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City student passes 3 classes in four years, ranks near top half of class with 0.13 GPA [Baltimore]
https://foxbaltimore.com ^ | Monday, March 1st 2021 | by CHRIS PAPST, WBFF

Posted on 03/03/2021 5:39:25 AM PST by Red Badger

BALTIMORE (WBFF) – A shocking discovery out of a Baltimore City high school, where Project Baltimore has found hundreds of students are failing. It’s a school where a student who passed three classes in four years, ranks near the top half of his class with a 0.13 grade point average.

Tiffany France thought her son would receive his diploma this coming June. But after four years of high school, France just learned, her 17-year-old must start over. He’s been moved back to ninth grade.

“He's stressed and I am too. I told him I'm probably going to start crying. I don't know what to do for him,” France told Project Baltimore. “Why would he do three more years in school? He didn't fail, the school failed him. The school failed at their job. They failed. They failed, that's the problem here. They failed. They failed. He didn't deserve that.”

France’s son attends Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts in west Baltimore. His transcripts show he’s passed just three classes in four years, earning 2.5 credits, placing him in ninth grade. But France says she didn’t know that until February. She has three children and works three jobs. She thought her oldest son was doing well because even though he failed most of his classes, he was being promoted. His transcripts show he failed Spanish I and Algebra I but was promoted to Spanish II and Algebra II. He also failed English II but was passed on to English III.

“I'm just assuming that if you are passing, that you have the proper things to go to the next grade and the right grades, you have the right credits,” said France.

As we dig deeper into her son’s records, we can see in his first three years at Augusta Fells, he failed 22 classes and was late or absent 272 days. But in those three years, only one teacher requested a parent conference, which France says never happened. No one from the school told France her son was failing and not going to class.

“I feel like they never gave my son an opportunity, like if there was an issue with him, not advancing or not progressing, that they should have contacted me first, three years ago,” said France.

In his four years at Augusta Fells, France’s son earned a GPA of 0.13. He only passed three classes, but his transcripts show his class rank is 62 out of 120. This means, nearly half his classmates, 58 of them, have a 0.13 grade point average or lower.

“He's a good kid. He didn't deserve that. Where's the mentors? Where is the help for him? I hate that this is happening to my child,” said an emotional France.

Project Baltimore talked with a City Schools administrator, who works inside North Avenue, but asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. That administrator says the school system absolutely failed France’s son.

The administrator told FOX45 News, City Schools failed because it has protocols and interventions set up to help students who are falling behind or have low attendance. In France’s son’s case, they didn’t happen.

“I get angry. There's nothing but frustration. We see on the news the crime that occurs, the murders, the shootings, we know that there are high levels of poverty in Baltimore. Things like this are adding to that. His transcript is not unusual to me. I've seen many transcripts, many report cards, like this particular student,” said the City Schools administrator.

Dr. Sonja Santelises was the City Schools CEO four years ago when France’s son was a freshman. But she will not interview with FOX45 News. Instead, we received a two-page statement, which explains what should happen when a student is chronically absent or failing.

The district says students received a letter about their academic status this past summer, and records can be accessed through the campus portal. When a student is absent, an automated call is placed to the number on file. The statement also said the school conducted recent home visits and the student’s parent visited the school. France says none of that happened.

What the statement does not address, is why France’s son was promoted despite failing classes. It doesn’t discuss his class rank, or the 58 other students with a GPA of 0.13 or lower. But it does say North Avenue is “reviewing actions that impacted student outcomes” at the school prior to this year.

“It took a lot for me to just build the courage to do this,” France told Project Baltimore.

Project Baltimore asked the City Schools administrator what they would say to France. The administrator replied, “I didn't have a hand on this student, but I worked for City Schools. So, he is one of my kids. I would hug her, and I would apologize profusely.”

“He feels embarrassed, he feels like a failure,” France said of her son. “I'm like, you can't feel like that. And you have to be strong and you got to keep fighting. Life is about fighting. Things happen, but you got to keep fighting. And he's willing, he's trying, but who would he turn to when the people that's supposed to help him is not? Who do he turn to?”

France has pulled her son out of Augusta Fells. He’s now enrolled in an accelerated school program at Francis M. Wood in west Baltimore. If her son works hard, he could graduate by 2023.

