Posted on 12/02/2017 9:23:17 PM PST by Kaslin
No one seems especially shocked.
Last week on WAMU, the National Public Radio affiliate that broke the story, the Washington Post’s Robert McCartney called it “fraudulent” and “a terrible embarrassment.” But he quickly added, “It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, though, to anybody who has been following District schools for any length of time.”
In an analysis for the Post, Valerie Strauss concluded, “It is, unfortunately, familiar.”
The “it” involves Ballou High School, described as “a historically troubled school serving some of the city’s most disadvantaged students in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.” However, earlier this year that very school received a great many accolades for dramatically improving its graduation rate and for the remarkable fact that every single one of their 164 graduates had been accepted to a college or university.
Pay-dirt! At long last a turnaround in public education: a significant percentage of poor kids actually receiving an education and getting a leg up, a chance at prosperity.
The next step would be to discover what the folks at Ballou HS are doing and spread their tried-and-true methods far and wide . . . right?
Well, maybe not. There is a fly in the ointment. While everyone fully agrees we must investigate to determine what exactly the teachers and administrators have been doing — with D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and Antwan Wilson, the D.C. Public Schools Chancellor, announcing the launch of a thorough review — few expect digging up much worthy of emulation.
Here is what we know for sure: In 2015, a mere 51 percent of students graduated. That rose to 57 percent in 2016, and 64 percent earlier this year. Moreover, no one is disputing that all 164 graduates have been accepted to a community college or university.
But a few questions just won’t go away: Did the students deserve to graduate? Are they at all prepared for college?
School documents obtained by WAMU show 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.” In fact, “[t]he majority of Ballou’s 2017 graduating class missed more than six weeks of school.”
Those numbers are especially problematic given that DCPS policy states that students who miss a class 30 times in a school year “should fail that course.”
Could we be witnessing high achievers, bored because they have already mastered the subject matter being taught?
Jane Spence, chief of secondary schools at DCPS, seemed to hint at such a possibility. “It is expected that our students will be here every day,” she stated. “But we also know that students learn material in lots of different ways. So we’ve started to recognize that students can have mastered material even if they’re not sitting in a physical space.”
Imagine the future savings on school construction and building maintenance!
Or wait just a minute. Though test scores have been on the upswing at Ballou, they remain abysmal.
Results in 2016 on a standardized test called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers found that only 8 percent of Ballou students “met or approached meeting standards in math and that 9?percent met or approached standards in English.” In 2017, those percentages improved, sure, but were still only 10 percent for math and 22 percent for English.
WAMU reporters spoke with numerous teachers (many interviewed on conditions of anonymity) who flatly claimed they were pressured to give grades that students did not earn, so those students could nonetheless graduate.
“Last year, DCPS put school administrators entirely in control of teacher evaluations. . . .” And those evaluations, which judge teachers and administrators on student performance, can mean as much as $30,000 extra in bonus pay.
The incentive? Obvious. And the disincentives are present, too: “It’s clear from this reporting that administrators, that school system management was putting pressure on teachers to pass and graduate kids” — despite lack of qualifications, argued the Post’s McCartney.
“And those administrators need to be exposed, disciplined and probably in some cases fired.” But don’t hold your breath. McCartney spies a “white-wash” in the offing.
Chancellor Wilson and Secondary Schools Chief Spence walked out of an interview with WAMU when queried: “how did all these kids miss so many days of school, apply to college and still graduate?” Later, at the behest of the mayor they returned but remained oblivious to the detailed accusations being leveled at the Ballou administration — and perhaps even higher up.
In fact, with the investigation barely underway, Wilson has already expressed his intention to keep Ballou Principal Yetunde Reeves, who has decided not to speak publicly about the controversy.
We have seen this movie before. Test scores and graduation rates show real improvement and then the public discovers the results are unreal, fraudulent, the product of teachers cheating, not for their students, but for their own financial gain and at the behest of administrators, who also gain financially.
School documents obtained by WAMU show 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.” In fact, “[t]he majority of Ballou’s 2017 graduating class missed more than six weeks of school.”
Those numbers are especially problematic given that DCPS policy states that students who miss a class 30 times in a school year “should fail that course.”
Could we be witnessing high achievers, bored because they have already mastered the subject matter being taught?
Jane Spence, chief of secondary schools at DCPS, seemed to hint at such a possibility. “It is expected that our students will be here every day,” she stated. “But we also know that students learn material in lots of different ways. So we’ve started to recognize that students can have mastered material even if they’re not sitting in a physical space.”
Imagine the future savings on school construction and building maintenance!
Or wait just a minute. Though test scores have been on the upswing at Ballou, they remain abysmal.
Results in 2016 on a standardized test called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers found that only 8 percent of Ballou students “met or approached meeting standards in math and that 9?percent met or approached standards in English.” In 2017, those percentages improved, sure, but were still only 10 percent for math and 22 percent for English.
WAMU reporters spoke with numerous teachers (many interviewed on conditions of anonymity) who flatly claimed they were pressured to give grades that students did not earn, so those students could nonetheless graduate.
