If children who read on the 3rd grade level are in 9th, 10th, or 12th grade, then a fair number of principals and/or teachers have **lied** to these students and parents. Placing the child in 9th grade who can barely read is lying to the child and to all the other children in the school.

Granting diplomas to 200 students when 138 qualify is devaluing the value of the diploma for those who legitimately earned it. It is essentially cheating and stealing value from those who have worked hard. Why would teachers ( who supposed to be of high moral and ethical character) do this? And...By the way, I doubt that all of the 138 qualify either.)

Parents may request, or even pressure, that a child be promoted but it is only the "professional" teachers and principals who have the power to do this. Legislators are not promoting these children, and it for certain the voters aren't.

Lying is a powerful moral lesson to teach all the children in the school. Yet,...The students on some level know that their teachers and principals are lying!

Why would any ethical teacher cooperate with this? Why would they even turn the key in the door? For a paycheck? They would cooperate with gross **lying** for a paycheck? What right thinking parent would want their child in the company of such teachers as role models?

We are supposed to respect teachers and principals for doing this to children? I don't think so.

Every single teacher in that school is a LIAR! Every one!

Future carjackers and gangbangers of America.

It is a government school. There is no more information needed. Intelligent parents who care for their children will not let them go to such a place.

I don’t know why every inner-city black parent and organization in the US isn’t demanding a voucher system

Whether we want to own up to it or not, the welfare state has done what Jim Crow, gross discrimination and poverty could not have done. It has contributed to the breakdown of the black family structure and has helped establish a set of values alien to traditional values of high moral standards, hard work and achievement." — Walter E. Williams

>"By the way, I doubt that all of the 138 qualify either."

The true fruit of Afirmy Axeton. The discreditation of all, qualified or not.

Why would teachers...........do this?

Because they are no longer moral beacons for this country.

I am from a poor county in the south. Chances are the parents (single parent now) can't speak or write at a 3rd or 4th grade level either, and THAT'S an overstatement!

These schools are nothing more than a bureaucratic shelter for bureaucrats. They no more can solve the education of poor blacks, whites, Hispanics or any other victim of societies wasteland of uneducated government welfare recipients.

This government of present would rather all these be on the dole. How else can they justify their tyrannical existance!

A bit too much for 10:00 AM, but sick of all of it!!!!!!!!!!

and remember, itz RACISM to point out the failing black schools....

The fact that “black schools” fail is a cultural problem. Failed “black parents”. There’s just too little emphasis on education and hard work to achieve a goal. A good job means more hard work.

Easier to listen to Jackson, Farrakhan, and Sharpton tell everyone the “REAL” reason why the black community is “unable” to succeed.

Take their chances with a liberal Democrat congress and false Black messiah president - maybe get some cash reparations pushed through.

...not to worry....soon as Black Jesus gets back from the Middle East he’ll have some speeches to handle the problem.

It’s not a black thing. We have the same problems in the hills here. When a kid gets to 4th grade, he knows more than his parents. They spend their time huntin’ and 4 wheelin’ and don’t do homework. We had an 8th grader get arrested for mugging college students with his gang.

“Sixty-six percent of the teachers are uncertified. Even if there were no certified teacher shortage, I doubt whether many teachers with attractive alternatives would want to teach at the school. Douglass High School is not a place for teachers with high expectations for their students. English teacher Mr. McDermott resigned in the middle of the school year, saying, “Teaching becomes secondary, and discipline is the main thing that goes on. I don’t feel like I’m making a difference anymore.

Cameras followed then-principal Isabelle Grant on her visit to the home of a chronically absent student. The student, who reads at the fifth- or sixth-grade level, is promised that if she attends school regularly she’ll be promoted to the 11th grade. It is impossible to eliminate such a reading deficit in a semester. Teachers are pressured into passing failing students. The documentary showed that within a few days of graduation time, the school went from having 138 eligible graduates to 200. Promoting and graduating students who haven’t made the grade is nothing short of academic fraud.

Douglass High School teachers and staff appeared to be concerned and caring people, but the poor quality educational outcomes demonstrate that concern and caring is not enough. The virtually empty classrooms, filmed on back-to-school night, suggested little parental interest in their children’s education. School-day behavior demonstrated little student interest. Some students spent class time laughing, joking and tussling with one another. Others had their heads lying on their desks or appeared uninterested in the teacher’s discussion. Many of those engaged in student-teacher exchange on academic topics showed very limited reasoning ability.”

