40% of Baltimore high school students failed the math proficiency exam

Something doesn’t add up.

None of the 40 percent of students in Baltimore’s public high schools tested proficient on the state math test taken last spring, with a staggering three-quarters scoring as low as possible, an alarming report revealed this week .

At 13 of the school district’s 32 public high schools, 1,295 of the 1,736 students who took the tests scored a 1 out of 4, meaning they were nowhere near proficient. Fox 45 reported.

“This is educational homicide,” Jason Rodriguez, deputy director of the Baltimore-based nonprofit People Empowered by the Struggle, told the outlet.

Results were surprisingly low even at the city’s top high schools, where only 92 students, or 11.4 percent of the 809 students who took the exam, tested proficient, dam was found later.

“Parents, guardians and supporters should be outraged,” said Sheila Dixon, a Democratic candidate for mayor of Baltimore.

“It’s sad and disheartening because, first of all, today, more than ever, the school system has the money and the resources.”

During the 2022-23 school year, Baltimore City Public Schools had an annual budget of $1.6 billion, the largest in history, and also received $799 million in federal COVID-19 grants .

“It’s not a funding problem. We’re getting a lot of funding,” said Rodriguez, whose organization called on Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises to step down in 2021 over issues including low test scores and the drop in graduation rates, he told Fox 45.

“I don’t think money is the problem. I think responsibility is the problem.”

Santelises, who has led the city’s public schools since 2016, collected $445,000 in her total compensation last year, making her the top-earning public school district leader in Maryland despite managing her worst performing school district. NBC 15 reported.

The math scores mirror those of 2017, when zero students at 13 Baltimore high schools also tested not proficient in the subject on state tests, many of the same schools that had low scores this spring.

“We need to hold the CEO of the school and the administration accountable,” said Dixon, who is calling for Santelises’ resignation. “We have to have answers, and we can’t get a press release from the school system saying we’re working on it.

The city’s school district said that despite raising funding last year, the latest poor performance of students on math exams is the result of a lack of funding during previous academic years.

He noted that in seven of eight grade levels, math skills improved compared to the previous year.

“We recognize that some of our middle school students continue to experience challenges in math following the pandemic,” the district told Fox 45 in a statement.