DarkStar Spouts Off

Hard Times...

I don't have much time but that documentary laid it out very clearly. Parents/guardians/students are a major component in the failures of Douglass High School.

The entire household saw the show. Mrs. D.S. and I are STILL talking about it. It confirms EVERY. DAMN. THING. I have said about the Baltimore city school system, plus some. Passing kids along to pass them along! What the hell are the degrees worth? Nothing! I've also mentioned the parents/grandparents/guardians not doing what is required for their children.

And then to say NCLB is to blame? There is no way a school can meet the NCLB requirements under those circumstances. None. But even saying that, the movie did a SEVERE injustice in not going into the details of the attempted take over of the school by the state and how the state assembly blocked the plan simply because the assembly is dominated by Democrats and the take over was attempted during a Republican governor's administration.

Like I said before, to hell with the students! Democrats can't look bad!

Or was NCLB really just a hook to really show "inner city school" dysfunction and non-participation by students and parents/grandparents/guardians without having cries of "racism!" being made?

Hmmmmm.....

NCLB Failure

This hurts because every older adult in my family who grew up in Baltimore went to the high school profiled in the HBO documentary. This show was about failure of a school because of failure by the students and the parents/guardians of the students.

Hard Times At Douglass High

If you missed it, you have to catch it.

Baltimore Schools Chief Alonso Is A Putz

About 6 years ago I attended a Baltimore City school board meeting addressing the fact that students who don't live up to magnet school standards, such as those at City, Poly, and Western, were being sent back to their zoned schools. The meeting included students who were sent back. I do not exaggerate or lie when I say THE STUDENTS ADMITTED THEY DIDN'T DO WHAT WAS NECESSARY TO STAY IN THOSE SCHOOLS!

So, when I read this, I went postal!

Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso is making it harder for the city's elite magnet high schools to remove students who are struggling academically.

Alonso says that the schools are already getting the city's brightest students and that they have an obligation to work with them. Historically, he said, a significant number of students who began as freshmen at Polytechnic Institute, City College and Western High were not still enrolled four years later at graduation.

"That's unacceptable," Alonso said in an interview. "It represents a lack of accountability on the part of the school given the fact that they begin with students who by definition are the most academically able students in the city. ... My expectation is that they succeed with them, that they put in place not only extraordinary educational programs but also the interventions that are necessary."

Alonso is a putz! There ARE interventions in place! Students cannot be returned without having not met the interventions!

Sure, ruin the magnet schools just like the regular schools! AGAIN: Blow up the damn system and let the magnets become charters!

He Has More Sense Than Adults

This "kid" has more sense than the Baltimore City Public School administration and teacher's union. I include the teacher's union because it seems to me if teachers are getting regularly assaulted in school and the administration regularly returns the offenders to the same school, the teacher's union should be raising hell and calling for strikes.

This opinion article is written by a Baltimore city public high school ninth grader:

Take my life, for example: Every day I come to school with a fresh mind and am ready to complete my work and do the right thing in school. But other kids behave differently when they are not around those with authority.

Students want to test who will stand up for themselves. A lot of good kids are trying to fit in (by being like everyone else) and, therefore, they decide to become gang members or drug dealers.

Gang members are jumping kids for no reason at all, and so other kids say to themselves, "Well, they are jumping me anyway, so I am going to become one of them to be safe."

I think it is easy for a good kid to turn bad. But it is hard for a bad kid to turn good. And sometimes it is hard to find the other kids who really want to do well.

I think that students will be motivated to do well if others will stand up with them. It takes one person at a time, but it's scary to start.

As I've explained to my mom and dad, it is hard to do good things when kids are messing with you. Kids want to tell adults what is going on, but then other kids will consider you a rat or a snitch. Then that's a problem for the person who told.

So a good student sometimes feels stuck because he or she does not know what to do. That scares a lot of students.

To the people of Baltimore, I say: Save the kids who want to be a part of something good and keep them from being influenced by others who are making bad choices. Help the good students to know that they are not the only ones who are trying to do the right thing.

A lot of kids are trying hard but need some help or advice. We are not a waste of time.

In September of 2006, I wrote about a meeting I was having with then Gov. Ehrlich's aides concerning education. The first three bullet points dealt with controlling the school.

• Disruptive students get suspended. The parents must go to the school to get the students back into school.
• Kids with multiple suspensions are suspended and not allowed to return to school until the students are tested to find academic deficiencies. This is done because many kids who are disruptive in school, are also having academic problems. They may also be having personal problems but that is a fine line that I don't want to cross with government intrusion.
• School and parents/guardians must agree to a plan to bring kid back up to speed. This may include being transfered to another school just for that purpose.

