Not a single student tested proficient in math across 13 Baltimore city high schools, according to a new analysis of 2017 testing data.
Local reports say those 13 schools represent roughly a third of Baltimore’s 39 high schools.
On top of that alarming statistic, Project Baltimore found that in an additional six high schools, only one percent of all students tested proficient in math.
“Add it up – in half the high schools in Baltimore City, 3,804 students took the state test, 14 were proficient in math,” the report explained.
For our readers who aren’t proficient in math themselves, 14 students out of 3,804 is less than .4 percent.
Thankfully for a few Baltimore kids, Project Baltimore found one school that was at least attempting to do something about the city’s obvious and extreme education problem. Two years ago, Jack Pannell founded the non-profit Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys in response to what he saw as a dire need for a better approach to education for local youth. Since then, in just two short years the number of students at his school who’ve tested proficient in math has skyrocketed by 60 percent, according to Fox Baltimore:
In 2016, nine percent of students were proficient. This year, 14.4 percent were proficient.
“No,” replied Pannell, when asked if he was happy with the results. “I mean, we can do better.”
The difference between Pannell’s school and the city high schools? For one thing, Baltimore Collegiate has a 60-percent male faculty geared specifically toward teaching young boys. Its school day is also an hour longer than the public school’s schedule, but includes shorter class periods. Pannell says the entire school is tailored to helping boys learn and equipping them for college.
Another difference? Pannell’s school is private, maxed out with 440 students, and has a waiting list of about 300 kids – all while its public counterparts, funded by piles of taxpayer cash and run by bloated government bureaucrats, are failing miserably.
Proof once again that private, free market solutions beat out government-run junk systems every day, every time.