(Increase Rates of Non-Residency Primary/Secondary Schools)

Tuition rates will be established annually by the Board upon the recommendation of the CEO. BCPSS tuition rates for Non-Residence Primary/Secondary Schools is necessary and appropriate for a substantial rate increase as it was proposed.

Where do these students live, that the city schools are preferable to their jusidiction? (I live in the city and would reallysufficient credits to be promoted to the next grade? Am I misunderstanding or misinterpreting the definition of unnecessarily...outdated policy as passing TWO YEARS of English and math?

I'm not smarting off, here, I feel as though I must have Alzheimer's to be this confused by what I'm reading.

@Eve -
I know of Baltimore County residents who pay tuition to attend Poly, Baltimore School for the Arts and City. There might be others in other magnet programs, those are the ones I am aware of. With the change in policy last year so that a qualifying city resident is given preference over a higher qualifying county resident I would think that there are many less county students. I don't know where you could find real numbers though.

My understanding of the "gatekeeper" concept is that to move from 8th to 9th grade or 9th to 10th, etc. you need to pass some specific courses. Currently, if you fail one of these courses you repeat the grade you are in. I think the change would require you to eventually pass the class, it would just mean that you could stay in your class and repeat the failed class instead of taking an elective. I'm not sure this is a good idea (one of the reasons you take algebra early is because you need it for other classes for example) but that's my understanding of the proposal.

Eve, good question. The classes would still be included in the graduation requirements. The gatekeeper revision would allow schools to code the students in the next grade once they've accumulated the necessary credit totals (not just the specific classes). In other words, a student could earn 6 credits freshman year but fail English I and be required to stay coded as a 9th grader, precluding him/her from taking upper level classes on time in some cases. This requirement was put in place before the HSAs, so now there's no way for the student to graduate high school without these classes. The new policy adapts to the HSA requirement and is intended to help students enter CTE programs and other elective-type programs in their later years to keep them engaged. While to some degree this is just a bookkeeping change, the practical effect won't be all that different, but it will allow for a better ability to engage in meaningful cohort-analysis of secondary students.

@Eve,

I had a really wonderful response written up during my planning period, but ever since my last post I've found that I "don't have permission to post".. not sure what that's about.

The short end is this: BCPSS will lower expectations and requirements for students to move up in grade level. This will lead to students who have not mastered skills in English I to progress to English II, fail, but still move on to III. Additionally, HSA scores will drop because students who fail English I will wind up in II and take the HSA without having (again) learned.

BCPSS would rather *pass* students than *teach* students. To the system, student achievement is data and progression. To us teachers, it's learning, but we teachers aren't important here.

In the end, students will pass through to 12th grade, fail HSA's, complete ridiculously easy Bridge projects, and AAA will be celebrated for raising the graduation rate. 15 to 20 years down the line the city of Baltimore will suddenly realize that it has little to no people who can actually think nonetheless problem solve, and everyone will wonder what happened to education in the 1st place because the data will say we've improved so much.

Brandon -

Well said.

Brandon and anyone else getting an error message trying to comment: Please email me when this happens with the exact message you receive at sara.neufeld@baltsun.com. I'm so sorry we've been having these technical problems more often lately.

@ Brandon

I don't think this is as dastardly a plot as you think. They're not considering dropping the requirement that students pass English I before they graduate; they're just talking about dropping the requirement that students pass classes like Algebra I before they can be called 10th graders. Essentially, at some schools, this can keep students who may have failed their English class only from moving on to higher level classes in other subjects. Yes, it "lowers" the requirement to move up a grade level (in name only) but it does not lower graduation requirements. See Bill's comments above, which better address what I basically just said....

As for your comments about the HSA and bridge projects, that's not a Baltimore City policy, that's a state policy.

"BCPSS would rather *pass* students than *teach* students."

That is my nomination for Comment of the Year.
I'm not in a high school, so I don't know anything about HSAs or Bridge Projects. But I do see, Every Single Year, social promotion. If they've ever failed before, we can't fail them again. The 50s I bubble in on the report card miraculously change themselves to 60s when the report actually comes out.
OR, the students make a promise to "be good" and, a quarter or so into the school year, they get bumped up to their "right grade."
It's really a tragedy.

as usual, it's important to differentiate between "BCPSS" and "individual schools/principals/teachers." is it a bcpss policy to socially promote students or not? if so, can you point out where this is on record?

I've been in BCPSS for 6 years, and at my current school for 3.
In these 3 years, we have never made AYP, have terrible attendance rates, pitiful MSA scores, and high teacher turnover. Yet, every year the retention rate is incredibly low.

Regardless of whether this is my principal's handiwork (honestly, I wouldn't be surprised) or actual BCPSS policy, I find it odd that no one has ever looked at our stats and said, "Hey...that's weird. Maybe we should look into this."