No teacher in their right mind would want to teach here and I don’t blame them.

"I don’t know why every inner-city black parent and organization in the US isn’t demanding a voucher system."

A lot of them are. But the simple fact is that the teachers unions have more "clout" than the NAACP (not that the NAACP supports vouchers, either).

Here's the thing - how are you supposed to teach someone who isn't in class? The article made clear that the students were often absent or just roaming the halls. It all starts with the parents. There was a recent study done in Shaker Heights, paid for by upper middle class African American families, to find out why their children were doing worse than the white children in those same suburban schools. The parents didn't like the answer. Professor Ogbu, hired to do the study, told those parents that they didn't put enough effort into supervising their children when it came to studying and homework.

Professor Ogbu has received much criticism from the black community for his comments and has since amended his language to spread blame on the schools and the community. The black community has been intimidating researchers for decades to get the public "results" they want for studies. As long as the African American community is in denial about why their children are failing, nothing will change.

Public schools are infected with ideology, political-correctness, pop-psychology, and above all, laziness and bureaucracy. Thank the left and the teachers unions. Not all are bad (yet), but inner-city schools were the first to swallow this nonsense, and are the first to suffer.

Why should parents have any responsibility/respect for life?
In these cases perhaps they were too lazy to abort the unwanted child. All I am saying is that abortion has degraded
responsibility for parenting. PC/it takes a village has also had a big impact on responsible parenting. Could also be social security and retirement programs have also lessened need for parents to invest in children to provide/care for them in old age.

I am an intelligent parent who cares for my children, who went to public schools. The high school has had only one dropout in the past 3 years. Your comment is out of line.

"Hard Times at Douglass High," is an HBO documentary that aired last June. It captured much of the 2004-2005 school year at Baltimore's predominantly black Frederick Douglass High School. The tragedy is that what is seen in the documentary is typical of most predominantly black urban schools."

And who has been running the city of Baltimore for the last forty years? Who has been running most large American cities for the last generation? --- The Democratic Party and their left wing NEA. But you'll never hear that mentioned.

It goes beyond High School. I know for a fact the college I attended awarded BS degrees to scholarship athletes that didn’t even know the alphabet.

Yes, and these are fellow Americans getting ripped off by the government yet again!
All Americans should demand better of our schools, wih the money they already have. If the situation doesn’t improve in a timley manner, this nation is toast.

This is both a logical consequence of “affirmative action”, and a justification for “affirmative action”.
If society supports the abomination of “affirmative action”, it implicitly is saying that the beneficiaries are inferior and incapable, so this sort of false promotion and grade inflation is then “justified.”
This is short-changing the children and making them much less qualified for admission to college and for jobs, thus “justifying” the need for “affirmative action.”

Here is the thread posted about that documentary when it was aired. A couple of us watched and posted comments at the same time.

Someone has told me since (and I don't know if it was posted on the thread or told to me at some other point) that the principal was not qualified, but was the "lady friend" of the superintendent or another bigwig in town. Can't verify that.

I remember watching this with you, and we had a live thread about it, discussing it as it went.

The principal there seemed to be doing everything within her power to help those kids, to the point of visiting houses on the weekend to counsel parents and offering deals to kids - but I don't think any took her up on it. One young man said that the reason he wasn't in a gang was because of the marching band "The bang is my gang" he said, and that about broke my heart.

The documentary also showed a teacher that got fed up and left, but was replaced by long term subs who got less respect than the original guy. The whole situation broke my heart - the adults cared so much and did as much as they could, but the kids ran wild.

I'm not sure what the purpose of posting this is, when it was posted the day of the show and pinged, and discussed ad infinitum that day. But if kids don't want to learn, there is little the teachers and parents can do.

Do you remember the choir singing "The Messiah?" They were WONDERFUL!! then the camera panned to the audience and there were just a skinny handful of parents there

No support from home - but the kids still sounded beautiful

Here's a follow up on the school

The school did not meet the adequate yearly progress standards set by No Child Left Behind for several years in a row, and under this situation the state had the right to restructure. At Douglass, the entire administration was replaced, including the principal. Then Baltimore City brought in an academic partner - the Center for Social Organization (CSOS) at Johns Hopkins University - to help raise the academic standards at the school, with special attention to ninth graders. It will most likely take a number of years before any dramatic results are achieved.