The entire statement from Baltimore City Schools is below:

"Our goal is to provide resources and support to students and their families struggling with academic or attendance challenges. We hold schools and staff members accountable if that does not occur, including making appropriate staffing changes to improve outcomes. City Schools does not publicly discuss the individual academic or attendance records or data of its students. However, City Schools has taken multiple steps with the student's family to support the young man, including:

In summer 2020, students at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts received a letter explaining their academic status. Per Board Policy, teachers will provide students and parents with information about student achievement by regularly updating grades using Campus Portal. All families have access to this tool. In many cases, the school or teacher will notify the student of a potential course failure and allow work to be made up to support the student. Schools also provide parents the option for a conference following each report card. Anytime a student is absent from a class, the student's family receives an automated phone call at their listed number advising the missed time. If necessary, families may respond to the call by noting if the absence meets the criteria to be excused. School staff also attempted to contact the student's family. The school later mailed a letter and conducted a home visit. Ultimately, the student's parent visited the school and met with its leadership. The student's family has met with or talked recently with school and district level staff. regarding the student's progress. ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Communication is important. If a student has poor attendance or the school cannot contact the family and develop an intervention, the student may fail the course, which may alter their ability to graduate.

School leadership is also key to ensuring the appropriate interventions take place. City Schools requires leadership that will effectively address student academic performance and support. City Schools is reviewing actions that impacted student outcomes at the Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts before the 2020-2021 school year. Additionally (and separately from recent events at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts), City Schools will take prudent steps to intervene, including school leadership changes, to ensure our standards for student achievement are uniformly and consistently achieved throughout the district.

ATTENDANCE INTERVENTIONS

Children between the ages of 5 and 18 must attend school — it's the law. If an absence occurs, the student's family receives a daily automated phone call advising of the absence. If necessary, families may respond to the call by noting if the absence meets the criteria to be excused. Otherwise, the absence is recorded as unexcused.

Students who are absent for 10% or more of school days are considered chronically absent. If a student is chronically absent, the following interventions should occur:

The school calls the family to check in and understand what issues may be contributing to the absence so that appropriate supports may be provided. This outreach may also occur through emails, text messages, and sometimes social media when phone calls fail. Communication may break down if the family's contact information has changed or they cannot be contacted. When making outreach efforts, a meeting will be scheduled with the family to develop a plan to provide support around attendance. Where appropriate, this may be a Student Support Team or IEP meeting. If these outreach efforts fail, a home visit should be conducted to check on the student and arrange for a follow-up meeting with the school. If the absences continue, then the school should send a letter to the family to notify the family of the number of school days missed and again attempt to set up a meeting with a school representative. If the school is unsuccessful in their outreach efforts, the district's office may be contacted to assist in reaching out to the student or the family. Truancy is a legal term used to identify students who have missed more than 20% of school days (about 3.5 days per month) without a lawful reason.

If a student has missed 15 days of school without a legal reason, the school may make a truancy referral to the district office. At that point, the district office issues a letter of concern to the family and conducts a case review to determine if due diligence has been done in trying to reach the family and support the student’s re-engagement in school. The district office also monitors the student’s data to determine if the letter of concern has an impact on the student’s attendance.

If the district determines that the school has made every effort to work with the family and offer support but that the student has continued accruing unexcused absences, charges will be filed against the parent or guardian in district court."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: arth; baltimore; bidenvoters; shole
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To: Red Badger

The problem in this country is not racism, it is that most Blacks and Black leaders don’t take responsibility for their lives and their actions. They are taught that they are victims and their “plight” is someone elses fault. We’ve had decades of Affirmative Action, of special treatment on college admissions and now serious talk of reparations and little has changed for many Blacks. Again, it isn’t because of systemic racisim as the Dems and Blacks like to claim, it is Black’s refusal to take responsibility, including fathering kids but not being in their iives or taking care of them.


141 posted on 03/03/2021 8:28:19 AM PST by falcon99 (qu)
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To: dfwgator

So your saying he’s ‘tarded?

Probably living a kick ass life


142 posted on 03/03/2021 8:31:09 AM PST by shotgun
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To: Red Badger
-Throughout the story, the mother blames everyone else but herself.
-No mention of the father.

This kid will get his "diploma"...
and then be admitted with < 0.5 GPA and no SAT/ACT score, at taxpayer expense to either...

-harvard or yale where he will be given a doctorate in critical race theory...
-and becomes a senator to help install anti-white / communist / marxist / hate america first laws.

OR...

-an engineering school where 2+2=whatever he feels like...
-and then gets affirmative action hired by boeing to design aircraft

143 posted on 03/03/2021 8:36:00 AM PST by rxsid (HOW CAN A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN'S STATUS BE "GOVERNED" BY GREAT BRITAIN? - Leo Donofrio (2009))
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To: Red Badger

The “tell” is in the school’s name: Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts. A pubic school with the words ‘Institute’, ‘Academy’, or ‘Excellence’ in the name is likely to be pretty crappy. It seems to be a characteristic of the left that saying or naming something makes it so.


