Baltimore public schools to promote "tens of thousands of students" who failed a course. And it gets worse...

In most school systems the policy has been if a student fails a course, he wasn't "promoted" to the next grade but had to repeats the year he failed to "make the grade."  Being "held back" was seen for exactly what it was:  failure.  There was a stigma associated with it, which was usually enough to get students to try hard to avoid failing a class.

Of course the Left sees holding students back a grade as raaacist, so hip urban school systems have stopped holding kids back for failing a class even if they refuse to turn in any assignments and flunk all the tests.

Many hip, woke, urban school systems have gone even farther, making it a *rule* that teachers can't give a score of less than 50% even if the student turns in a blank exam or paper.  Cuz a grade lower than that would be too hard on the little darlings' self-esteem.  And that's just unfair, citizen.

At one time Baltimore was a pretty good city.  Now, not so much.  A clue may be the school system's decision to pass "tens of thousands" of students who failed at least one class on to the next grade.  Cuz, fairness, citizen.  Cuz this is not about a failure.

Seriously.  The "CEO" of Baltimore Public Schools told reporters, “This is not about a failure, but it is about unfinished learning and giving multiple opportunities, multiple onramps for young people to complete that learning.”

Chief Academic Officer Joan Dabrowski added that the "don't fail our darlings" policy is meant to “avoid the punitive approach of failing students.”  Yes, it certainly avoids that punitive approach all right. 

According to Public School Review, in 2021 just 18 percent of students in the Baltimore City Public Schools district are proficient in math, and just 17 percent are proficient in reading.

In 2017, at 13 of the city’s high schools not a single student scored proficient in math.  At six schools just one percent of students tested proficient.  (Source.)

CEO Sonja Santelises has headed the school system for five years now.  The school board pays her $325,000 per year, which is almost as much as the chancellor of New York City's system, which has 12 times more students than Baltimore's 80,000. 

Baltimore City Schools CEO Sonja Santalises: $325,000 per year

Source.