Brickbat: Pass Them All and Let Life Sort Them Out

Mquirk / Dreamstime

Baltimore City Public Schools is currently investigating allegations of grade changing at Calverton Elementary/Middle School. One teacher shared with a local TV station an email allegedly from the school's principal directing teachers to change the grades of all but a handful of students to a passing score. According to the teacher, that included students who literally had not attended a day of classes.

Comments

[SQRLSY One]

Next step: Colleges will be like this, too! Then med school!

[Azathoth!!]

Ha ha! You said 'will be'!

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

The Baltimore Supreme Soviet has been made aware of the latest attempt at sabotage by the fascist wreckers. Further zampolits will be assigned to Calverton to root out any remaining counter-revolutionary sentiment and ensure successful implementation of General Secretary Brezhnev's Educational 5 Year Plan immediately.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Good Morning people! (Secretary) is printing report cards so finally you can get cumes finished. Please double check end of year averages and make sure they are 60 and above, except our four retention candidates (2 elem and 2 grade 7). If you find any grade averages below 60, pkesss (sic) have (secretary) correct and give me a copy of those student names. Thanks!"

She should be fired for using the shorthand "cumes". Also for misspelling "covfefe".

[Jerryskids]

Mistakes were made, it was a misunderstanding, it was a one-time thing, it was only one person, clarifications of guidelines have been issued, it's the fault of the system that puts so much pressure on teachers and administrators to perform without adequate funding.

[Rebel Scum]

According to the teacher, that included students who literally had not attended a day of classes.

Holding all people to the same standards is racist.

[esteve7]

If you don't think this is happening everywhere you haven't been paying attention. It's racist to assign a failing grade to a student that never showed up.

The only thing these schools are good for is vote farms for Democrats and future Democrats.

[Radioactive]

but they do preform a public good in that they keep large swaths of the ignorant little turds in one place for at least part of the day..

[Longtobefree]

Follow the money.
This has nothing to do with federal funding being based on (reported) results.

On the other hand, it implies that the teachers actually can do basic math to determine averages, so that is a good thing.

[Longtobefree]

prediction: no one will be fired.

[Mitsima]

No firings, but budgets will be drastically cut from +7% over last year to only +5%. That'll teach 'em.

[Dr Fallout]

Incentives.... how do they work?

[Radioactive]

must be magiks...

[Jordan]

Government schools are just sinecures for teacher's unions at this point. Baltimore spends over $15,000 per student.

[Dead inside]

This is not news. I'm retired from a large urban school district where teachers were routinely pressured to change grades of minority students to show a "closing of the racial achievement gap". Black students were enrolled in scholars class regardless past grades, ability, attendance etc. only criteria; they were black. They were also expected to pass with high marks based only on that criteria. As you might expect most teachers, who at their core are sheep, eagerly complied, either out of fear of reprimand from administration or the union, or out of their own sense of "fairness". Others, the old guard, refused. This act of open defiance and open thought was often met with harsh payback in the form of lousy schedules, and the worst duties. Sometimes there were private and public "chewing out" sessions. I did last lunch duties, the worst of the worst, for over a decade. One year my lunch period,was scheduled at 3:00pm, school ended at 3:30pm.
It turns out, in this case resistance truly was futile, once we moved to an electronic grade book, about 18 years ago, administrators learned that by using their administrative code they could go into any teacher's grade book and change any grade they wanted anytime they wanted. This was mostly done after the school year had ended or another time when there would be less blow back.
And you wonder why there are so many entitled brats out there now.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

But it looks good on paper right? Just like communism, a resounding success because everything looks fair.

[Dead inside]

yep, it's all about appearances. As the kids used to say; "All show and no go".

[creech]

Not to worry; employers are pretty good at sorting them out after a week or two (if they even get hired). Then the feral yutes are left to complain that "the man" has screwed them ("the man" never being, of course, the politicians their parents put in place to edumacate them).

[Kivlor]

My local public high school does this. I know many of the teachers, and most tell their students day 1 that if they will show up for the final they will be given a passing grade. Seriously, at least ~30-40% of our high school graduates can't use basic math to do things like count back change from a register.

[senglord draconis]

I had to do the same thing in a Catholic school.

That killed my will to teach.

I am a quant now.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Life isn't allowed to sort it out any more.

[I am the 0.000000013%]

Those who can't do, teach.

Those who can't teach get some other government job.