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Baltimore student passes 3 classes in 4 years, ranks near top half of class with 0.13 GPA (See Staff Post)

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colorblindmode

colorblindmode

Chicken Chaser
Member
Nov 26, 2019
2,565
South Carolina
Clay said:
Do truancy officers hand out report cards?

It's likely that it doesn't matter. A lot of families have trouble helping their kids, whether it's because they struggle with the material themselves, because they're exhausted from work, or whatever. But it is a little odd to me that this was surprising, the mom should have had some idea of his grades.
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Truancy officers don't hand out report cards, but they do bring absence notices to homes.
THErest said:
That's not a thing in every district. For instance, where I work, teachers are expected to chase after truant students (online, on the phone, not in person). (And it's bullshit, not my job, like in the contract specifically not my job, but still expected). Then maybe mention it to admins and counselors and maybe they'll lift a finger. Students of driving age can have their license taken away as a punishment for truancy, but we don't necessarily get anyone knocking on doors. And a student that straight up gives no fucks may not give a fuck about a license. Just drive without, fuck it.
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That sucks. We can take licenses where I'm at as well, but we have a truancy officer that begins to round up students after 10 inexcusable absences. We do have to keep track of them until then, but our school counselors don't really do any of that. Our counselors basically focus on college and that's it.
 
FeliciaFelix

FeliciaFelix

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Oct 27, 2017
1,778
How come his mom didn't notice him hanging out in the house all day? How come 58% of his peers still manage to fail harder than him? Why why why?
 

Jiggy

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Oct 25, 2017
9,284
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Her son's records show 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.
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That's insane. I remember my high school would contact my parents for any unexcused absences. It made skipping very difficult.
 
Tehbestest

Tehbestest

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Apr 23, 2019
50
User banned (permanent): Inappropriate and inflammatory speculation. Account in junior phase. Suspected troll.
At le
Cenauru said:
I'm gonna wager that the GPA average is reason enough why this student skipped that much school, it was probably a horrible environment. Mother working 3 jobs doesn't even sound like she has time for her kids, it's probably miserable for her kids too, this absolutely seems more of a poverty issue than a parenting one, even though the mother could have been alot more proactive. I cannot imagine the exhaustion from having to work 3 jobs to survive AND take care of kids.
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I have sympathy for their situation, but the cold truth is that nobody is going to care about that kid more than their parent. If they can't be bothered to care about their education then the kid needs to be extremely determined to succeed. The school failed him, but she didn't do him any favors.
 
smurfx

smurfx

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Oct 25, 2017
10,578
fucking hell this is why kids should have the choice to go to trade schools. what the hell is the point of wasting 4 or more years in highschool when its not gonna amount to shit? that kid starting over could have years of training as a electrician, plumber or other trades.
 
THErest

THErest

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Oct 25, 2017
7,103
smurfx said:
fucking hell this is why kids should have the choice to go to trade schools. what the hell is the point of wasting 4 or more years in highschool when its not gonna amount to shit? that kid starting over could have years of training as a electrician, plumber or other trades.
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I agree, but I also feel as if this particular kid may just give absolutely zero fucks
 
atomsk eater

atomsk eater

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Oct 25, 2017
3,830
The school definitely should have been way more proactive about contacting parents when kids are doing poorly, but how she frames this as solely their failure is making me roll my eyes. Everyone has some blame here, I can't believe she was so hands-off she either never saw his grades or never questioned how it would work out that he was failing so much and still getting promoted. And it's scary and sad so many of his classmates share the same or worse GPA.
 
samoyed

samoyed

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
15,191
Mom is unfortunately in denial about her responsibilities here. However the school is absolutely also at fault. He should've never left 9th grade and the mom would've been clued in the moment he misses graduation if that had happened. Just a complete collapse of checks and balances.
 

MorganFreakman

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
352
This is just one broad social failure indicative of so much of the inequities in our system. A single mom has to work 3 jobs to support 3 children. The kid was late/absent for 1.5 years worth of school days in 4 years and not a single teacher ever brought it up to his parents. Somehow half of his class is doing WORSE than he is. Just terrible all around
 
KAMI-SAMA

KAMI-SAMA

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User banned (1 week): Posting an inflammatory take without reading the source.
I mean the mom is really deflecting here. In 4 years, you never asked to see how he's doing in school? Sure a school can reach out, but a school can be underfunded, go through different management, and all sorts of things. You still stay their parent. Her story doesn't sound right.
 
knocturnalis

knocturnalis

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Oct 27, 2017
539
The school should have called whatever the Maryland equivalent of CPS is for educational neglect. And yes, it would be completely valid, as the child missed over a year of school.

The mother knew he was failing classes, but she just thought that since he going to the next grade, he would graduate.
 
Bear

Bear

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User banned (1 week): Posting an inflammatory take without reading the source.
Yeah, the school failed the kid. But so did the mother. You're telling me she had no idea he was failing nearly all his classes? Seems like an absent parent. She's passing off responsibility.
 
Pau

Pau

Self-Appointed Godmother of Bruce Wayne's Children
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Oct 25, 2017
5,846
Pein said:
Man some of these kids are just douche bags who don't take school seriously. Or for whatever reason just don't like it, tell him good luck and get a ged.
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Considering that a 0.13 GPA still puts this student near the top half of the class, I don't think this can be explained by "some of these kids are just douche bags". This is a systemic problem.
 
somerandomweirdguy

somerandomweirdguy

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Nov 2, 2017
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Jarmel said:
Everything about this story is both amazing and sad. The school definitely failed though in not informing the mother and letting the kid progress to the next grade. That said, if nearly half the class is failing, that 9th grade class gonna be uh pretty big.
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As a teacher, "I wasn't informed"/"I didn't know" is a favorite of parents who absolutely have been informed or absolutely have the ability to inform themselves (online grade checks).

