Students at 40% of Baltimore high schools failed math proficiency exam
Category: News & Politics
Via: texan1211 • 2 years ago • 39 commentsBy: Matthew Sedacca (New York Post)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Matthew Sedacca
Something doesn't add up.
None of the students at 40% of Baltimore's public high schools tested proficient on the state math exam given this past spring — with a staggering three-quarters earning the lowest possible score, an alarming report revealed this week.
At 13 of the school district's 32 public high schools, 1,295 students of the 1,736 who took the exams scored a 1 out of 4, meaning they were nowhere close to proficiency, Fox 45 reported.
"This is educational homicide," Jason Rodriguez, deputy director of the Baltimore-based nonprofit People Empowered by the Struggle, told the outlet.
The results were shockingly low even at the city's top high schools, where just 92 students, or 11.4% of the 809 students who took the exam, tested proficient, the outlet later found.
"Parents, guardians, supporters, need to be outraged," said Sheila Dixon, a Democratic Baltimore mayoral candidate.
"It's sad and disheartening because, first of all, today, more than ever, the school system has the money and the resources."
At the city's top five high schools, just over 11% tested proficient in math.
During the 2022-23 school year, the Baltimore City Public Schools had an annual budget of $1.6 billion, its largest ever, and also scored $799 million in federal COVID-19 grants.
"It's not a funding issue. We're getting plenty of funding," Rodriguez, whose organization called on Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises to resign in 2021 over issues including low test scores and plummeting graduation rates, told Fox 45.
"I don't think money is the issue. I think accountability is the issue."
Baltimore City Public Schools had an annual budget of $1.6 billion in addition to $799 million in federal COVID-19 grants. FOX 5 News
Santelises, who has been running the city's public schools since 2016, raked in $445,000 in her total compensation last year, making her the top earning public-school district leader in Maryland despite managing its worst-performing school district, NBC 15 reported.
The math scores mirror those from 2017, when zero students at 13 Baltimore high schools also tested as not proficient in the subject on the state exams, many from the same schools that had poor scores this spring.
"We need to hold the school CEO and the administration accountable," said Dixon, who is calling for Santelises' resignation. "We have to have answers, and we can't just get a press release from the school system saying that we're working on it.
The city’s school district claimed that despite the funding windfall last year, the students’ latest poor performance on the math exams is the result of underfunding over the course of previous academic years.
It noted that in seven of eight grade levels, math proficiencies improved compared to the previous year.
"We acknowledge that some of our high school students continue to experience challenges in math following the pandemic," the district told Fox 45 in a statement.
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Yes, half of all students are below average. Not unlike Texas schools, which overall have only a 37% math proficiency rate. Baltimore beats all of Texas!
Not unlike Texas schools, which overall have only a 37% math proficiency rate. Baltimore beats all of Texas!
Do you blame an inability to read or understand numbers for your response?
What's really funny, is if you explore his link it says overall Maryland has just a 19% math proficiency rate.
Almost 30 years ago, Baltimore's Mayor Schmoke said, “It’s time to give all Baltimore parents the option to pull their children out of poorly run schools and place them in schools where they believe their children will get a better education.” He was right but that doesn't fly in a deeply blue state so these poor children remain condemned to a grossly deficient education system.
Since COVID, BCPS received close to $700M in federal emergency aid, wonder how they spent it.
A more appropriate comparison would have been between Baltimore and El Paso, similarly sized. At least until recently...
You screwing up the math about math test scores is about the most perfectly ironic thing I've ever seen.
No, ironic is that you, an educator, are celebrating the failure of one notoriously underfunded primarily minority school district in one blue state while your own entire red state is failing its students!
Underfunded? How did you get that?
I don't think you know what irony is.
I'm not an educator. Haven't been for over 25 years.
Cite me doing so. Do you know what "cite" means?
What makes you think Texas schools are not primarily minority?
No educated person enjoys seeing public schools fail, because we know those kids will grow up unable to understand the world around them, and eventually will degenerate to the point where idiotic memes make more sense to them than reality.
Well, we kinda already see that on here so your prediction has already come true.
From the same place that teaches liberals math.
The scores in math proficiency in the US rank well behind the leading countries. We also spend the most per student. This is nothing new it's been going on for years now and we seem to be stuck in never never-ending cycle of placing blame, be it on students, teachers, the system, unions etc, etc. What we do see is that the wealthier school districts generally score higher than less wealthy ones.
The Asian countries hold down the top five spots when it comes to math/science proficiency with Singapore at the top. Perhaps we should look to see what other countries are doing to be so much better than the US is.
I have not noticed anyone blaming the students, the teacher unions and the DOE system absolutely.
That doesn't necessarily jive either. Using the comparison that was attempted above,.. Maryland spent about $16000 per student and Texas spent about $10000 per student yet the percentage of students proficient in math and reading were higher in the state that spent less.
Or perhaps we should figure out what is wrong here....
Yes, there are some that blame the students for lack of caring about school or more interested in tik tok than school.
Actually, it does jive, school districts vary within each state, a school district in say Highland Park (Dallas) has a very high academic performance index whereas a district not as wealthy in a marginal area will generally receive lower API. There are of course many factors that play into these figures.
That would be great but we haven't been able to do it for decades.
Here is an interesting link showing Dallas school district and their test results..
I agree, is there a school district in Maryland that has an equivalent API?
None as high as Highland Park, but there are some that are in the .80 range with Highland Park being at .94
What similarities do they share? That's some of what we should be looking at.
Not intercity and a high income level.
Highland Park is inside the loop just north of downtown, it is intercity. Definitely high income level though... compared to say Queen Anne's County...
Come on Greg, Highland Park isn't inner city it is inside the loop but not an area that is generally referred to as intercity....South Dallas, Park Row now that is a tough neighborhood.
Perhaps you should look up the difference between intercity and inner city.
A typo, big deal
East Asian American students do better at math and science here as well. Maybe it is student discipline, parental values in education and teachers with high expectations for all their students.
All of the above, Drinker.
We had operations in most of the Asian countries and I spent a considerable amount of time there and met many of our employee's kids and how they approached math and the sciences, it is a no-nonsense approach with education being the number one goal of most all parents that I met.
I agree, their students don't have the chronic absenteeism that ours do either.
20 years ago, "The Wire" put the spotlight on Baltimore City Schools. It revealed the tragic situation of students in Baltimore. Kids living among violence, poverty, drugs and decaying neighborhoods. City spending there is more about political patronage and the political class. Maryland may be the richest state in the union but is indifferent to the great suffering in their largest city.
That is a horrible assessment of the attitudes and treatment of kids but it isn't unique to just Baltimore.
Unfortunately not, but such a rich, small progressive state should be able to do so much more. Like their police department, their public school system and other city services are failing their citizens.
The Wire might be the best tv show of all time for the reasons you list. It captures the perverse incentives of one party government Better than any work of fiction I’ve seen.
but at the end of the day, it’s not that hard. If the family/culture values education, kids will do well. When they don’t care about it, all the money in the world won’t make much difference. Schools can and should do a better job of returning to focusing on the fundamentals but they can only do so much. Education has to be a focus in the household.
More spending is negatively correlated with student accomplishment over the last 50 years. It’s not the answer.