Washington School Graduates Unqualified Kids; All Are Accepted to College

Here’s a feelgood story: every graduate from Ballou High School in monochromatically diverse inner-city D.C. was accepted to college. Now for the bad news:

Ballou High School’s administration graduated dozens of students despite high rates of unexcused absences. … Half of the graduates missed more than three months of school last year, unexcused. One in five students was absent more than present — missing more than 90 days of school. …

Teachers say when many of these students did attend school, they struggled academically, often needing intense remediation.

Many 12th grade students at Ballou cannot read or write.

An internal email obtained by WAMU and NPR from April shows two months before graduation, only 57 students were on track to graduate, with dozens of students missing graduation or community service requirements or failing classes needed to graduate. In June, 164 students received diplomas.

According to a teacher at Ballou, this feat was accomplished by “smoke and mirrors.”

Teachers felt pressure from administration to pass chronically absent students, and students knew the school administration would do as much as possible to get them to graduation.

Educrats bestow lavish bonuses upon teachers who pass kids through the system regardless of whether they show up for class. Those who insist on standards end up losing their jobs.

Teachers we spoke with say if they questioned administration, they were painted as “haters” who don’t care about students.

The results have been what you would expect:

Last year, 9 percent of students there passed the English standardized test. No one passed the math test. The average SAT score last year among Ballou test takers was 782 out of 1600.

Achievement must be earned. It cannot be mandated by the authorities. Now all of these kids are in college, presumably subsisting on financial aid provided by taxpayers. Their illiteracy and habit of blowing off classes must leave them plenty of time for Black Lives Matter protests. When they are not made Chairman of the Board immediately upon graduation, they will blame it on racism, and for the most part the media will concur.

On tips from Steve T and Ken.