Schools send out progress reports halfway through each trimester or quarter as well
 
Grug

Grug

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Oct 26, 2017
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somerandomweirdguy said:
As a teacher, "I wasn't informed"/"I didn't know" is a favorite of parents who absolutely have been informed or absolutely have the ability to inform themselves (online grade checks).

Schools send out progress reports halfway through each trimester or quarter as well
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Parent: "Well this is the first I have heard about it. He has no problems with his other teachers."

Teacher: *stares at record-of-contact database with dozens of phone calls, voicemails and emails to parent from multitude of teachers*
 
samoyed

samoyed

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Oct 26, 2017
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I'll add that I'd like to see him graduate and sent to a trade school. I see no merit in forcing him to repeat those grades in a crappy environment isolated from his peers (people his age). People have survived not taking 12th grade Calc before. Otherwise it'd be a waste of some of the highest potential years of his life.
 
StarStorm

StarStorm

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
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Wtf, he went to the next class despite failing English and Alegbra 1. Yep, the system failed. Missing 272 days? Wow, they never notified the parents?
 
scitek

scitek

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Oct 27, 2017
10,070
Is this the principal?

071e5ad5716e1e09340aeff2214183b7.jpg
 
MarvelousIntent

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Aug 13, 2019
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Fucking what? Ranked 62 with a GPA of 0.13? This is a failure on every god damn level. Late or absent for 272 days of school, failing most of his classes but still progressing, his mother having to work 3 jobs to make ends meet. And there are 58 students doing worse than he is? This school isn't even doing the bare minimum. What the fuck is going on?
 
Wafflinson

Wafflinson

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Jarmel said:
Everything about this story is both amazing and sad. The school definitely failed though in not informing the mother and letting the kid progress to the next grade. That said, if nearly half the class is failing, that 9th grade class gonna be uh pretty big.
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There is not a school in the country that does not have an online gradebook available to parents 24/7/365.

If a parent wants to remain ignorant of their student's grades that is on them and no one else.

I am also skeptical of the class rank thing. That is pretty tenuous evidence.
 
Sensei

Sensei

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Oct 25, 2017
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dudes failing his all his classes but keeps getting moved up to the next class level

why
 
big_z

big_z

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samoyed said:
I'll add that I'd like to see him graduate and sent to a trade school. I see no merit in forcing him to repeat those grades in a crappy environment isolated from his peers (people his age). People have survived not taking 12th grade Calc before. Otherwise it'd be a waste of some of the highest potential years of his life.
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Most of his peers will be also be staring in Billy Madison 2. Unfortunately for him all his friends will be gone regardless because his mom, who is in crazy denial, put him in a different school with accelerated learning. The kid is doomed to fail again.

Tbm24 said:
How did they advance him a grade in the first place?
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You can't be held back in American school systems anymore but as these kids found out the hard way you still need credits for a diploma.
 

hitmon

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Oct 26, 2017
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The school absolutely failed, but the parent failed too. Don't they still send out report cards?
 
EloquentM

EloquentM

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Oct 25, 2017
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Baltimore you say?

moms not to blame.

of course tho, this thread is full of sus responses
 
Addie

Addie

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This local Fox Baltimore article stated the following:

Project Baltimore pulled the data for Augusta Fells. We found many students are struggling. The school's attendance rate is 61 percent. That's 27 points below the district average. Of the 434 students enrolled in 2019, two tested proficient in math and two in English. Yet, 48 percent, nearly half the students, manage to graduate in four years. All of this in a school that gets $5.3 million a year from taxpayers.
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I do not know about funding secondary education, so can someone better-versed than me comment on the student to funding ratio? The "$5.3 million" figure is going to get tossed around, but I have no idea if that's an abnormal number.

Also, with those numbers, it's hard to fault the mom or the kid. Clearly the school's terrible. Baltimore failed all 434 students that attended that place.
 
colorblindmode

colorblindmode

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Nov 26, 2019
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Addie said:
This local Fox Baltimore article stated the following:



I do not know about funding secondary education, so can someone better-versed than me comment on the student to funding ratio? The "$5.3 million" figure is going to get tossed around, but I have no idea if that's an abnormal number.

Also, with those numbers, it's hard to fault the mom or the kid. Clearly the school's terrible. Baltimore failed all 434 students that attended that place.
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School district funding numbers are hard to go by because school funding is tied to a) property taxes and b) what's called ADA/ADM (average daily attendance of students).
 
Wafflinson

Wafflinson

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Nov 17, 2017
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EloquentM said:
Baltimore you say?

moms not to blame.

of course tho, this thread is full of sus responses
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Why has the internet decided that only one person can be responsible for any bad thing?

School can be a failed school while the mother is still a failed mother.

NO excuse for missing as much school as he did. Every school I am aware of/or worked at has pre-scheduled Parent Teacher Conferences multiple times a year, which she obviously did not attend. She also went 4 years without checking on his grades. Hell, at the schools I have worked at you get an automated phone call whenever your student is marked absent. I have never in my career had a successful student with absentee parents. They might scrape by yes. Thrive? Never.

Schools cannot parent your child for you.
 
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