Freedom and Responsibility

A local TV news station recently broadcast an education story that was teased out like a massive scandal. Any person who has worked lomg enough in an urban public school district has had an experience like this, where some small chunk of data is extrapolated far beyond what it means. And since the story has legs, there are follow reports, with more vitriolic accusations. That report dealt a serious challenge to my colleagues and I in our dealings with alumni and benefactors who have been investing their funds into Baltimore’s public schools. ??The ominous graphics were followed with quick soundbites of media personalities calling for heads to roll, and overall beating of breasts and gnashing of teeth. The most damning portion of the broadcast is this excerpt:

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“According to the state test results, these are Baltimore’s five top-performing high schools in terms of math proficiency:

• Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
• Baltimore School for the Arts
• Baltimore City College
• Western High
• Bard High School Early College

At those schools, a combined 809 students took the state math test this past spring, and 92 students tested proficient. That means a total of 11.4% of students are proficient in math at the best high schools in Baltimore.”

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Except that it does not mean that at all.? Let’s start from the top.

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“According to the state test results, these are Baltimore’s five top-performing high schools in terms of math proficiency:

• Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
• Baltimore School for the Arts
• Baltimore City College
• Western High
• Bard High School Early College”

So far, so good.? Nothing here is untrue.

“At those schools, a combined 809 students took the state math test this past spring, and 92 students tested proficient.”

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Close, but not fact.

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Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law by President Obama in 2015, students in grades 3-8 will take a standard assessment in math annually. Additionally, students enrolled in Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 will take a standard assessment at the close of that course.? Middle school students enrolled in Geometry will take a standard assessment at the close of that course.? In Maryland, these standard assessments are administered as the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP).

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Since the subject at hand is high schools, there is no singular math test.? Instead, they’re referring to students who were enrolled in Algebra 1 in ninth grade in these five high schools.? Students who took Algebra 1 in eighth grade already took the MCAP Algebra 1 when they were in middle school.? When those students enroll in high school, they begin in Geometry or Algebra 2.

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So let’s revise that statement so that it is factual.

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REVISED: At those schools, a combined 809 Algebra 1 students took the MCAP Algebra 1 assessment this past spring.? 92 of those students tested proficient.

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“That means a total of 11.4% of students are proficient in math at the best high schools in Baltimore.”

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Still not true.? This is the epitome of incorrect computation, data misrepresentation, yellow journalism, and potentially slander.

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The combined enrollment last year of the five schools listed was 5,171 students.? At each of the five schools, juniors and seniors are enrolled in Pre-Calculus, Calculus, AP Calculus AB, and AP Calculus BC.? But the numbers we’re currently focusing on refers only to Algebra 1.

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809 students took Algebra 1 at the five schools.? That constitutes 15.6% of the total enrollment, therefore 4,362 students have already reached proficiency in Algebra 1, which is 84.3% of the total enrollment.

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So let’s revise that last statement so that it more accurately reflects the truth.

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REVISED: That means a total of 86.1% of students have met proficiency in Algebra 1 at the best public high schools in Baltimore.

When it's phrased that way, it almost reads like an affirmation that the public schools are doing fairly decently in this regard.

I fully support a free and independent press.

I also believe that any freedoms come with a responsibile exercise of that freedom.