The students...
The students...
A quote from the article:
An investigation by WAMU and NPR has found that Ballou High School’s administration graduated dozens of students despite high rates of unexcused absences. WAMU and NPR reviewed hundreds of pages of Ballou’s attendance records, class rosters and emails after a DCPS employee shared the private documents. The documents showed 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.
The kids weren't even bothering to show up for school, and they still passed!
Further on in the article, a possible financial motive is mentioned. If teachers and administrators are rated "highly effective", they can receive $15,000 to $30,000 in bonuses.
This is my 13th year as a teacher, and while I have received excellent observation scores from multiple principals at multiple schools every single year, I’ve never even heard of the kinds of bonuses ($15,000+) mentioned in the article. In fact, I’ve never received a bonus at all. I do the job that I’m expected to do without expectation of a bonus. I don’t teach in a state that has overbearing teacher’s unions, so I reckon that is where the bonus money policy comes from. It doesn’t matter. I enjoy teaching in my small town with small town values with parents that expect me to teach their kids, not be a surrogate dad to them.
I suppose when the implimentation of any graduation standard whatsoever would deny graduation to so many, the use of the GED is not possible. Here those that choose not to regularly attend school fail to graduate, but fall back on the GED as their out. If a GED is truly equivalent to a high school diploma then why bother with the rigors of attending school and be required to meet the requirements for receiving a bonafied diploma.
We all know that a GED is not equivalent, but we allow ourselves to be deluded anyway.
Nothing at Ballou is being done for the benefit of the students, but everything is being done for the benefit of incompetent administrators and teachers.