I made that the first bullet points for a reason; in order for learning to occur, a learning environment must exist. A learning environment does not exist with disruptive students. All of my writing comes down to

Read the entire article.

Blow up the damn Baltimore City Public School System!

This Really Ticks Me Off!

In September of 2006, I wrote about a meeting I was having with then Gov. Ehrlich's aides concerning education. The first three bullet points dealt with controlling the school.

• Disruptive students get suspended. The parents must go to the school to get the students back into school.
• Kids with multiple suspensions are suspended and not allowed to return to school until the students are tested to find academic deficiencies. This is done because many kids who are disruptive in school, are also having academic problems. They may also be having personal problems but that is a fine line that I don't want to cross with government intrusion.
• School and parents/guardians must agree to a plan to bring kid back up to speed. This may include being transfered to another school just for that purpose.

I made that the first bullet points for a reason; in order for learning to occur, a learning environment must exist. A learning environment does not exist with disruptive students. All of my writing comes down to this opinion article written by a Baltimore city public high school ninth grader:

Take my life, for example: Every day I come to school with a fresh mind and am ready to complete my work and do the right thing in school. But other kids behave differently when they are not around those with authority.

Students want to test who will stand up for themselves. A lot of good kids are trying to fit in (by being like everyone else) and, therefore, they decide to become gang members or drug dealers.

Gang members are jumping kids for no reason at all, and so other kids say to themselves, "Well, they are jumping me anyway, so I am going to become one of them to be safe."

I think it is easy for a good kid to turn bad. But it is hard for a bad kid to turn good. And sometimes it is hard to find the other kids who really want to do well.

I think that students will be motivated to do well if others will stand up with them. It takes one person at a time, but it's scary to start.

As I've explained to my mom and dad, it is hard to do good things when kids are messing with you. Kids want to tell adults what is going on, but then other kids will consider you a rat or a snitch. Then that's a problem for the person who told.

So a good student sometimes feels stuck because he or she does not know what to do. That scares a lot of students.

To the people of Baltimore, I say: Save the kids who want to be a part of something good and keep them from being influenced by others who are making bad choices. Help the good students to know that they are not the only ones who are trying to do the right thing.

A lot of kids are trying hard but need some help or advice. We are not a waste of time.

This "kid" has more sense than the Baltimore City Public School administration and teacher's union. I include the teacher's union because it seems to me if teachers are getting regularly assaulted in school and the administration regularly returns the offenders to the same school, the teacher's union should be raising hell and calling for strikes.

Read the entire article.

Blow up the damn Baltimore City Public School System!

Black Or Not, Off The Hook, Suspend 'em!

I really am sensitive, shall we say, to this situation. My daughter had a teacher who wanted her put on Ritalin because she thought my daughter talked too much. Well, my daughter DID talk too much, especially when she wasn't challenged enough, but for a girl, in kindergarten and first grade, talking too much is normal! For us, her parents, the final straw came when the teacher, again, suggested Ritalin and said if we didn't do it, my daughter's punishment may get more severe which would cause a permanent entry in her school record. My daughter was in the first grade and a woman who had no medical experience at all, was demanding my child be placed on a drug. The school said although there have been complaints by some parents suggesting the woman didn't know how to handle a class, the school would back the teacher. At the end of the school year, we pulled her from the Lutheran school and placed her in a Catholic school.

However, if your child is misbehaving, Black or not, there have to be consequences.

Schools address black students' suspensions

Under pressure to reduce the suspension rate of black students, Anne Arundel County is making progress by training staff in how to work with people of different backgrounds and giving troublesome students more support.

Experts say such training is a key to keeping African-American students throughout Maryland in school. Last year, 13.9 percent of black children were suspended statewide, compared with 5.8 percent of white kids. Studies have linked suspensions and expulsions to lower academic achievement and higher dropout rates.

Teachers and administrators may misinterpret the body language and occasional confrontational behavior that some African-Americans learn in their neighborhoods and use at school as a way of standing up for themselves, veteran educators say. They will often back down if they're made to feel safe.

"Being rude means one thing to you and another to me," said Ella White Campbell, a retired city school teacher and an education advocate in Baltimore County.

While I understand the concern, MAYBE instead of "cultural training" of the teachers, training of the kids may be in order. Again, this seems to come down to home training. Rude is rude no matter what your race.

Their Kids Aren't In Baltimore City Public Schools

A recent article appeared in the Baltimore City edition of The Examiner asking "Where is the outrage"?

In light of the recent ongoing episodes of school violence, I am wondering whether there are any parents left who care. Are any parents willing to rally together to help their schools, or are they resigned to the notion that they can’t make a difference?

An assault on a teacher or a photographer at school is everyone’s problem. When children no longer respect authority and teachers are no longer safe to teach, everyone suffers. Children still go to school to receive an education, right? We have a responsibility to protect both the students and — yes — the teachers from assault and abuse.

So, what can parents do? For starters, parents can volunteer and encourage other parents to do so. If a few parents do a little, it will lessen the burden on the already taxed school staff. Parents also can let their children know that safety is a basic requirement, not a luxury. Parents can unite together to keep their children safe. Parents who care, that is.

I've been saying for some time that the Baltimore City Public School system needs a core of parents who give a damn. The core doesn't have to be the majority of parents, but it has to be large enough to be not only heard, but feared. The structure of the school system makes it hard for the administration, be it at the school level or at the administration level, to fear the parents, but that fear component has to exist. Right now it doesn't exist.

And where is the outrage? Well, the parents who give a damn either have their children in the magnet schools which don't have issues or the parents don't send their children to the Baltimore public schools because the parents moved or use fake addresses to send their children to county schools.

Baltimore City Schools

There is a news story about a Baltimore City Public School teacher being beaten up by one of her students while other students cheer. And, it's on YouTube.

The student should be tried as an adult and the parents(s) should also do some time.

More later.

[ UPDATES ]

Here's a link to a Baltimore Sun article.

The trouble began, Jolita  Berry said, when she asked a  girl in one of her art classes at  Reginald F. Lewis High School  to sit down.

The student did not obey,  coming closer to confront the  teacher. "She said she's gonna  bang me," Berry said. "I said,  'Back up, you're in my space. If  you hit me, I'm gonna defend  myself.'"

But Berry, who is 30 and  started her job teaching art at  the Northeast Baltimore  school in December, did not defend herself. The girl caught  the teacher off guard as other  students cheered her on and  screamed, "Hit her!"

"She just started beating on  me relentlessly," Berry said, recalling the Friday morning incident that left her with a sore  shoulder and a broken blood  vessel in her eye.

Here is a link to the news video.

Kids cheered. All of the kids who cheered and encouraged that girl should be charged with inciting a riot.

Comments R Me: Cali and Home Schooling

Concerning this bit of news, over at P6's spot I wrote the following comment:

How about this?

When we lock up the parents and teachers and school officials involved in public schools when TayKwan graduates functionally illiterate, then I'll support your point. Until then, Cali is practicing facism.

Yeah, then I'll be down with that ruling.

Leave Cali Now

When a parent has to have credentials in order to home school their own children, even if the parent is using a program from a credentialed school, something is wrong:

A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.

The homeschooling movement never saw the case coming.

"At first, there was a sense of, 'No way,' " said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association. "Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation."

The ruling arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher, but holds no teaching credential.

The parents said they also enrolled their children in Sunland Christian School, a private religious academy in Sylmar (Los Angeles County), which considers the Long children part of its independent study program and visits the home about four times a year.

The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home.

And it is telling when the teachers union hails the ruling:

The ruling was applauded by a director for the state's largest teachers union.

"We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."

Damn, it seems like we are moving closer to having the government raise our children. Think about how the government responded to Katrina or how the government responded to this.

Mychal Massie:Race Hustling HBCUs

[ Update 2/24/2008 ] Amy Redenour's National Center Blog responds to this blog entry at this link in an addendum from Amy. In it she writes, among other things that I will respond to in a separate post:

The college presidents and DarkStar attacked Abigail Thernstrom, yet Abigail Thernstrom's essay was jointly written with her husband, Stephan Thernstrom. Isn't the man's input as worthy of note as the female's?

I used Abigail's name only because the presidents only used her name. Amy is right that it is written by Stephan Thernstrom as well. As such, I've updated this entry to go from just referencing Abigail to referencing both of them. That was my bad.

For those of you who are getting here via the National Center Blog, follow this link for my detailed response to Amy Redenour.

---

Mychal Massie of Project 21 is continuing his race hustling ways in this letter to the editor:

There is no debate that historically black institutions have been permitted to escape adherence to Title IV specifically because they are black. What's more, they have escaped penalty while their proponents viciously castigate other institutions for lacking diversity.

It displays hubris of gargantuan proportions when those chastising Ms. Thernstrom insist that the federal government support further violation of Title IV.

