Student in Baltimore high school ranks near the top half of his class with a 0.13 grade point average

This really is a shocking story from Baltimore Fox affiliate WBBF, written by Chris Pabst. It focuses on a high school student whose mother just found out her son, who was supposed to graduate in June, is being sent back to ninth grade. He’s passed three classes in four years of school and has a 0.13 grade point average — which puts him 62nd in his class of 120 students. That means that 58 students have grade point averages lower than that.

The soft bigotry of low expectations has real-life consequences. Stop pretending that standardized testing is the problem. It clearly is not. https://t.co/DdffCpQeCk

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 4, 2021

Pabst writes:

As we dig deeper into [Tiffany France’s] son’s records, we can see in his first three years at Augusta Fells, he failed 22 classes and was late or absent 272 days. But in those three years, only one teacher requested a parent conference, which France says never happened. No one from the school told France her son was failing and not going to class.

Even though the student failed Algebra I, Spanish I, and English II, he was promoted to Algebra II, Spanish II, and English III. Now that he’s made it through the system for four years, they’re sending him back to ninth grade to start over, as if that’s going to help.

With 22 failed classes & 272 absences, I want to know what academic interventions were in place for the student and what factors/barriers are causing attendance issues. There is a root to all behavior & schools, parents, & students must all work together to alleviate concerns

— Aaron Poston (@AaronKPoston) March 4, 2021

Reminded of the college prof from a few yrs ago: "The ever-present soft bigotry of low expectations and the permanent claim that the solutions to the plight of my people rest exclusively on the goodwill of whites rather than on our own hard work is psychologically devastating."

— Liam F (@laf45k) March 4, 2021

Social promotion is clearly one of the issues here, but there's apparently plenty of blame to go around…while this young man and everyone else in his school suffer. Curious why the mom isn't upset her kid was late to or missed classes for 272 days in 3 school years.

— Stephen Dawson (@jsdi) March 4, 2021

Everyone failed him, including himself. Not just the school. In the end, the school is liable, but the mom knew his grades were low. The kid knew it was wrong to cut school. He was old enough to be accountable for failing. Unfortunately, schools no longer discipline.

— Grieta ?? ?? (@ThatGrieta) March 4, 2021

I would like to see the reasoning behind the school continuing him into new classes and higher level classes even though he was failing the lower level. It's clear the mom hasn't been paying much attention. This kid stood no chance with an out of touch mom and a reckless school

— ✈️Darrin✈️ (@DHandOKC) March 4, 2021

This highlights the importance of school choice as well as the fact that broken homes with absent fathers are one of the major catalysts for the decline of your youth and thus the viscous cycle continues.

— ✈️Darrin✈️ (@DHandOKC) March 4, 2021

His mom is working 3 jobs. She has 3 kids. Sure a note from the educators would be great. They obviously are failing that district. She's buried, but it's also up to parents to check with their kids too. No judgement, but where's dad?

— Greg Palmer (@greggypalmer) March 4, 2021

Dad is failing his son. But that is not the issue here. This young man was promoted from class to class despite failing grades. The school needs to be held accountable for this.

— James Meredith (@NDTwinsfan) March 4, 2021

This exact thing happened to me. As a white kid in an all black neighborhood I was placed in a learning academy funded by the city due to attended issues I had. I attended that school for 3 years getting pushed along without doing any work. We moved to a different county and I

— Quiet You (@joeyhatesuX2) March 4, 2021

Was told my credits amounted to not even passing 9th grade and had to start over as a 17 year old. I immediately dropped out with my mom's permission and the next day without studying passed a GED test. I wonder how many other kids from that academy had the same experience.

— Quiet You (@joeyhatesuX2) March 4, 2021

"She has three children and works three jobs". I'm assuming dad is a gonner.
The best predictor for future success is family structure.
SINGLE PARENT HOUSEHOLDS ARE THE PROBLEM NOT STANDARIZED TESTS OR THE SCHOOL

— Andres Gonzalez (@AndresGC1981) March 4, 2021

100% of this goes back to the issue we will never successfully address- single parent households and the societal scoffing at the nuclear family concept.

— LordOhSheep (@TwistedSheepGrl) March 4, 2021

As Christopher Rufo keeps pointing out in his threads on critical race theory, things like the Black Lives Matter for Schools curriculum and antiracist training given to teachers stress that “the nuclear family concept” is a component of whiteness and thus white supremacy. A literal goal of antiracist training is to “disrupt” the nuclear family and move from “white” concepts like individuality to “antiracist” concepts like collectivism and globalism.

So half of his class has a lower GPA than he does? He was chronically late and absent, so I'm assuming that is true of the others who are failing. A teacher would be chasing down at least 50 pupils who won't show up to class only to underperform when they do.

— ???? ??? ????? (@TheLitLady1) March 4, 2021

I spent 18 years teaching very small classes, but had this issue with 2-3 students/year. They took more of my time and energy than the rest of the class put together. Make up work/tests would stack up to be graded after I finished prepping for lectures, extending my day by hours.

— ???? ??? ????? (@TheLitLady1) March 4, 2021

Culture is the problem. The lack of interest in studens and the parents in education is killing the youth of today. Too many distractions and too many priorities over education.

— bud_chud (@bud_chud) March 4, 2021

It is effecting all community's except the asain community and absolutely destroying the inner city black community. We all need to start following the the education cultural of the asain community. They are thriving in our system.

— bud_chud (@bud_chud) March 4, 2021

The most disturbing part was where the school admin who admits the school failed asked to be kept anonymous “for fear of retaliation.” Says it all right there.

— Mr.E_Man (ΒΛΚ) (@MrE_Man00) March 4, 2021

Truth.

Related: