Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

 Fox 45: Leaked documents show Baltimore high schoolers perform math, reading at grade school level

An alarming discovery out of Baltimore City Schools. Project Baltimore has obtained student assessment data that North Avenue does not release publicly. That data shows some students who could soon graduate, are performing at an elementary school level, academically.
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Now, Project Baltimore has obtained student assessment scores from just one class, in one high school, that show how widespread the problem appears to be.

iReady is a system schools use to measure at which grade level a student is performing. In Baltimore City Schools, iReady assessments are given in math and reading, three times a year, to measure a student’s progress. The scores we obtained show some students are performing 10 grade levels below their age.

iReady assessments are given in math and reading, three times a year. The scores we obtained show some students are performing 10 grade levels below their age (WBFF)

Fox45 News is not disclosing the school or the class to protect student identities. But we can report the iReady scores are for 11th graders in math and reading. Nine students completed the reading assessment, but only two scored at a high school level. One scored at a seventh-grade level. The other six scored at an elementary school level. In math, seven students completed the assessment. Two scored at a high school level. The rest, who are high school juniors in Baltimore City Schools, scored at an elementary level, including one student doing math at a first-grade level.

According to Education.com, a first-grade math worksheet includes simple addition and subtraction, like 2 plus 3 and 9 minus 7. First graders also do connect-the-dot puzzles where they draw lines in numerical order to create an image. The iReady assessments done by North Avenue, show that for at least one student, this is highest level of math they can do, yet that students made it to 11th grade in City Schools.

It's pretty clear that the purpose of schooling in Baltimore is primarily to shift tax money to administrators, teachers, and other school employees, while giving the students the level of cynicism required to survive, at least for a while on the streets of Baltimore.

The whole edifice needs to be torn down, the employees fired (as well as the politicians that encourage it), and start fresh. But that's not going to happen in the immediate future, sadly.