Advocating race-based privileges that favor blacks while vehemently opposing nonblack enterprises doing the same is having it both ways.

He is responding to a letter co-written by presidents of Morgan, Coppin, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Bowie:

Apparently, one such person is U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Abigail Thernstrom, who suggested in a recent Wall Street Journal column that the object of the civil rights movement was to eliminate historically black colleges and universities and move the most talented black students into white institutions rather than providing both black and white students equal opportunities to a quality education at either an HBI or a traditionally white campus. Such mistaken interpretations of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the landmark 1992 Fordice Supreme Court case do a great injustice to historically black institutions and the students they serve. Most unfortunately, they threaten to open old wounds related to race and poverty.

Massie doesn't address their point concerning Thernstrom's "implication".

Worrying About Education

D.S. 2.0 is 2 1/2. We already have a college investment account set up and being funded and we have an educational account set up and being funded. I'm in the process of finding a bigger home to move my family to and the process includes looking at the educational system of the areas that I think are desirable. This is despite the fact the plan is to send D.S. 2.0 to private school or to home school him. My thought process is if, for some reason, we are forced to put him into public school, the public school system will be decent enough that we won't have to spend a lot of money to supplement the public school education just to reach a level of education that we, his parents, find acceptable. It's for this reason that I scratched out Prince Georges County, Maryland, even though I know the areas were up scale Black families, who are more likely to have similar values to ours, live. I don't need an all Black neighborhood, but it would be nice to see more Black families, like mine, on a daily basis.

Because of that, I really understand what is going on with the author of this article, The Bourgie Blues:

I didn't have to read Lacy's book to know this. Though my days of heavy lifting as a parent are drawing to a well-earned conclusion (my daughter is a third-year college student and almost emancipated), I have always been fascinated by discussions of how  black parents raise their children. Personal experience and pained conversation with other parents assures me that this issue occupies an enormous volume of middle-class black parents' waking hours.

When my wife and I moved to Atlanta with an infant daughter more than 20 years ago, we made a conscious and deliberate decision to live around other middle-class black people in Dekalb County. We did the same a few years later when we moved to Washington, D.C., choosing to relocate in the same Prince George's County community that Lacy studied. (A note of disclosure: Lacy and I are friends and I assisted her in locating neighbors in our subdivision for her research.)

My wife and I thought it would be best – and easier – to raise a healthy and happy black daughter, if she was constantly exposed to other middle-class black families.

A decade later, we wanted to do the same when we moved to northeast Ohio, but were shocked to discover that Greater Cleveland lacks an upwardly mobile, predominately black middle-class community. So we settled in a largely white suburb with highly regarded schools. It turned out all right, I suppose, but still I wish I'd had another, predominately black and middle-class option.

                       

Yes, I understand. For me, right now, finding a suitable home is paramount, education for D.S. 2.0 is involved in the decision, and then developing multiple income streams for myself so that I can leave sizable legacy wealth for Miss D.S. and D.S. 2.0

Algebra Project Students Arrested In Maryland

Check this out:

About two dozen Baltimore City high school students from the Algebra Project were arrested on the steps of the State House on Wednesday after a demonstration on Lawyer's Mall protesting Gov. Martin O'Malley's reductions to growth in school aid.

Department of General Service police, who guard the buildings, and State Police troopers, who protect the members of the General Assembly, detained and handcuffed the students, but they were released later and not charged with any crime.

Why were they protesting?

Dolores Foster, a parent who accompanied the students, said the group had met with O'Malley as mayor, and he had told them that it was Gov. Robert Ehrlich who was not funding city schools. "He's withholding more money than Gov. Ehrlich," Foster said. The demonstration "was all the students' idea."

And Ehrlich only "withheld" the OPTIONALfunding part of Thorton.

UNCF

I'm watching the UNCF show on television and I noticed, once again, the major corporations and foundations that have given money to the UNCF. The 2006 annual report is here. I have to point this out from page 11 (13 in the PDF):

$1,000,000 AND UP

JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Merck & Company, Inc.
MetLife Foundation
Ocean Bank
RBC Liberty Insurance
U.S. Bancorp Foundation
Wachovia Foundation

$500,000–$999,999

Bloomberg L.P.
The Coca-Cola Company
Dell
Foot Locker
Foundation, Inc.
General Motors Foundation
HSBC — North America
McDonald’s
Prudential
Office Depot, Inc.
The Procter & Gamble Fund
Sallie Mae Fund of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region
Target Stores, Inc.
Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc.
The UPS Foundation
Wal-Mart Foundation
Target Stores, Inc.
Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc.
The UPS Foundation
Wal-Mart Foundation

Please remember this when people try to snow you about racist corporations or the evils of capitalism.

