The 2005-2006 school year has been tumultuous for Baltimore City Schools, which prompts reflection about what policies should be enacted so the next school year can be better for children in Baltimore’s public schools.

 “Nothing Has Improved”  

Obvious frustration with Baltimore city’s school system reached its apex this year when Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced that the state department of education would take over seven of the city’s middle schools and four of its high schools that have been persistently failing for years and even decades. These schools are the particularly dysfunctional ones in a city where the majority of students are not getting a decent education.

A quick analysis of the Maryland State Assessment (MSA) test scores for 2005 show this persuasively. Citywide, only 40 percent of Baltimore’s eighth graders are considered proficient or better in reading, and an even more heartbreaking 19.5 percent of these children are proficient or better in math. For comparison, 2005 statewide eighth grade reading and math proficiency rates are 66.4 percent and 51.7 percent, respectively.[1]

Little wonder, then, that State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick declared, “The reality is the recent test results demonstrate nothing has improved.”[2] For in excess of a decade, an academic malaise has pervaded the school district where students are either passed through from grade-to-grade without being sufficiently educated, or drop out entirely. Many policymakers, both inside and outside Baltimore, are understandably frustrated with the current system.