DIVERSITY-IN-ACTION: Baltimore Changes Grades of 12,000 Failing Students to Graduate Them
Shane Trejo
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A new report has shown that the city of Baltimore, Md. changed the grades of 12,000 failing students in order to graduate them despite the students not meeting the requirements to move forward.
The Maryland Inspector General for Education Richard Henry found that a “culture of fear and a veil of secrecy” prevented Baltimore school officials from “speaking freely about misconduct” in his report released on June 8.
Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) had previously denied any “widespread, systemic abuse or improper activity” when the grade inflation was exposed by local news. However, Henry’s report found that mass grade changes occurred by BCPS between 2016-2020. This is only for high school, as BCPS’ data of grade 2-8 students is kept hidden.
“If a student receives an F as a marking period grade, the numerical equivalent of that grade cannot be lower than a 50 when used to calculate the student’s final grade. If a student failed a marking period by earning a 50-59 that score should remain unchanged when calculating the student’s final grade,” the report states.
“This requirement is meant to allow students to improve their grade through diligent work in subsequent marking periods to pass the course,” the report adds. The report found that at least 12,542 grades were changed from failing to passing over a four-year span.
Big League Politics has reported on Baltimore’s low educational standards as diversity takes its toll on America’s inner cities:
“The city of Baltimore announced that it will pass students who failed during the 2020-21 school year to the next grade anyway, further cheapening educational standards in the name of equity.
Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises made the announcement during a virtual school board meeting on Tuesday.
“As we approach the end of the 2020-2021 school year, we all recognize that students have experienced incredibly significant challenges and interruptions in their learning,” Santelises said.
“With that in mind, the district has developed a fair and straightforward process for evaluating and recording students’ progress in the current school year,” she added.
Members of the school and community have made it clear that the “unique circumstances” that “black people have faced” were crucial in this decision of eliminating educational standards and passing failed students onto the next grade.
“We are going to avoid the punitive approach to failing students and the default reaction to unfairly retain students,” Baltimore City Schools Chief Academic Officer Joan Dabrowski said about her school district’s decision to abandon standards.
“Instead, we are going to … commit to our students as we plan for a multi-year academic recovery,” she added.
Under the new policy, the grading system will not change for preschool, kindergarten or first-grade students. Students from grades 2 on up, including middle school and high school students, will have their unsatisfactory or failing grades changed to “NC,” or not complete. They will be expected to complete these classes over the summer, but it is unclear if those standards will be enforced.”
This is the essence of multicultural America. All standards, virtue and decency are being eroded and replaced with the lowest common denominator.
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