Why I Support Vouchers And Charters

This is why I support vouchers and charter schools!

"I don't think he thinks we're dumb," 12th grader Crystal Scarlett said. "He just thinks we can do much better than we're doing."

But not everyone agreed.

Last month, Principal Bennett Lieberman sent off a stern memo to teachers.

"If you are not passing more than 65 percent of your students in a class, then you are not designing your expectations to meet their abilities, and you are setting your students up for failure, which, in turn, limits your success as a professional."

Was he ordering teachers to dumb down their classes?

The memo continued:

"Most of our students come from the lowest third percentile in academic achievement, have difficult home lives, and struggle with life in general. They DO NOT have a similar upbringing nor a similar school experience to our experiences growing up."

LET MY PEOPLE GO!

Black Gender Enrollment In College

At Howard, the enrollment of women to men is about 65% to 35%. I've been told at other co-ed HBCUs, the numbers are similar. However, when this has been mentioned, I tended to mention that, overall, women are now the majority on college campuses. I said it to try to put a proper perspective on things.

P6 got mad about a segment on NBC News and went digging. He got the results and I'm straight jackin' it.

U.S. College Enrollment Rates, 2005

Black Women 18-24: 37%
Black Men 18-24: 28%

White Women 18-24: 46%
White Men 18-24: 39%

Charters Putting Catholic Schools Out Of Business

Again, not much time. A lot of code to write and test and integrate. More traveling.

Seven D.C. Catholic Schools to Become Public Charter Schools

Seven D.C. Catholic schools will undergo conversions to charter schools, Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl announced today. His decision means that the schools will no longer operate as religious schools but will receive public funds and be run by a charter operator.

Wuerl announced in September that he was considering conversion for eight of 12 Catholic schools operating as the Center City Consortium because he said the archdiocese could no longer afford to subsidize the financially struggling schools. The proposal touched a nerve among black Catholics who protested by holding prayer rallies and writing letters to Wuerl. They were concerned that the move by the archdiocese would limit high-quality education options for African American children.

I bet the established edu-crats will stop complaining about charter schools until they put Catholic schools "out of business"!

There Is NO Reason To Feel Guilty

There is absolutely NO reason for David Nicholson to feel guilty. He did what, as a parent, he is REQUIRED to do. He put his family FIRST before his lofty ideals.

As a parent who sent his daughter to Lutheran and then Catholic school from K - 8, and then a public magnet school, I whole heartily support charter schools, vouchers, and "school choice." As a parent whose son will be entering school in about 3 years, I whole heartily support the idea that parents should make what they think is the best choices for their children, be it sending them to charter schools, private schools, or home schooling. We have to do what is right for our children. I won't sacrifice my son, either!

When a high school friend told me several years ago that he and his wife were leaving Washington's Mount Pleasant neighborhood for Montgomery County, I snickered and murmured something about white flight. Progressives who traveled regularly to Cuba and Brazil, they wanted better schools for their children. I saw their decision as one more example of liberal hypocrisy.

I was childless then, but I have a 6-year-old now. And I know better. So to all the friends -- most but not all of them white -- whom I've chastised over the years for abandoning the District once their children reached school age:

I'm sorry. You were right. I was wrong.

After nearly 20 years in the city's Takoma neighborhood, the last six in a century-old house that my wife and I thought we'd grow old in, we have forsaken the city for the suburbs.

...

Any one of these academic and social issues would have been problematic; together, they were reasons to start looking elsewhere. So in early September -- after putting our house on the market at the start of the mortgage loan crunch, after closing on one house in the morning and the other in the afternoon and then moving the next day -- our son started at his new school in Vienna. Fairfax County schools have consistently been rated excellent, and I was encouraged by the simple things that parents here take for granted, but that too often turn out to be impossible in Washington.

When I e-mailed a Fairfax principal one evening in May, I didn't expect a response before the morning. Ten minutes later, he replied with an invitation to visit his school. I said that I wanted to talk to a teacher or two. One called the next day. I couldn't return her call immediately. A day later, she left a message asking me to phone her at home that weekend.

When I called my high school friend to tell him that I was writing this, he was surprised to hear that we'd moved. "I'd always sort of admired you," he said, "for your commitment to the city." I felt as guilty as I'd probably made him feel years ago.

Like I wrote above, there is no need to feel guilty. What will be interesting, to me, will be the comments made by opinion types to the article.

