Daily Caller: D.C. Public Schools released Thursday a projected 2018 graduation rate of 42 percent, a figure nearly half of the related 2017 rate.
The school system estimates it will graduate 42 percent of its seniors in June, while 73 percent of its seniors received degrees in 2017, reported The Washington Post.
“The point of this is transparency,” D.C. Public Schools spokeswoman Michelle Lerner told WaPo.
D.C. Public Schools’ anticipated 42 percent graduation rate marks its lowest graduation rate in the past eight years. The rate had previously increased from 53 percent in 2011 to 73 percent in 2017.
The district has wrestled with an investigation into its grading practices for the past few months. At Ballou High School, the nexus of the scandal, the school system found policy violations in 113 of the 177 2017 graduates’ records. Teachers generally did not reduce the grades of students with excessive absences and Ballou awarded half-credit, instead of zero percent, for uncompleted assignments. MORE
Instead of requiring increased student performance, too many high schools are manipulating the grades to make their graduation rates look better. But who does this help? Those students who are chronically absent and actually fail most of their subjects? No – these students still can not read, write or perform basic math skills. How about those students who do perform at or above standards? Again, no -by lumping these students with the non-performers all of the diplomas are put into question.
We treat schools are substitute parents and expect them to educate our kids with little or no input required by parents or other responsible adults. But this should not be a school’s function; a school is a place where students are given the opportunity to learn and obtain an education. It is time to focus on those students who want to take advantage of this opportunity.
School Board lied, but they did it for da chillrun. Dat and the salaries and da phat penshun.
Since they’ve all got at least one, couldn’t they just give them all titles in gender studies? Or is that something even a high school drop out doesn’t want attached to their name?
Let’s keep false records that help out graduation rate! That will make the students smarter. (Sarcasm off)
@Wyatt, Insensitive Progressive Jerk March 1, 2018 at 3:55 pm
You’re pushing the lie – sorry, “fake truth” – that these titles represent accomplishment. “Teachers generally did not reduce the grades of students with excessive absences”. Which means attendance increases one’s title. These are participation trophies. Nothing more. Nor anything less than accredited college degrees. So, at least, they’ve got that going for them.
Democrats… Spending a shitload of other people’s money just to pretend their base aren’t useless, knuckle-dragging animals.
Who would hire these kids? Nobody.
“The point of this is transparency”–No, no it isn’t. The point is to quit cheating and making your stats look better. Look what happened in Broward when they messed with the stats.
@anonymous: No, I am not pushing “fake truth.” If a student is chronically absent, then he/she doesn’t usually turn in homework, take quizzes, take tests or acquire enough knowledge to pass the course. If the student does not pass the course, they get no credit for the course. If, after four years, the student doesn’t have the units to graduate, they don’t graduate. I am not suggesting that merely being present should ensure a passing grade, but not being present will almost always result in a failing grade.
But my point is that schools, and high schools in particular, should not be defacto babysitters. Retail stores offer goods for sale; if you see something you like, you can purchase it. High schools should offer the opportunity for an education; if you want an education, you can get an education – but you don’t have to if you absolutely don’t want to.
We have this perverse idea that the government can force all young people to become educated. We can’t. There are some students who don’t care and their families don’t care; as a general rule we can’t educate these kids. So we give them diplomas anyway because it makes the system look good while cheapening the value of a high school education for everyone.
Quite a few years ago, I attended a high school senior awards ceremony where some seniors were acknowledged for all sorts of accomplishments. One young man was acknowledged because his freshman year, he didn’t care and earned failing grades almost every subject. However, something happened and he decided that education would be important to him – he made up his failed classes over the next three years and graduated on time with his class with an overall C average. It was an impressive example of a young man deciding to make the most of the opportunity this high school offered him.
When I was scoring student essays in English Writing, I would have some readers who used to be teachers. They were the hardest ones to train how the state wanted them to score. They would actually try to argue with me when they gave the student a passing score and I told them they were wrong. Their ‘reason’?
“I know what they meant to say”.
I would try to explain that they were not grading the student, but scoring what they wrote and how they wrote it. I had to fire several readers because they didn’t want to fail the student even after I told them they were not doing the students any favors by passing them.
Oh, and the crayon just above the yellow one – Hillary’s Hork (that wad of lung she horked up into her water glass).
Excuse me, I made myself sick…
I’m sure they learned JUUUUUSSSSST enough… to protest for, “$15 an hour.” 🙄
Oh! Now I get it! Black LIES matter.
‘Cause they usually lie when confronted with a conundrum. That, or steal your lawnmower when you turn your back, using the alibi: “I thought it was mine.”
@Wyatt, Insensitive Progressive Jerk March 1, 2018 at 4:59 pm
So the “settled science” is some maybe, a bit of usually, a pound of might be, a sprinkling of could bes, and a whole lot of hand waving.
If the students are capable of proving competence, attendance is irrelevant. They might score better if they attend. They might score better if they don’t attend, and are thus able to study. They might be geniuses. None of which matters, if you are testing their competence.
If you “punish” them for lack of attendance, then you are rewarding them for attendance. Not competence. If you reward the head count for attendance, and you pay the forepersons according to herd size, you are running a, um, what can we call it? “A center, that cares for children, in their parents’ absence”. How’s that?
The only people deceived about The Party’s ability to educate, are those that believe The Party’s Re-Education Programs involve education.
It seems they are always able to come up with a good excuse for their failure to educate. Paychecks should be reduced to 42% of what is normally paid.
To remind them of their 58% failure rate!
This school in Washington, D.C., Maryland the teachers are babysitting then , parents can read or write, drugs, alcohol, and lot of do re mi ga so la ti do kids in the home, plenty of men’s , you don’t know who is the daddy. Welfare, and students that don’t give a flying fuc that is the problem in Washington, D.C., Maryland and the government keeps sending more money to the school, in Baltimore city all the money that the school receive is more than others countries and the kids are still dumb.