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 ...
Southern and IT—enough said.
But when they get hired into big corps or governments, they stay. Or, realizing they can’t cut it, they file some sort of discrimination lawsuit for a big payday.
No.
If ‘school’ is 180 days, then missing more than 90 days is absent more than present.
Did you attend this same school?
And the taxpaying fools will be shelling out millions in state and federal funds to put these non-reading high school graduates in college. There they are marked for failure because they should not be there in the first place.
All subsidized education should be stopped. Students who can’t afford college should have to work to pay for it, as millions of Middle Class college graduates had to do in the past. If it’s YOUR money, you will show up in class and be sure to turn in work that will pass, instead of “hanging out” and skipping class and then whining that you are being discriminated against when you flunk out.
Idiocracy here we come.
ok, wrong math then :)
It amazes me that kids demand to have the same standard of living as their parents who have been in the workforce 20 or 30 years. I got through college on grants and scholarships and would never have dreamed of spending it on luxuries.
If missing 91 days is one day more than half, then the other half is 89. Which is 180 days which is a typical state minimum school year. If the author attended that school and got this right, which one did you attend?
Every teacher, principal, and administrator who turned a blind eye on these students ( pre-K through 12th) is a LIAR! ( And...Also a criminal.)
Actual French Lit, as a proper major, is a very significant achievement. There is a huge lot of French Lit, and we are talking of a body of work of extreme sophistication -and variety. It is worth a lifetime of study.
If nothing else a French Lit major will come out knowing the French language in a deep and thorough manner. If you can read, appreciate and discuss Racine, in French, you have achieved something.
Its not for casual dabblers, diploma mills or idiots.
They could always join the Swiss Navy.
Why would any parent want their children to be influenced by teachers, principals, and administrators who LIE to the student, the parents, and taxpayer?
Please check out post #38. They are also criminals.
What a mess in the DC school system.
snip
The DCPS review found that six high schools were the worst offenders at
graduating students who exceeded the number of absences allowed, and
failed to follow DCPS grading and credit recovery policies. Those schools
were Anacostia High School, Ballou High School, Dunbar High School, Eastern
High School, Roosevelt High School and H.D. Woodson High School.
end snip
http://www.afro.com/dcps-city-reckons-fallout-scathing-report/
I actually brought this up to an ADA in the Major Fraud Division in Los Angeles about 25 years ago, and she agreed totally they were all criminals and belonged in Prison, but it was way too political to ever even broach the subject.
College s are money mills, that’s it. They flunk no one. They accept everyone.
SAT/ACT are not required in many colleges. They keep their classrooms filled as that is how they make money and keep their jobs.
That’s Texas Law but I bet there is something similar
in the Washington, DC school system.
Here’s one investigation.
The FBI, U.S. Education Department and District Office of the
Inspector General are investigating the school system, with a
focus on Ballou High School, where questions about graduation
rates first emerged, according to a current and a former District
government employee familiar with the probe.
It’s more of a racket than you think. The local community college will assess them as not ready for college level courses, and will put them in “pre-college” prep courses, i.e., the same content they should have learned in high school, but didn’t because they couldn’t be bothered to come to class. Those are the classes they will take and pay for multiple times, usually paid for by us through Pell grants or federally subsidized student loans.
We all knew it was racist to fail black kids for not showing up or causing trouble in class
Now apparently its also racist to let them graduate in spite of the same thing.
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.
That one gal who's in college admits (with poor grammar) she's not prepared for it.
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