At the elite colleges - dim white kids

At the elite colleges - dim white kids

 

Surf the websites of such institutions and you will find press releases boasting that they have increased their black and Hispanic enrollments, admitted bumper crops of National Merit scholars or became the destination of choice for hordes of high school valedictorians. Many are bragging about the large share of applicants they rejected, as a way of conveying to the world just how popular and selective they are.

What they almost never say is that many of the applicants who were rejected were far more qualified than those accepted. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, it was not the black and Hispanic beneficiaries of affirmative action, but the rich white kids with cash and connections who elbowed most of the worthier applicants aside.

Researchers with access to closely guarded college admissions data have found that, on the whole, about 15 percent of freshmen enrolled at America's highly selective colleges are white teens who failed to meet their institutions' minimum admissions standards.

Five years ago, two researchers working for the Educational Testing Service, Anthony Carnevale and Stephen Rose, took the academic profiles of students admitted into 146 colleges in the top two tiers of Barron's college guide and matched them up against the institutions' advertised requirements in terms of high school grade point average, SAT or ACT scores, letters of recommendation, and records of involvement in extracurricular activities. White students who failed to make the grade on all counts were nearly twice as prevalent on such campuses as black and Hispanic students who received an admissions break based on their ethnicity or race.

More at the link provided.

Education, Part III

I have a lot to say about this, but right now, time constraints won't allow it. There are contradictions here, some doing the right thing, some having no clue. And the people "of means" who have no clue need to be hit upside the head with a baseball bat!!!! HTF did they become "of means" if SOMEONE didn't help/push them in education along the way?

Lowering Standards, Part II

[Updated 9/8/07 ]

It looks like the other shoe has dropped in the lowering of standards in Maryland. It looks like it is because Black students are performing as well as expected. From what I can tell right now, the schools that didn't do well, if you know the area and the influx of students from people who were moved from the projects into areas in the county, this is not unexpected.

When Maryland's top school officer proposed that the state back away from its tough high school testing program last week, one reason might have been the troubling performance of some suburban schools.

An alarming pattern of failure is surfacing: Minority students, especially African-Americans, are struggling to pass the exams in the suburban classrooms their families had hoped would provide a better education.

"It is a wake-up call to African-Americans in Maryland," said Dunbar Brooks, president of the state school board and former president of the Baltimore County school board. "For many African-Americans, the mere fact that your child attends a suburban school district does not make academic achievement automatic."

And then for Anne Arundel County, this has been a ongoing issue for a few years now and from what I can tell, the concentrations of "lower class" homes and projects, like those in Annapolis where many don't expect projects to be, are a big source.

It's interesting to see the results of Baltimore County Schools when, currently, the graduation rate for Black students is 85% and for white students it is 88%. So, either they are graduating with low averages or there is social promotion going on.

More later...

[ Updated ]

What they show is that in Baltimore County alone, nearly a third of the system's roughly two dozen high schools had pass rates of 60 percent or less. Also, high schools with predominantly African-American populations, such as Randallstown and Woodlawn, had passing rates mostly below 50 percent.

In Randallstown and Woodlawn, there has been a big influx of people from Baltimore but the influx is no longer one of middle class or above parents moving there, but parents who have been moved from demolished projects and/or Section-8 housing. Additionally, Randallstown has the highest concentration of group homes than all other jurisdictions in Maryland. I have friends and relatives in the area, and for about the past 5 years, they have been telling me about the increase in crime and the change in the students attending the schools.

This is from today's column by Greg Kane:

Perhaps a rehash of what these annoying tests exactly are might be in order. Starting with the Class of 2009 -- this school year's unlucky juniors, who must be wondering why they were picked to get the booby prize -- students must pass tests in algebra, biology, English and government to graduate. According to Bill Reinhard, a spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Education, scores of 412 in algebra, 400 in biology, 396 in English and 394 in government are considered proficient. The scoring range for each test is 240 to 650 points.

But students don't have to score at the proficient level to pass. The minimum score for passing the algebra test is 402 points; for biology it's 391 points; for English 386; points and for government 387 points. Those of you who are quick at math will note that all those minimum scores are closer to the 240 points at the bottom of the scale than the 650 at the top.

There is also a way for students to flunk one or more tests and still pass the battery of assessments without having to do a senior project. If their total score is 1,602 -- the sum of the proficient scores for each of the four tests -- they'll get a diploma. And remember, the maximum a student can score on all four tests is 2,600. Students are basically required to score a 62 for tests that are at the ninth- and 10th-grade levels.