The restructuring caused many teachers and support staff to leave as well. The school has a new principal and with that a new atmosphere. We documented the end of an era, and now Douglass begins another chapter in its long history. The school now has metal detectors and a uniform dress code, among other changes.

So the long and short of it is that the school was taken over, restructured, the staff was largely replaced, and the state stepped in. So the movie documented the end of the school

excerpted from http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:VUXzX--A1EsJ:www.hbo.com/docs/docuseries/hardtimes/interviews/+%22Isabelle+Grant%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=27&gl=us

“I don’t know why every inner-city black parent and organization in the US isn’t demanding a voucher system”

Because the voucher cannot be redeemed for money.

Why would teachers ( who supposed to be of high moral and ethical character) do this?

If you read the article, you likely found the answer to your own question:

Sixty-six percent of the teachers are uncertified. Even if there were no certified teacher shortage, I doubt whether many teachers with attractive alternatives would want to teach at the school. Douglass High School is not a place for teachers with high expectations for their students.

In other words, there were very few, if any, highly professional teachers there. Very sad.

So the long and short of it is that the school was taken over, restructured, the staff was largely replaced, and the state stepped in. So the movie documented the end of the school

I wonder how the state is doing with it now?

I'm a bit surprised that Walter Williams would continue acting as if everything is still the same at that school...but I'm not surprised that a misleading article is published in WorldNutDaily.

Looks like someone would do a followup on the elementary schools those children went to -- it is NOT the fault of the high school that students arrive there reading several years below grade level.

“Looks like someone would do a followup on the elementary schools those children went to — it is NOT the fault of the high school that students arrive there reading several years below grade level.”

Yes, high school is a tough place to begin addressing such problems. Probably impossible to solve in most cases, but what sort of school environment did these kids function in from grades 1-8? And I bet many of these kids were in Head Start Programs.

So much of the problem is the home. Studies keep showing that parenting during the first months of life are the most important. I’ve said occasionally that I’m awaiting the Government Cooer program, where government workers would go around to homes and coo at infants whose parents do not interact with them enough. Government will never be able to solve this problem to any significant degree, as years of trying are proving. Only parents can solve it.

According to the website, the school has been taken over by the state and did meet AYP for the last scholastic year. However, since they were so low, it probably didn't take much to get there under the 'safe harbor' status.

I agree that it was someone disingenuous for WND to post such an article about a school that has been taken over and not acknowledge that fact.

You are right - and as I’ve said before - when the real mother is the school and the real father is the government and the birth mother does nothing with the kids, the kids suffer <
P>Government agencies make for very poor parents.

Intelligent parents who care for their children will not let them go to such a place.
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Some nitwit is bound to accuse you of **personally** insulting them because they happen to send their child to government school. ( eye roll)

In general I stand by it. Some folks are lucky in that their public schools are not degraded to the extent of the majority of them. They are still doing far less for their children than they should. I expect that if you check out the school(s) you sent yours to 5 years later you will find that they have also declined from what they were.

Government agencies make for very poor parents.
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Well..It isn't the poor parents who are promoting children with 3rd grade reading scores into the 9th grade. Only principals and teachers can do that.

I have a word for it: Lying!

it is NOT the fault of the high school that students arrive there reading several years below grade level. (Amelia)
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It was the fault of the high school teachers and principals to put those with 3rd grade reading into classes for kids in 9th grade.

It was the fault of the high school teachers and principals for allowing these kids to be called 9th graders.

It was the fault of the elementary school teachers and principals for sending these kids on to high school.

A lot of teachers and principals have and are lying to these kids and their parents.

How hard can it be to say to a kid and his parent, “Your child reads at the 3rd grade level. He will be placed in classes designed for children at that level!”

Dropout rate is not a measure of academic excellence. Sometimes it signifies awarding of grades rather than earning them.

If you do not want to be contacted **please** let me know, and I will remove your name.

I have included your name on the list because, in the past, you have posted to me about education issues. I surely don’t wish to bother you, but I don’t want you to miss these education articles, either.

I will call this ping list:

“The All Opinions Welcome Government Education Ping List” ! “

Government Education Ping List

For those who are interested in a full and open discussion about government education. All are welcome.

It goes beyond High School. I know for a fact the college I attended awarded BS degrees to scholarship athletes that didn’t even know the alphabet.
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The corrupt government school sports teams monopoly walks hand and hand with the corrupt colleges and major leagues.

