THE DISGRACE:  They used to call Baltimore "charm city."  They used to note that Baltimore was where "The Star Spangled Banner" was written.  Baltimore was important.

Now Baltimore is known for something else, and it doesn't say "charm."  It is symbolic of what is happening in many other American cities.  From FoxBaltimore.com: 

BALTIMORE (WBFF) — 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.”

Fox45 obtained 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.

In total, students at 33 Baltimore City high schools took the state math exam last spring. Project Baltimore did not include Eager Street Academy in our analysis because it’s located in the Baltimore City Detention Center.

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 at grade level. The list of 13 schools includes some of Baltimore’s most well-known high schools, including Patterson High School, Frederick Douglass, and Reginald F. Lewis.

COMMENT:  What is remarkable is that results similar to this are found in many urban school systems, and yet there is so little sense of alarm.  We recall Daniel Patrick Moynihan's phrase, "defining deviancy down."  Basically, society responds to failure by conveniently lowering standards, thus making failure acceptable.  And who leads that lowering of standards?  Why, it's usually educators and politicians, and sometimes even misguided parents, who don't want children to be seen as failing.  In the end, that's cruel to those very children.

No high standards, no high achievement.  And no future.

September 23, 2023