Huh? A passing grade of 62. What is it O'Malley has against Grasmick again, exactly? Can this be the same O'Malley who vigorously defended Baltimore school system officials when they lowered the passing grade for city students from 70 to 60?

I mentioned the lowering of a passing grade here.

This really means the Maryland high school diploma is a piece of trash.

Maryland Lowers Education Standards

[Updated]

For years now, high schools have known the day was coming when students would have to pass a test in order to graduate from a Maryland high school with a diploma. Now, all of a sudden, the Maryland school system wants to come up with an "alternative" means of students working on a "project" so that those who "don't test well" can still pass and get the diploma.

This is lowering the education standards.

Students who fail to pass state-mandated standardized tests would still have an opportunity to graduate under a plan proposed Tuesday by State Schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick.

The State Board of Education will vote in October on the plan, which would apply to children who meet all other requirements for graduation but can't pass the High School Assessment exams in one or more subjects. Passing scores on the HSAs will be required for graduation starting with the class of 2009 - this year's sophomores.

Education officials believe the alternative to the test will essentially prevent the state from denying diplomas to students who would have graduated before the tests became mandatory.

Students who meet all their local school system requirements for graduation - including adequate grades and attendance - "deserve to get a diploma," Grasmick told the board. She said the program would help children who are dedicated to learning but fare poorly on the tests "for reasons of test anxiety or for reasons of perhaps not having some of the support they needed."

A relatively small group of students - between 2,000 and 3,000 in the class of 2009 - are expected to be eligible to earn diplomas without passing the tests. The overwhelming majority of those who fail to graduate in 2009 and beyond will fall short for the same reasons as in the past - because they flunk classes or drop out of school, officials said.

"They weren't going to graduate before; they're not going to graduate now," said Ronald A. Peiffer, deputy superintendent for academic policy.

For the HSAs to be waived as a graduation requirement, students would be required to complete custom-designed projects that demonstrate proficiency in the subject areas where their test scores fell short. For instance, a student who failed the algebra and biology tests would be assigned a single project that would require knowledge of both subjects to complete.

 

With this, a high school degree from Maryland won't mean a thing.

Open Letter To Maryland County Executives

The following letter has been sent to all Maryland county executives, Governor Martin O'Malley, and State Superintendent of Schools, Nancy S. Grasmick.

Dear County Executive,
As we start the new school year I would like for you to consider where the students who attend your school system REALLY live. Do they really live within your county or are they really living in another jurisdiction and attending your school system because it is perceived to be better than the school system they should attend?

For example, there are many Baltimore city parents who lie about where they live so that their children can attend better school systems in Baltimore County, Howard County, or Anne Arundel County. In the past I’ve read the Baltimore and Howard County school systems pay people to verify the addresses of students who are suspected of living outside of their jurisdictions. If they find a student does not live in the county, the student is removed from the school system. While this is fair for the counties to do, I would like to propose a “solution” to the situation that doesn’t involve removing the student from the school and allowing the student the chance to obtain a decent education.

Baltimore City has a few schools that rank near the top in the state; Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Baltimore City College, Western High School, and the Baltimore School of the Arts High School are the schools. Each of these schools also has students from outside of Baltimore City who attend the school. Parents whose children meet the entrance criteria and who are accepted, and who live outside of Baltimore City, pay to attend the schools. My proposal would be to apply this same concept across the state of Maryland.

If parents live in one jurisdiction and want to send their children to school in another jurisdiction, they could pay for the privilege to do so. The amount paid would be cost per student of the jurisdiction to which they want to send their children. However, students who live in the jurisdiction would get priority. If there is room left in the school, then the out of jurisdiction students would be allowed to attend on a first come first serve basis or a lottery basis. Another payment option would be to “transfer” the money from one jurisdiction to another jurisdiction. For example, suppose the Anne Arundel system costs $5000 per student while the Howard County system costs $6000 per student. If there is space available in a Howard County school, the Anne Arundel County school system would “transfer” $5000 to the Howard County school system. The parent would make up the $1000 difference. If a Baltimore City parent wanted to send their child to a Howard County school, and it costs $9000 per student in Baltimore City, Baltimore City would “transfer” $5000 to Howard County. Baltimore City would keep the $4000 difference.

This solution should be amenable to those who advocate “school choice” and to those who advocate the current scheme of public schools. Additionally, since in jurisdiction students get preference over out of jurisdiction students and space has to be available, in jurisdiction parents shouldn’t fear school over crowding.

