bring back some integrity to many schools even if it means a lower graduation rate. So what if every student is accepted to college if they can't read. We are truly setting them up for failure.
Thanks to my friend Marc Epstein for originally sending me the story.
This surprises you James? The fact remains, or should I say the dirty secret that the overwhelming majority of New York City high school teachers know that the vast majority of the public does not know is the following: If the City as well as other inner cities across the nation held to real standards, we would literally have tens upon tens of thousands of 30 year olds who never made it past 8th grade. Please, the number would be in the hundreds of thousands. Everyone who is in our business knows it. Nothing is going to be done about it because it is too shameful a fact to admit and too immense a challenge to tackle. This country had neither the patience or the "balls" to do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteNot surprised at all. I prescribe integrity even if it means a lower graduation rate.
ReplyDeleteI work in a high chool with a 90 plus percent grad rate and a 60 plus percent college ready rate, which is very high in the city. They cant write a sentence.
ReplyDeleteIf we say anything, they want to blame us, shut schools and bring in more charters. Disgusting.
ReplyDeleteI admire that you prescribe integrity James. I mean what teacher who came into this profession to educate wouldn't prescribe integrity? But you should know more than others the consequences integrity brings with it in this system. It brings closed schools, it brings ruined careers, it creates titles for teachers that never existed 10 years ago (ATRs) as well as a myriad of other issues both health wise to many teachers who face the "chopping block" for being ethical as well as hits to the overall perception of the teaching profession. The diploma factory mill needs to exist in today's America because as a whole there are not enough James Eternos and other brave teachers and individuals who will fight to make a difference. The problem is too large in this United States of Entertainment. As I said earlier, the "balls" of this nation on a grand scale are no longer enlivened and to be honest, I believe much of the hard working individuals who work in our system actually do care about the students and give it their "all" but in the end leave work to go home, take care of their own children and lives and try to escape for the night many of the issues they see in their own schools before going back in for another day's hard work. And who really is to blame anyone who works in the system for having that attitude when the elites who are selected to lead, who also know the truth about the system could give a rat's ass about it.
ReplyDelete@7:15
ReplyDeleteCouldn't have said it better myself.
Well put 7:15am...
ReplyDeleteSigned,
A victim
Same old, same old...
ReplyDeleteSelective data - Formative assessments, standardized tests, Danielson domains, Teacher matrixes, forced AP classes, raw score shenanigans, etc.
ReplyDeleteAttendance data? - DOE couldn't care less.
When you meet teachers from other places, it's always the same thing. Kind of makes you feel hopeless.
ReplyDeleteThis could never happen in NYC, for this is the center of rigor! And integrity, and respect for teachers and their professional autonomy.
ReplyDelete