Posted on 02/21/2018 5:53:02 AM PST by reaganaut1
Brian Butcher, a history teacher at Ballou High School, sat in the bleachers of the school's brand-new football field last June watching 164 seniors receive diplomas. It was a clear, warm night and he was surrounded by screaming family and friends snapping photos and cheering.
It was a triumphant moment for the students: For the first time, every graduate had applied and been accepted to college. The school is located in one of Washington, D.C.'s poorest neighborhoods and has struggled academically for years with a low graduation rate. For months, the school received national media attention, including from NPR, celebrating the achievement.
But all the excitement and accomplishment couldn't shake one question from Butcher's mind:
How did all these students graduate from high school?
"You saw kids walking across the stage, who, they're nice young people, but they don't deserve to be walking across the stage," Butcher says.
An investigation by WAMU and NPR has found that Ballou High School's administration graduated dozens of students despite high rates of unexcused absences. We reviewed hundreds of pages of Ballou's attendance records, class rosters and emails after a district employee shared the private documents. 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.
According to district policy, if a student misses a class 30 times, he should fail that course. Research shows that missing 10 percent of school, about two days per month, can negatively affect test scores, reduce academic growth and increase the chances a student will drop out.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Just wait until the lawyers hear about this and get a few of the students to sue the district for graduating them without an education.
“We know of 183 students accepted to the University of the District of Columbia, the local community college.
Looks bad on the college. They accept everyone. Maybe my dog could get in.”
I used to live in DC. Trust me - your dog could be top of the class at UDC.
“Gonna be tough to pay off the college loans for underwater fire prevention degrees working at Starbucks.”
Where are the “Trade Schools”? Underwater welding? Underwater plumbing? Underwater construction? Not to mention all of the ABOVE water trades that will get you REAL JOBS.
“Mechanics” of ALL types! Construction of ALL types.
Sure we need engineers, architects, physicians, etc., but EVERYONE doesn’t need an BA, MA, or PHD.
“I’m a plumber, what do you do?”
“I go to college”
“What will you do when you are finished with college?”
“Finish???? (panic on display) I, I, I haven’t really thought about that. There are always MORE courses to take and government loans to get”.
School is 180 days. If you miss more than 90 you are absent more than present (missed days exceed 50% at the 90 mark). The author stated it correctly.
I transcribe special education hearings. One of the witnesses, a teacher, let it slip that they are not allowed to give intelligence assessments to black children.
Precisely! Push them down the line and let “the village” deal with these losers. Just solidifying more Rat votes based on being too stupid.
And at the other end of the spectrum I knew an associate prof at Harvard who was expressly told that she could not give a failing or too-low grade to a black/Hispanic minority.
“The school district won’t know how many Ballou graduates enrolled in college overall until May, a spokesperson says. We know of 183 students accepted to the University of the District of Columbia, the local community college. But only 16 enrolled this fall.”
I think few will enroll in any college.
They don’t want to go to school.
The few that will enroll are totally unprepared for it, so many of those will drop out.
164 x $100,000 a piece in debt.
A new wing of a universality will be built or fat pensions paid for the staff.
The 164 students will be working 2 jobs to pay off the debt.
Don’t colleges require an ACT or SAT score? An entrance exam test?
It is 180 days here.
Go look at pictures of this school and remember them next time you here lies about “inner city schools are shortchanged, all the money goes to the suburban schools.”
“It’s “underwater basket weaving””
indeed. and that phrase has been around since at least 1970 when i first stated engineering college. We used it to refer to the kinds of classes jocks would take ...
I never finished skool..... universality
I’m starting to see a pattern in leftist run schools, they can’t improve preformance by inducing hard work so they lie about it.
Sadly the lie in parkland Florida cost a lot of people their lives by preventing police from idenifting and dealing with a mentally I’ll and criminal violent student.
Criminal records exist for a reason and even thou teenagers and kids lack the ablity to think rationally as a adults
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