“Last year, DCPS put school administrators entirely in control of teacher evaluations. . . .” And those evaluations, which judge teachers and administrators on student performance, can mean as much as $30,000 extra in bonus pay.
The incentive? Obvious. And the disincentives are present, too: “It’s clear from this reporting that administrators, that school system management was putting pressure on teachers to pass and graduate kids” — despite lack of qualifications, argued the Post’s McCartney.
“And those administrators need to be exposed, disciplined and probably in some cases fired.” But don’t hold your breath. McCartney spies a “white-wash” in the offing.
Chancellor Wilson and Secondary Schools Chief Spence walked out of an interview with WAMU when queried: “how did all these kids miss so many days of school, apply to college and still graduate?” Later, at the behest of the mayor they returned but remained oblivious to the detailed accusations being leveled at the Ballou administration — and perhaps even higher up.
In fact, with the investigation barely underway, Wilson has already expressed his intention to keep Ballou Principal Yetunde Reeves, who has decided not to speak publicly about the controversy.
We have seen this movie before. Test scores and graduation rates show real improvement and then the public discovers the results are unreal, fraudulent, the product of teachers cheating, not for their students, but for their own financial gain and at the behest of administrators, who also gain financially.
I wonder how many Ballou graduates can spell corruption.
Very interesting. Thanks.
And those evaluations, which judge teachers and administrators on student performance, can mean as much as $30,000 extra in bonus pay. you GOTTA be kiddin me...
It should surprise no one.
KO-RUP-SHUN
Close enough!
A strong back is a terrible thing to waste.
Obviously, the problem is insufficient funding.
IIRC, didn’t several teachers and administrators in the Atlanta public school system go to prison for similar hijinks?
Since DC schools are federal, I imagine the punishment for defrauding the government out of $30 grand might be significant.
But then again, maybe not.
The whole leftist establishment is cheating. Affirmative action is cheating. Minority set-asides is cheating. Social promotion is cheating. Blaming Whitey is cheating. So no wonder that cheating is rampant
That's a joke, right?
The whole system is rotten to the bone, and when it collapses, it will drag our nation, what's left of it, down with it.
Forced high school, at least an academic program including three years of math through Trig or Algebra II, three years of science including Bio/Chem/Physics, four of history, english, three or four of a foreign language, and a mix of writing, speaking/debate/logic, is so far beyond the ability of our median high school population that constant, sustained, and methodical lies and cheating are required to keep it going.
Successful mastery of this traditional American high school diploma program was achieved by 25% of the white population in 1941 (who were MUCH better prepared than the white population of today), this is probably close to the fraction of the white population that should go to high school for four years today.
And "are they at all prepared for college"?
No. They are not at all prepared for college. College is a dysfunctional stew of drug use, intoxication, sexual excess, and petty criminality. Less than 10% of "students" currently in college belong there. If 80% of the college seats vanished tomorrow, the nation would be much better off - except the first to go would be the small fraction who actually belong there.
Compulsory education, or at least its systematic implementation through popular democracy, will destroy our people. The first step to sanity is to end it at grade 8.
There's a reason most high schools look like prisons.
It would be trivial next to the punishment for telling the truth.
Atlanta.
Deja vu all over again.
Atlanta redux.
L
Liars gonna lie.
Let’s just see how many complete even 1 year of college.
How bout 1 semester...or 1 class
Agree. High Schools, like too much of local government, serve to enrich employees rather than serve the public.
40 years ago, I was working as a payroll supervisor. They were changing the system from manual checks to computer system checks for over 750 employees on weekly paychecks in 7 different states in 35+ different locations.
My supervisors decided that I should have an assistant & they put the local head hunters to work.
I got many ‘applicants’, but they were woefully unprepared for such a job. All had high school diplomas, they said.
One applicant still stands out in my mind:
She came in & filled out the application. She claimed to have attended 2 different business schools. I asked her why she didn’t just graduate from the first one & I got a story which didn’t hold water. So I kept up the questioning.
She had written the word bussiness in 3 different places on the application. I strongly felt that IF she had attended 2 different business schools, she should have known how to at least spell that word correctly.
I told her we were still deciding on many applicants & let her leave the office. The head hunter was on the phone with me within 10 minutes, as per their normal follow thru.
She wondered how soon her ‘applicant ‘ would be starting the job. I told her NEVER at this job opening. When she asked why- I told her the lady didn’t have very clear handwriting, which was critical for this opening,and more than that, she could NOT SPELL BUSINESS. She had spelled it wrong in 3 different places on the application.
The head hunter couldn’t understand why that mattered. I tried to explain to her that this office processed PAYROLL checks & permanent records of same. Such information was sent to both Federal & state locations for permanent records, and future Social Security payments. IF the names were NOT spelled correctly from the start, those persons would have a devil of a time getting their correct Social Security payments in the future.
The headhunter didn’t get my point. I told her NOT to send me any more of HER APPLICANTS.
That problem was 40 years ago. Schools have NOT gotten any better. I can spell-—it is just my typing that is bad.
I have been self employed as a bookkeeper/accounting person since 1980, and I still have 2 clients. One has been a client for over 47 years, the other over 44 years. Glad I never hired anyone to help me.
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