Educational malpractice causes failing kids.
Probably true mostly. Then again, certain pools of students have lower IQs than others. I believe that the coursework is too complicated for many students, particularly in an "urban" context. Going back to very simple basics of just reading, writing, and arithmetic would go a very long way.
If you ever have seen a recent textbook, it looks like someone cut up several books, jumbled the pieces, and then pasted it all back together. It's not just elementary school. College level texts are horrible now. They are printed in multicolor, with side bars, text boxes, illustrations, parenthetical highlights, arrows, diagrams, and photographs. Truly dreadful.
If a student didn't have ADHD, he'd soon develop it with coursework like this. For students with low IQs and and a tendency to ADHD anyway, it is hopeless. It would be better for urban students to succeed in very simple tasks done well, than to struggle and fail at what is beyond their reach.