It's Not A Foul It's A Fail

While some politicians and educators in Baltimore are crying foul about the state take over of some schools, the statistics are showing "fail"!

Facts about the Failures of the Baltimore City School System
Source for statistics: Maryland State Department of Education

Every student in Baltimore City can learn if he or she is given the opportunity. Unfortunately, consistent failures in the Baltimore City School System have robbed thousands of students of the quality education and opportunity they deserve.

Last year, a federal judge found a “denial of student rights” under federal law, “a lack of sufficient leadership” and “a severe and sufficient problem with fiscal management and efficiency” in the City School System. The judge also ordered the State Department of Education to oversee management of the City’s long-troubled special education services.

Federal and state laws require the State Department of Education to intervene when a local school system persistently fails its students. As a result, the bipartisan State Board of Education voted overwhelmingly to find new leadership to manage eleven city middle and high schools. State Schools Superintendent Dr. Nancy Grasmick, who has held her post for fifteen years and worked with three governors, supports the improvement plan. Here is a snapshot of student performance at four schools the State Board selected:

Southwestern High School:

• 8.9% of students can read proficiently



• 1.6% of students are proficient at math



• For Southwestern’s freshman class of 2005, 99 out of 100 students will not pass their High School Assessment tests because they cannot read or perform math concepts.

Frederick Douglass High School:

• 15.8% of students read proficiently



• 3.5% of students are proficient at math



• 1.4% of students passed the biology component of their 2005 High School Assessment.

Patterson High School:

• 18.5% of students can read proficiently



• 9.9% of students are proficient at math



• 15.9% passed the English component of their 2005 High School Assessment.

Northwestern High School:

• 21% of students can read proficiently



• 6.6% of students are proficient at math



• 8.8% passed the government component of their 2005 High School Assessment.

• With rare exceptions, 80 to 90% of students in these schools failed their High School Assessment Test. Students were also absent on average 36 days – 7 weeks – per year.

• Baltimore Mayor O’Malley opposes the State Board’s improvement plan, but has offered no plan of his own improve student performance in these schools. The Mayor has increased city school funding by just one-third of one percent ($541,000) since 2003. Governor Ehrlich and the State of Maryland have increased city school funding by an historic 28 percent ($176 million) over that same time.

• Not only have Baltimore’s leaders consistently failed thousands of students; they have failed to match the Ehrlich Administration’s commitment to provide students with a first-class education.

Every Marylander – regardless of residence or party affiliation – has a stake in the future of this school system, where 90,000 young Marylanders deserve new leadership and a better education.

File Under : Maryland GOP

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