Baltimore High School Students Can't Read, Write, Or Do Math
But problems that are buried are problems that won't be fixed.
Walter Williams writes:
The U.S. Department of Justice has recently sued the Baltimore County government alleging that its written test for police officer recruits was unfairly biased against black applicants. It turns out that black applicants failed the written test at a rate much greater than white applicants. That results in fewer blacks being trained and hired as police officers....Baltimore City uses Municipal Police Selection Test. You can examine some sample questions at its website. I'd like to know which of the questions are either unrelated to police work or racist. Many jurisdictions use The National Police Officer Selection Test. You can examine some of the sample questions at its website. Again, I'd like to know which of the questions are unrelated to police work or are racially biased questions. In addition, it has been found that MPST and POST are successful predictors of law enforcement training success and job performance.
Black performance on police exams is simply the tip of the iceberg of a truly tragic cruelty. That cruelty stands front and center when one examines the education that most blacks in Baltimore receive. Several years ago, Project Baltimore began an investigation of Baltimore's school system. What they found was an utter disgrace. In 19 of Baltimore's high schools, out of 3,804 students, only 14 of them, or less than 1%, were proficient in math. In 13 of Baltimore's 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient in math. In five Baltimore City high schools, not a single student scored proficient in math or reading. Despite these academic deficiencies, about 70% of the students graduate and are conferred a high school diploma. A high school diploma attests that the holder can read, write and compute at a 12th-grade level. Obviously, the diplomas conferred on students who have not mastered reading, writing and computing are fraudulent.
...The conclusion that Baltimore County's written test for police officer recruits was unfairly biased against black applicants is tragic. It allows Baltimore public schools to continue to produce fraudulent education. You say: "Hold it, Williams! You can't blame everything on schools." You're right. One cannot blame schools and teachers for students who are hostile to the education process. One cannot blame schools and teachers for a rotten home environment or derelict parents. But there is one thing entirely within the control of educators. That's their power to issue diplomas. When they confer high school diplomas on youngsters who cannot read, write and compute at or near a 12th-grade level, they are engaging in fraudulent conduct.
Promoting kids who don't know the material probably helps schools with their stats but it ruins people who could be literate, functioning adults. Chris Papst writes at WBFF :
In 1968, this man was a sophomore at what was Clifton Park High School. He says the same thing happened to him. And it ruined his life."I was wondering how I was passing. They kept moving me on. They were passing me when I shouldn't have been passing."
In sixth grade, at 11-years-old, he remembers falling behind, but the school kept promoting him. By 10th grade, he tells FOX45, he couldn't do the work.
"I wasn't learning like I should. It felt bad. I was teased a lot in school."
At 16, he became so frustrated he dropped out. The next 50 years would be a struggle. He's been homeless, shot at, spent time in jail and sold drugs.
"I'm sorry I ever did it," he lamented. "But it was a way of supporting myself at the time."
You see, he always had a hard time supporting himself because he's always had a hard time getting work. Before this man dropped out of school, there was one thing he never learned to do. This 66-year-old made it to 10th grade in Baltimore City Schools, and he can't read.
The worst part is that by conferring the diploma, the school is telling the graduate that he's prepared for the world - and he isn't, not even close. To get by as an adult, he's going to need to be able to learn things, to grow, to develop new skills. At least the drop-out knows he's failed to meet certain criteria, the graduate thinks he's met them.
Conan the Grammarian at September 23, 2019 3:59 AM
Lock the administrators up. That's pure fraud.
Fraud against the students. Fraud against the parents, who likely can not read, write or do arithmetic. Fraud against the taxpayers.
I R A Darth Aggie at September 23, 2019 6:23 AM
There've got to be some nice suburbs. Right?
I know nothing about the city at all. It's on the East Coast. But no news from that city in the last 40 years has suggested it's anything but a hellhole.
Crid at September 23, 2019 6:41 AM
Why is it always lower the standard rather than raise the level of education? (that's a rhetorical question. We all know the answer)
Jay at September 23, 2019 7:17 AM
Charter schools full of black kids do in fact meet standards (or exceed them) but for some reason public school teachers hate them. Go figure.
cc at September 23, 2019 12:05 PM
When I graduated from high school in the early 80s, I was aware that about half of the graduating class could not read, write or do math beyond a 6th grade level. I was also aware that in order to pass the GED, one did not need to know reading, writing or math beyond a 6th grade level. A high school diploma has never signified that a recipient had academic skills at a 12th grade level.
Fayd at September 23, 2019 4:31 PM
Crid, there is a largely decent part of Baltimore that's mostly White, shaped like an L running from the north side of it down to the harbor area and Convention Center. The rest of the area is basically fair to poor and rundown, and mostly Black. The corrupt education system and government of Baltimore have ensured that the places outside the L are horrible, crime-riddled places. The news shows from the area -- yes, I know how much you hate the "Tee Vee" -- routinely discuss the murders that take lace on a practically daily basis in Baltimore and surrounding areas.
Last year, I attended a running and workout session in a park east of the downtown area, in the vicinity of which THREE MURDERS HAPPENED THE NIGHT BEFORE. Also, earlier this year, one of the police department bigwigs and his wife were robbed near that same park.
Baltimore -- which I often call Baltimordor -- also has the highest PER CAPITA murder rate in the US, even though the absolute number of murders in a year is typically significantly lower than Chicago's number. Some of the pictures of run down housing out of that city would remind you of Detroit (sorry, Amy).
mpetrie98 at September 23, 2019 4:40 PM
I've met high school graduates from the '50s and even the '60s who, without a college education, have reading, writing, and math skills beyond what some college graduates from today have; not to mention have read more books from the canon of literature. So, I'm gonna go with the argument that a high school diploma did once represent an actual education.
Conan the Grammarian at September 23, 2019 4:50 PM
I'm going to split the difference between the two of you Conan and Fayd. I've met people who never graduated from high school from back in the 50s who are better educated than some college graduates of today. I've also met ones who graduated with no education.
Then as today it depends on the high school.
Ben at September 23, 2019 6:14 PM
Isn't there an app for that?
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at September 23, 2019 8:20 PM
I'm going to split the difference between the two of you Conan and Fayd. I've met people who never graduated from high school from back in the 50s who are better educated than some college graduates of today. I've also met ones who graduated with no education.
Then as today it depends on the high school.
Ben at September 23, 2019 6:14 PM
My father never finished high school. Wasn’t considered particularly important for boys in the late 1920’s. Finished first in his class of 1200 at Aircraft Armorer’s school for World War II.
He was smarter and better read than my mother who was third in her class at the University of South Carolina in 1946.
Those pieces of paper didn't mean much then. Mean even less today.
Isab at September 23, 2019 9:09 PM
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