144 posted on 03/03/2021 8:46:16 AM PST by hanamizu
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To: rxsid

OR ....

Becomes a common thug drug dealing criminal and spends his entire life in and out of jails and prisons. Finally overdosing at age 45, found in a backstreet alley with a needle in his arm...............


145 posted on 03/03/2021 8:46:16 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: hanamizu

“The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink”
― George Orwell, 1984


146 posted on 03/03/2021 8:48:43 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: hanamizu

It’s like “Centers of Excellence” if you see that in government or industry you know its likely not true!


147 posted on 03/03/2021 8:51:16 AM PST by Reily
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To: Red Badger
The worst thing about this article on Epic Fail, is the assumption that this is unusual.

With multiple family members in Public Education, this is actually to a large degree the new normal in education.

Multi-level failure of students, parents, teachers, administrators, counselors, school boards, school policy, and politicians. And of course, the media.

148 posted on 03/03/2021 9:05:18 AM PST by sjmjax
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To: Red Badger
Public schools have been nothing more tha feed lots for Dem voters...

Keep them dogies moving....

149 posted on 03/03/2021 9:11:03 AM PST by Covenantor (We are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who can not govern. " Chesterton)
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To: Rummyfan

Jordan Peterson says the military rejects anyone with an IQ less than 83, which is 1 in ten people:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-Ur71ZnNVk


150 posted on 03/03/2021 9:12:23 AM PST by JohnnyP (Thinking is hard work (I stole that from Rush).)
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To: Rummyfan

How do these people get employment? These are the targets of the $15 minimum wage. They are employable only at fast food drive throughs where the cash register has pictures of the food items they can punch and the software does all of the math. They couldn’t count back change if their very lives depended on it.


151 posted on 03/03/2021 9:17:52 AM PST by Wiser now (Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)
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To: Red Badger
Yes, indeed. That would be the "normal" route. The historical route (at least, in the last ~50 years).

We are living in abnormal times, upside down times...therefore, he becomes the poster boy for oppression from the white man and will therefore be given whatever position in society he, or his equally brilliant aware mother so chooses.

152 posted on 03/03/2021 9:20:55 AM PST by rxsid (HOW CAN A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN'S STATUS BE "GOVERNED" BY GREAT BRITAIN? - Leo Donofrio (2009))
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To: BBQToadRibs2

NO MENTION of report cards in the story-—

IS EVERYTHING being done on computers???

BIG ASSUMPTION-—NOT everyone has computers & internet service.


153 posted on 03/03/2021 9:24:04 AM PST by ridesthemiles ( )
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To: Red Badger

Why, in God’s name do these people not care about each other?????
The question with no answer apparently.


154 posted on 03/03/2021 9:24:12 AM PST by Wiser now (Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)
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To: Mr. Jeeves

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND in process.


155 posted on 03/03/2021 9:24:53 AM PST by ridesthemiles ( )
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

Counting from ZERO UP-—It is in the top half-—BY 2 positions.


156 posted on 03/03/2021 9:25:46 AM PST by ridesthemiles ( )
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

He is too in the top half...by two.


157 posted on 03/03/2021 9:26:13 AM PST by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our only true hope. )
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To: Red Badger

Until mandatory schooling ends after grade 8 and all public (free) academic high schools only enroll students who can pass an entrance exam, this situation will get worse and worse.

I mean, if you are getting grades 9-12 for free, on my nickel, you owe me something, starting with evidence that you have the aptitude for algebra, geometry, and trig, bio, chemistry, and physics, literature (in English) from Plato to NATO, and the ability speak and write coherently (in English) and to master at least one foreign language.

If you don’t, then what am I paying for?

And for all of you “get tough with them” people - in Baltimore, you are asking for blood from a stone. Forcing a young man with an IQ of <85 to attend an academic high school is like sending him to a maximum security prison with torture thrown in as punishment. It’s wrong and it should stop. The average IQ in a lot of urban high schools is <80.

Think about what you are asking for. Don’t ask the impossible.

Make grade 9 subject to an appropriate entrance exam, and most urban school problems would disappear overnight.


158 posted on 03/03/2021 9:34:36 AM PST by Jim Noble (In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act)
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To: Rummyfan
What is the solution?

Got your solution right here.

159 posted on 03/03/2021 9:37:03 AM PST by Jim Noble (In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act)
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To: right way right

Nope. Number 1 would be the top of the class. Number 60 would be the lowest rank in the top half of the class of 120. Number 62 is two below that.


160 posted on 03/03/2021 9:40:23 AM PST by HartleyMBaldwin
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