Privatized the entire process from the Pee Wee teams on up. Do that an we will see far less of the corruption you are describing. Giving unearned grades to college athletes cheapens the degree for those who worked for it. I call it stealing.

My son had a friend who failed 7th grade English. His parents wanted to retain him, but the school would not retain him. I don’t know how this kid did in 8th grade because I never ran into his mother at school.

It’s pretty sad that a child can fail a core subject, the parents think the child should repeat a grade, but the school will not retain the child.

the welfare state...has contributed to the breakdown of the black family structure and has helped establish a set of values alien to traditional values of high moral standards, hard work and achievement.

those "traditional values" are roughly the same thing as the "middle-classism" which B. Hussein Obama's longtime mentor Jeremiah Wright says blacks need to get rid of.

The commies and black race-profiteers obviously don't want blacks to get ahead.

Giving unearned grades to college athletes cheapens the degree for those who worked for it. I call it stealing.

That's exactly how I felt. I was working three jobs to go to school while these "scholarship" students went for free, got stipends and sat around stoned all day.

This is really sad. No kid should be screwed out of a chance at a decent education. I know there are lots of kids in these schools that don’t WANT to learn, and that’s a damned shame. There are also many who DO want to learn and will never get the chance. People’s heads should roll....

People’s heads should roll....

They did...the entire administration was replaced, the principal forced into retirement, almost every teacher was replaced, and the school was taken over by the state and handed to an independent educational agency to be run

That's exactly how I felt. I was working three jobs to go to school while these “scholarship” students went for free, got stipends and sat around stoned all day.
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Felt? I don't think so! You **were** cheated! And, you diploma is diminished in value because school officials cheated and stole from you.

Well...It isn't any different in this school. The teachers and principals from first grade to twelfth are lying to these students. They are devaluing the value of a high school diploma of those who rightfully earned one. They are stealing value from these students.

If these teachers and principals have not lied directly, then they are cooperating with the teachers who do.

Future carjackers and gangbangers of America.

Broad brush, my FRiend. Most will not be criminals, but most will be in low wage jobs or off and on welfare throughout their lives. They will be a permanent underclass. Jim Crow and segregation couldn't do as much damage to these people as they do to themselves.

People’s heads should roll....
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Until it happens again.

I am willing to bet the farm that there are **still** kids in the 9th grade with 3rd grade reading skills! And, I am willing to bet the farm that teachers and principals last year continued to lie to their students and their parents, and **will** lie again next year.

Want to make that bet?

My son’s friend who failed 7th grade English is a white middle class kid.

I personally think the kid has undiagnosed dyslexia. I told the mom to ask for an independent evaluation of his reading, and I hope she did. She just didn’t know how to help her son.

The thing is the kid is bright. At my son’s birthday party, the kids split into teams to play laser tag. My husband explained the rules. My “gifted” son was a team leader and so was the kid that failed. My son’s team lost. The other kid explained everything well, and organized his team well. He is a nice, bright kid.

the adults cared so much and did as much as they could, but the kids ran wild.

About 8 years I read an article that indicated, based on student statistics in NYC, that no matter what went on in school - computer rooms, caring teachers, free food, whatever - they could not overcome the call of the streets and the lack of attention and discipline from the parents.

It's sad to see so many wasted lives. When my parents went to segregated schools in the '40s, most people were happy to get an education. There were class cut-ups, but not the huge discipline problems you have today.

Despite having society and the law against them, my parents' cohort went on to colleges, law and med schools, and served proud careers in the military. Today, with all the advantages of student loans and scholarships, affirmative action, changes in the law, freedom to get up and live where you want, special programs to bring poorly performing students up to speed, free food, free school bags, free books, free summer programs, free everything for everybody - so many black kids will do nothing in school and do nothing with their lives.

Here is something interesting, but not directly on topic.

My daughter began college at a private school college last fall. When she started, she pledged to a sorority and was accepted. From the moment she pledged, she was introduced to and given access to “the library.” The library contained a copy of every test that had ever been given for every class on campus. Being a small private college, turnover among staff was very low, so the library was essentially a free pass.

Along the way in the pledging process she decided to say “no thanks” and lost access to the library. She finished the semester with a 1.7 GPA while others around her in Greek organizations that didn’t even go to class were on the Deans List. I can’t say she really applied herself because the whole experience tainted her view of the school. I can’t lay it all on it being a fraud, but it sure is close IMO.

Needless to say, she did not return for the second semester.