Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

Dave Strom at Haut Hare reports on Baltimore: not one student at these 23 schools can do math at grade level

Public school teachers need a raise.Sure, why not? It’s a tough job, and if they can get most of their students to learn the basics it makes sense to pay them well.

But what if, say, not one of their students can perform basic tasks at grade level? Not even one. Nada. Zip. Bupkus.

That’s the situation in Baltimore, where the city brags that they have some of the highest teacher salaries in the country.

After FOX45’s Project Baltimore’s report uncovering 23 schools in Baltimore City had zero students who tested proficient in math, some leaders representing the city aren’t talking about the problem.

The Maryland State Department of Education recently released the 2022 state test results known as MCAP, Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program. Baltimore City’s math scores were the lowest in the state; 7% of third through eighth graders tested proficient in math, meaning 93% could not do math at grade level.

Project Baltimore analyzed the test results and found 23 schools – including elementary, middle and high schools – that didn’t have one student performing at grade level.

Baltimore schools as a whole did better than those 23 worst-performing schools: a whopping 7% of students in grades 3-8 were proficient at math.

So not everything is terrible. Just 93% of everything is terrible.

As cynical as I am about Baltimore, even I have a problem that there's not one kid who didn't accidentally absorb enough math, or who was naturally gifted enough to get it despite the obvious malpractice in the schools.