Grades and Accountability

Recently, I was looking back at an article from education magazine that describes the experiences of a history teacher in Washington D.C. In the article, the teacher describes how she discovered her school was changing the grades of students and making up classes in order to make sure students graduate. In the article, she discusses how after failing a student, she was shocked to see her walk at graduation. Shortly after, she began an investigation into the practices of her school. She surveyed her fellow teachers about student failures and checked the school's records to see if they were different. They were. Upon closer inspection, she discovered that school adminsitrators had been creating classes to ensure students earned enough credits to graduate. After bringing this up with the school and alerting the media, this teacher, who taught AP World History, was demoted and despite all the attention this issue recieved, it was still going on.I'm bringing up this article, because as we all know, this is also a serious issue in Baltimore that needs to be addressed. Especially in this current climate, administrators and teachers are under enormous pressure to make sure our students graduate. This has become an issue as it undermines the value of our students' diploma. Last year, I experienced this pressure first hand when one of my students, who was a junior credit-wise, was quickly changed into a senior 3 days before graduation after he completed an online course. This student had been failing my class and had not taken the final exam. I was told by my adminsitrator, the Friday before graduation, that I needed to make sure that this student passed my class, so he could walk. I know I'm not the only one who finds such situations frustrating. It is extremely hard to get students to "buy" into school when they know that the school when they see older siblings/friends get passed along. You have to question, what is a diploma worth when one does not have to master the knowledge it takes to achieve one?Schools, however, continue to practice such policies when it comes to graduation. Right now, BCPSS and individual schools within the system are on the hot seat, because of low graduation rates as well as failure to meet AYP. Schools feel they need to graduate students, so they can keep funding or so that the school will look better. This is a great misuse of accountability. The graduation rates and test scores are tools meant to gauge how well schools are preparing their students, but because so much depends on them, they are viewed as obstacles that need to be hidden and not dealt with. There needs to be an attitude change within the system to get things back on track. Right now, BCPSS is in "cover-your-ass" mode, which I feel is inhibiting a lot of the progress that could be going on. There is distrust and a sense of panic almost as BCPSS justifies its actions to the Maryland State Department of Education. This inhibits quality communication between the two and encourages BCPSS' random and panicky actions to create quick fixes for its problems.I believe that if BCPSS and indivual adminsitrators looked at the real data coming from their schools and not try to hide it behind made up numbers or guesstimations that they would be in a better position to tackle the problems of low graduation rates and test scores. Students of Baltimore City should have their school system support their education, not hinder it. They deserve to have diplomas that mean just as much as other school systems'.