Thank you for seriously considering my ideas

Some Advice For New College Students

Some Advice for College Students

YOUR Life

• Your mother believes in you. Your father believes in you. Your family believes in you. God believes in you. This counts for a lot, but it really doesn't mean anything if you don't believe in yourself.
• Your preparation has gotten you to the point where you are now. You have to continue to prepare yourself to get to the point where you want to be. But you have to prepare yourself to go beyond that point.
• Don't be afraid to do things some people say you can't do. Don't be afraid to try to do things they say that can't be done. If you fail, at least you tried. If you succeed, you prove them wrong. If you never tried, you'll never know.

YOUR Personal Responsibility

• Your safety is your responsibility. "Date rape" or "friend rape" happens when you allow yourself to get into situations that you cannot handle. Do not allow yourself to be alone with someone and assume that he will not try to get you to have sex. No means no but many people believe that saying "no" is just a part of "the game". Remember, "The only thing open at 2AM is legs".
• When a young woman says "No", it means "No".
• You are more than what is between your legs.
• You have to act as though every picture you take will be placed on the internet. Will your family be ashamed of the picture you take?
• You have to act as though every video you are in will be placed on the internet. Will your family be ashamed of your behavior in the video?
• "Bootie cams" are sure to get raves from your boys, but what about the young women being disrespected?
• You will be judged by the company you keep.
• Blacks between the ages of 20-35 are 55% of the reported HIV/AIDS cases in the United States. Washington D.C. and Baltimore are the number 1 and number 2 "leaders" in that category. The South is seeing a big increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases.
• Many people will get to school and then get "buck wild" their first year. They will spend the next 3 years trying to live down what they did in their first year. Years after you graduate, you will remember the young women and young men who got "buck wild".
• In a couple of weeks or months, many people will lose their reputation because they are "sexing" around or drinking or drugging. They will never get their reputation back at the school; NEVER.
• No matter how many credit card offers you get, DO NOT GET A CREDIT CARD! You will get into debt and it will be your responsibility to pay off the debt. You may already be in debt from the cost of your education. Why make it worse by being $1,000 in debt that you have to pay back with an 18% interest rate.
• If you are at a party, never drink anything that you haven't opened yourself. If you leave your drink, don't come back to it and drink it. People will put something in your drink and take advantage of the situation. Your safety is your responsibility.
• Never leave the door to your room unlocked. Make sure your roommate never leaves the door to your room unlocked. NO MATTER HOW QUICKLY YOU THINK YOU WILL BE BACK TO YOUR ROOM.

YOUR Education Responsibility

• Associate with people who are serious about their education.
• You will do better if you study with people who are serious about their education. Study groups are important.
• Find people who are 1 or 2 years ahead of you in your major.

• They can help you avoid the bad professors.
• They can help you try to get the good professors.
• They can give you study tips.
• They can give you past quizzes and tests.
• They can help you with the classes you need to take.

• Find a quiet place to study. There will be places that many people go to "study," but they will be more about socializing than studying. You have to find out where those places are and avoid them when you really need to study.
• You will have a counselor assigned to you. Make sure the counselor knows your name and face. You do this by visiting him or her on a regular basis.
• Keep track of the number of credit hours you have earned and the number of credit hours you need to meet your degree requirements.
• The first day of classes, you will get a syllabus. Make a copy of each syllabus you receive. Tape one onto the inside front page of your notebook for the class. Keep the other in a folder that you keep in your room.
• It is your responsibility to keep up with your work. This is college. The professor will not keep behind you to get your work done. If it is not turned in, you will get a zero.
• Know the deadlines for the Add/Drop dates.
• It is your responsibility to make sure that the number of credits you have earned matches what the administration office says you have earned.

Your life is in your hands.

More On Blacks and Education

Do Blacks Value Education More Than Whites?

More recent surveys show similar results. A 2006 survey by Public Agenda (see p. 12 of the report), found that 67 percent of black students believed that more math and science courses would improve high school education. Fifty-four percent of white students felt the same. The 2006 Higher Education Research Institute College Freshman Survey finds that 26 percent of the majority-black students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities aspire to obtain a Ph.D., but only 17 percent of freshmen at colleges generally say the same.

When asked, black students also regularly report having lower grades than white students. And, as you also note, they will also admit to spending less time on homework, if asked.

You believe their statements about having lower grades and doing less homework but disbelieve their statements about their pro-school attitudes. Why would black students be deceptive, consciously or unconsciously, about liking school and valuing education but then be generally accurate and straightforward about having relatively low grades? This does not make sense to me. Low grades should be as, if not more, embarrassing than not feeling positive about school. I find black students’ responses convincing precisely because they readily admit details that could be viewed in a negative light.